The Master of Liberal Arts and Science program, Vanderbilt University’s prime educational outreach program to the Nashville community, is attracting record numbers of students and expanding course offerings.

This summer a MLAS class in religious architecture has been visiting sanctuaries across Middle Tennessee. Upcoming courses include Music, Gender and Sexuality, James Bond and Popular Culture and Southern Literature. Three certificate curriculums have been initiated, in ethics, creative arts and history.

“Last spring we had about 80 students among six courses,” said Martin Rapisarda, associate dean in the College of Arts and Science. “That’s a record number of courses offered in any one semester, and a record number of students in any one semester for the program.”

The growth indicates expanding interest in Nashville in the benefits of lifelong learning.

The MLAS program puts top Vanderbilt faculty in the classroom with adults who wish to continue their education at the graduate level but are constrained by the demands of career and family. Typically, students in the program take one course per semester which meets one evening a week.

The program costs $2,151 for each three-hour course, or half the regular Vanderbilt rate for graduate courses. Vanderbilt employees get a discount that cuts tuition to $645 per class.

The courses are rigorous, with term papers and research expected of the students.

“If this were merely a coffee klatch, it would certainly not be a Vanderbilt University graduate degree program, and I wouldn’t be able to interest our faculty in taking part,” Rapisarda said. “I tell students to expect to work hard and to spend at least 10-12 hours a week preparing for class.”

Rapisarda has added two required core seminars to the now 30-hour program, one to help ease students back into the rigors of the classroom and designed to be taken as the first class in the program. The Capstone Seminar, the last class in the program, encourages students to apply skills learned in the other classes to an extended study of a particular interest culminating in a thesis, work of art or other final project.

“We’ve seen incredible growth,” Rapisarda said. “Right now, we’ve got faculty lined up until Spring 2009 to teach in the program. This audience of motivated adult learners has proved to be a popular experience for our faculty.”

"James Bond and Popular Culture " ... Hell Yea! :) Now that is a class I would love to take... :)

Vanderbilt : Master of Liberal Arts and Science program

Motorola, Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, MI, Inc., will launch a tender offer to acquire a controlling interest in Vertex Standard Co., Ltd. (JASDAQ: 6821), a global provider of 2-way radio communication solutions. Upon successful completion of the tender offer and subsequent restructuring process, Motorola will own 80% of Vertex Standard and Tokogiken, a privately held Japanese company, controlled by Jun Hasegawa, current president and CEO of Vertex Standard, will retain 20%, forming a joint venture. On 5 November 2007, the Board of Directors of Vertex Standard expressed their support of the tender offer.

"As a leading provider and pioneer in 2-way radio communication solutions, Motorola is an excellent strategic partner for our business," said Jun Hasegawa, president and CEO of Vertex Standard. "The joint venture will give Vertex Standard access to Motorola's global distribution channels, presenting considerable opportunities for Vertex Standard to drive growth. We also expect to reduce costs, as we will benefit from Motorola's global scale and resources. With Motorola, Vertex Standard will be stronger and better positioned to deliver new and innovative 2-way radio solutions for professionals and consumers around the world."

"This joint venture will enable Motorola and Vertex Standard to deliver an enhanced combined product offering to new regions and customers worldwide," said Mark Moon, senior vice president of Motorola's Government and Commercial Markets. "We are extremely pleased to announce this transaction, which will improve our ability to address the growing needs of our 2-way radio customers worldwide. We look forward to the continued leadership of Jun Hasegawa and making this new joint venture a success."

Motorola Commences Tender Offer to Acquire Controlling Interest in Vertex Standard Co., Ltd., to Form Joint Venture with Tokogiken

Stephen Colbert’s presidential candidacy may have been a joke to many, but apparently some in South Carolina took it seriously enough to lobby Democratic officials in the early primary state to deny him a spot on the state’s ballot.

The lobbying was pretty intense, according to several people, with most of it against allowing Mr. Colbert, the comedian on Comedy Central and native son of the state, on the ballot. They included prominent supporters of Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, although another prominent supporter lobbied in favor of Mr. Colbert. The Obama campaign said that it had no connection to the vote.

The party’s executive council voted 13-3 last week to reject Mr. Colbert’s ballot application. Mr. Colbert formally acknowledged yesterday that he was dropping his candidacy but the party’s vote has drawn fierce criticism on the Internet, saying the move was undemocratic, and continues to roil the party.

Those lobbying against Mr. Colbert included Don Fowler, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and the husband of Carol Fowler, the current chairwoman of the state party.

Mr. Fowler distributed a letter to council members saying that Mr. Colbert “seeks to make a travesty of our primary.” In his letter, he raised the specter of the 2000 presidential campaign, saying that if Ralph Nader had not drained votes from Al Gore, Mr. Gore could have been president.

Mr. Fowler said in an interview that he had heard some concerns expressed by Obama supporters that Mr. Colbert might siphon young voters away from Mr. Colbert, but that was not his motive in urging the council to say no to Mr. Colbert.

“I am conscious of the fact that the Obama people are concerned about the potential effect, but that in no sense was the reason that I wrote that letter,” he said. Rather, he said, he wanted an orderly process. “For somebody to make light of that process as if it were his own little play toy, that is offensive,” he said. “We would be the laughing stock of America. Electing the president is serious business.”

Lumus Byrd, a member of the council — and one of the three who voted to allow Mr. Colbert’s name to appear on the ballot — said he had been lobbied by three other members of the council who argued that Mr. Colbert would expose South Carolina to ridicule.

“South Carolina has been the butt of so many jokes, and the folk here are a little sensitive about anything that a comedian who’s got that much airtime might say,” Mr. Byrd said. “They were afraid he was going to talk about some of our dirty little linen,” he said, citing the Confederate flag, which flies on the grounds of the statehouse, the “corridor of shame” of dilapidated schools and the state’s racial history.

Another call to council members came from Inez Tenenbaum, the state’s former superintendent of education, who supports Mr. Obama. Ms. Tenenbaum... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Colbert vs. Obama vs. S.C. - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

am easily amused I suppose. Trying to find a use for the old compact Macs I have around (Macintosh 128K, 512k, SE, SE/30), I set up a connection (see below) to my G3 and ran the LCDproc daemon from the old Mac using curses as a display. Using my GrowLCDprocDisplay, you can even display your currently playing iTunes songs!

Basic steps for a serial connection:

1. Get a USB serial adapter and the appropriate driver for Mac OS X
2. Use a null modem cable to connect the old Mac and your new Mac
3. Run an old terminal emulation (Zterm, MacTerminal, MicroPhone) program on the old Mac
4. Set up the /etc/ttys file to allow you to login over the serial connection. for instance:
tty.usbserial "/usr/libexec/getty local.9600" vt100 on
5. Restart launchd: sudo killall -HUP launchd
6. Login from the old Mac and run LCDd with curses as the display

doork!

LCD + old 68k mac = LCDproc Fun!

Google has temporarily quashed rumours of a Google mobile handset by announcing instead a new mobile operating system called Android - and declaring it far more important than mere hardware.

"Today's announcement is more ambitious than any single 'Google Phone' that the press has been speculating about over the past few weeks. Our vision is that the powerful platform we're unveiling will power thousands of different phone models," says Google CEO, Eric Schmidt.

The search giant is attempting to capture a share of the mobile phone sector, which is estimated to now be at 3 billion users. If a large enough user base could be achieved, then advertising and improved placement of Google services could bring in considerable revenue to the company.

Android, which is based on the Linux platform, will be made freely available under an open licence. This will allow manufacturers to modify the software to suit their needs, and should help encourage adoption.

Google says the platform will also allow developers to market new programs for
mobile devices faster and easier. Previously, the company claims, there was a lack of collaboration in the sector, which "made it a challenge for developers, wireless operators and handset manufacturers to respond as quickly as possible to the ever-changing needs of savvy mobile consumers."

Thirty-four companies have formed a group called the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to lower the cost of creating mobile applications and devices by using the OS. Nvidia, Intel, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Samsung, LG and HTC are all members of the OHA.

An early access software development kit will be released next week to allow developers to start creating third party applications, and products using Android are expected to be ready for release in 2008.

It is still unclear at this time whether Google are working on a hardware handset as well, as rumours have suggested since 2005.

You can see an introduction to the new OS in a Google video.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6x0zZsqI3s%20)

In 2005, Google acquired a mobile software company called Android, but it's not yet known exactly how much of the new OS code is a result of this.

PC Pro: News: Google announces Android operating system

FREE SPEECH vs. RIGHT TO BROADCAST

A number of inquiries received at the Commission are from persons or groups who believe that there is a First Amendment, constitutionally protected right to broadcast. However, the Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly ruled on this subject and concluded that no right to broadcast exists.

In National Broadcasting Co. v. United States, 319 U.S. 190 (1943), the Supreme Court stated, in pertinent part, as follows (footnotes omitted):

We come, finally, to an appeal to the First Amendment. The Regulations, even if valid in all other respects, must fall because they abridge, say the appellants, their right of free speech. If that be so, it would follow that every person whose application for a license to operate a station is denied by the Commission is thereby denied his constitutional right of free speech. Freedom of utterance is abridged to many who wish to use the limited facilities of radio. Unlike other modes of expression, radio inherently is not available to all. That is its unique characteristic, and that is why, unlike other modes of expression, it is subject to government regulation. Because it cannot be used by all, some who wish to use it must be denied. . . . The right of free speech does not include, however, the right to use the facilities of radio without license. The licensing system established by Congress in the Communications Act was a proper exercise of its power over commerce. The standard it provided for licensing of stations was the 'public interest, convenience, and necessity.' Denial of a station license on that ground, if valid under the Act, is not a denial of free speech.

In addition, in Red Lion Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. United States, 395 U.S. 367, 89 S.CT. 1794 (1969), the Supreme Court of the United States stated, in pertinent part, as follows (footnotes omitted):

When two people converse face to face, both should not speak at once if either is to be clearly understood. But the range of the human voice is so limited that there could be meaningful communications if half the people in the United States were talking and the other half listening. Just as clearly, half the people might publish and the other half read. But the reach of radio signals is incomparably greater than the range of the human voice and the problem of interference is a massive reality. The lack of know-how and equipment may keep many from the air, but only a tiny fraction of those with resources and intelligence can hope to communicate by radio at the same time if intelligible communication is to be had, even if the entire radio spectrum is used in the present state of commercially acceptable technology.

It was this fact, and the chaos which resulted from permitting anyone to use any frequency at whatever power level he wished, which made necessary the enactment of the Radio Act of 1927 and the Communications Act of 1934. National Broadcasting... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Low Power Broadcast Radio Stations - FCC

Illustration: John Hersey

Bill Nguyen sold his first company, Onebox, in 2000 for $800 million. Then he built a mobile email provider, Seven, into a multimillion-dollar enterprise, leaving in 2004 as majority owner. Next he did what any unemployed rich guy might do: took vacations in St. Tropez and Vail, went surfing in Costa Rica, acquired a garageful of very fast cars.

One day in the winter of 2004, Nguyen was having dinner in San Francisco with friends Chris Collingwood and Brian Young of the band Fountains of Wayne. They had known each other since the group played a corporate event at Seven a few years earlier. The conversation turned to child-rearing. Come on, they implored, don't let your kid grow up with a self-indulgent dad on permanent vacation. Nguyen replied that he had nothing left to prove in the software industry. Why don't you fix the music industry, then? they suggested half seriously.

Nguyen could think of a bunch of reasons why he shouldn't go near the music industry. CD sales had dropped almost 20 percent since 2000. Peer-to-peer transactions — dominated by pirated media — accounted for almost 60 percent of North American data traffic. Tower Records had just filed for bankruptcy. The industry was in free fall. Yet the more Nguyen thought about it, the more intrigued he became.

Nguyen's complaint with the way music is sold online — whether it's CD purchases or downloads — is that there's no easy, legal way to listen to a song before you buy it. A 30-second snippet on Amazon.com or iTunes is rarely enough to form a good impression and certainly not enough to get a tune stuck in your head. Nguyen's solution: Give the music away. Later this year, his new company, Lala, will begin streaming any track or album the user selects, for free, betting that the chance to explore the sonic landscape will get listeners excited. As they take in artists and genres they might otherwise never hear, music fans are going to want to own the songs, Nguyen says — and Lala will be right there to make that possible, via whatever channel and format the customer prefers: downloading tracks, trading discs, or even (gasp) buying the CDs. It's a model he believes will revive the music industry.

Lala.com's Plan to Give Songs Away Could Upend the Industry

here's absolutely no reason you should be waiting the three-plus minutes it takes your computer to boot up Windows, says Woody Hobbs, CEO of Phoenix Technologies. And indeed, if Hobbs has his way, you may not have to endure those waits much longer.

Phoenix says its new technology, HyperSpace, will offer mobile PC users the ability to instantly fire up their most used apps -- things like e-mail, web browsers and various media players -- without using Windows, simply by pressing the F4 button.

"As Windows gets more and more complex, we've seen startup times get longer and longer," says Hobbs. "If I go to the airport and try to connect to a Wi-Fi network, I'm waiting for five minutes just to connect. That's ridiculous -- people usually just give up and use their cell phones or PDAs."

Phoenix Technologies is the company responsible for many computers' basic input/output system, or BIOS, the firmware code that runs when your PC starts up. Usually, the BIOS identifies the hardware on your PC and initializes components, then lets the operating system handle everything else, from storing files to connecting with networks to running applications. In essence, HyperSpace is a simple operating environment, a layer on top of the BIOS, that runs side-by-side with Windows and can efficiently implement some of the most commonly used apps on a PC.

Chipmakers and PC manufacturers have been trying to liberate themselves from lengthy startup times for a while, according to Hobbs, but the experience has been "controlled up in Seattle." Indeed, Hobbs says Microsoft regards HyperSpace as "outside their sphere of influence," and is not too happy with Phoenix's offering, which adds yet another voice to the already loud chorus of voices complaining about operating-system bloat.

Hmm is this a rip off of the LinuxBIOS project?

Phoenix HyperSpace Bypasses Windows With Fast-Boot Technology

Less than two weeks after a team of scientists created a nanoscale radio component, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have gone one better -- announcing the creation of the world's first complete nanoradio.

The breakthrough nanoradio consists of a single carbon-nanotube molecule that serves simultaneously as all the essential components of a radio -- antenna, tunable band-pass filter, amplifier and demodulator. Physicist Alex Zettl led the development team, and graduate student Kenneth Jensen built the radio.

"I'm totally amazed that it works so well," says Zettl. "Making individual components are good breakthroughs, but the holy grail was putting it all together. So we're ecstatic that we were able to achieve that full integration."

The radio opens the possibility of creating radio-controlled interfaces on the subcellular scale, which may have applications in the areas of medical and sensor technology.

Nanoelectronic systems are considered crucial to the continued miniaturization of electronic devices, and it's becoming a hot research and investment arena. Two weeks ago, a team at the University of California at Irvine announced the development of a nanoscale demodulator, an essential component of a radio.

The number of consumer products using nanotechnology -- from the iPhone to home pregnancy testing kits -- has soared from 212 to well over 500, according to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies' online inventory of manufacturer-identified nanotech goods in March 2006.

The nanoradio is less than one micron long and only 10 nanometers wide -- or one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair -- making it the smallest radio ever created.

The researchers' paper was published at the American Chemical Society's Nano Letters website.

The first transmission received by the nanoradio was an FM broadcast of Eric Clapton's "Layla." (The lab has posted video of that moment.) The Clapton classic was quickly followed by the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and Handel's Largo from the opera Xerxes -- the first piece of music broadcast by radio, on Dec. 24, 1906.

The nanoradio's amplifier operates on the same principles as vacuum-tube radios from the 1940s and early '50s, says Zettl.

"We've come full circle. We're using the old vacuum-tube principle of having electrons jump off the tip of the nanotube onto another electrode, rather than the conventional solid-state transistor principle," says Zettl.

The electronic properties of this electron-emitting nanotube function as the radio's demodulator -- making a complete radio possible within a single molecule.

The audio quality "can be very good," says Zettl, but if you listen closely, some unique effects of the radio's tiny size can be heard: an old-fashioned "scratchiness" that occurs because the device is working in the quantum regime.

"The amazing thing is that since we have such a sensitive nanosc... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

World's First Nanoradio Could Lead to Subcellular Remote-Control Interfaces

Ann Smith is a creative recycler. Specifically, she transforms electronics and appliances destined for the dump into nifty gadgety animals. Some raw materials are more cooperative than others: "Sewing machines vex me," she says. "They have so many intricate little metal parts and gears, but I don't think they were ever meant to be taken apart." Smith also shoots stop-motion footage of her critters to create Eadweard Muybridgestyle clips. The pet projects are currently available at the DeCordova Museum in Massachusetts and Cog & Pearl boutique in Brooklyn.

Tossed-Out Electronics Are Reincarnated as Stop-Mo Animal Bots