(Phys.org) —A panel of experts convened by the U.S. Department of Energy has suggested that the DOE fund just one laser, rather than the two that were expected to receive funds for a new type of research facility. In contention are Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park. Both are current DOE funded laboratories engaged in X-ray technology. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
Researchers in Silicon Valley have managed to observe electrical switching that is thousands of times faster than transistors used in today’s computer chips. Their work could lead to a better understanding of how transistors work at the atomic level and in turn help to enable more powerful computers.
Transistors are semiconductor devices that act as simple on-off electrical switches. The number of transistors in a computer chip has a direct effect on its speed and power, so researchers are continually trying to make their transistors smaller and faster.
In work at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, researchers using an X-ray laser to discovered it takes just one trillionth of a second to switch between on and off states in a sample of magnetite, a type of mineral.
They hit each sample with a pulse of visible light from a laser, which caused the electronic structure of the material to rearrange itself. Immediately afterwards, they hit it with a burst from an ultrabright, ultrashort X-ray laser which revealed that the rearrangement had begun hundredths of quadrillionths of seconds after the initial pulse hit the sample.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
Filed under: Technology, Google, Facebook, Internet, Mobile Technology
By PETER SVENSSON
NEW YORK — Facebook Home, the new application that takes over the front screen of a smartphone, is a bit of a corporate home invasion. Facebook is essentially moving into Google’s turf, taking advantage of software the search giant and competitor created.
Facebook Home will operate on phones running Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android software and present Facebook status updates, messages and other content on the home screen, rather than making the user fire up Facebook’s app. The software will be available for users to download on April 12 and will come preloaded on a new phone from HTC Corp., sold by AT&T Inc. in the U.S.
Google gives away Android, the most popular smartphone software in the world, in the hope that it will steer phone users toward Google services, such as Maps and Gmail, and the ads it sells. Compared to ads targeting PC surfers, mobile ads are a small market, but it’s growing quickly. Research firm eMarketer expects U.S. mobile ad spending to grow 77 percent this year to $7.29 billion.
With Home, Facebook is inserting itself between users and Google, diverting them to the social network’s own ads and services. It’s taking advantage of the fact that Google places few restrictions on how phone manufacturers and software developers modify Android. By contrast, Facebook Home would not work on the iPhone without approval from Apple Inc., and close collaboration with the company.
“Facebook Home can only reside on Android because only Google was daft enough to allow it,” said independent phone analyst Horace Dediu, via Twitter.
At the launch event Thursday, Facebook Inc. (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Google was aware of the project, but Facebook didn’t work them to create Home. Asked if he believed Google could change tactics and restrict apps like Home, he said it was theoretically possible, but highly unlikely for Google to do a “180-degree change” in its stance on Android’s openness.
It’s not the first time a big Internet company has co-opted Android: Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has gone much farther with its Kindle Fire tablets. They run a version of Android that strips out all Google services, replacing them with Amazon’s equivalents. Barnes & Noble Inc. does the same thing with its Nook tablets. These devices lie outside the Google system, whereas phones running Facebook Home still come with Google apps like Maps and the Play Store for music, movies and applications.
The Play Store has many examples of downloadable applications that modify the Android home screen — so-called “launchers.” Home, however, represents the first time a major …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
We’re live-blogging Facebook’s Android event today at the social network’s Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By DailyFinance/Associated Press
Filed under: Technology, Google, Facebook, Internet, Mobile Technology
Facebook fans who were expecting the social network to unveil its own proprietary smartphone Thursday have a long wait ahead of them, seeing the as company isn’t building a phone or an operating system.
Rather, explained CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a press conference at the company’s headquarters, Facebook (FB) is introducing a mobile experience it’s calling “Home,” which makes the social network the hub of any smartphone that runs Google Inc.’s (GOOG) Android operating system.
Zuckerberg said the goal is put “people before apps.” To achieve that, Home replaces users’ home screen on their phones and includes a suite of applications, or apps. As Engadget explains:
It’s not just a new user-interface for launching apps, however. It replaces the “lockscreen” with cover feed and prioritizes updates from people instead of apps. There is a standard paginated launcher that is always just a swipe away. But the focus is on the full-screen images that are your new welcome screen.
“What Facebook wants is to put itself at the front of the Android user experience for as many Facebook users as possible and make Facebook more elemental to their customers’ experience,” Forrester analyst Charles Golvin told The Associated Press.
As Fortune notes, Home is a way for Facebook to supplant Google by pushing the search-engine giant’s prized services, including search maps and Gmail, into the background on Android phones, pushing users to use Facebook’s offerings instead.
Home will be limited to phones running the Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean versions of Android — i.e., 4.0 and later. That covers phones made or updated during the past year or so.
Initially, the app will be limited to specific Android models — about a half-dozen of them, including Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. It will also work on the upcoming Galaxy S IV. In addition, HTC‘s upcoming First phone will come with Home.
But the move could also help boost mobile advertising, a fast-growing field — thanks largely to Facebook and Twitter. Research firm eMarketer expects U.S. mobile ad spending to grow 77 percent this year to $7.29 billion, from $4.11 billion last year.
Showing more mobile ads to users poses challenges for Facebook, however, since the promotional ads may annoy or alienate Facebook users.
Check out Facebook’s Home:
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Pall to Open Latest Life Sciences Centre of Excellence in Portsmouth (UK)
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Pall Corporation (NYSE:PLL), a global leader in filtration, separation and purification, today confirmed plans for a state-of-the-art Life Sciences Centre of Excellence at its new Harbourgate site in Portsmouth in the United Kingdom (UK). The Centre of Excellence (COE), which will open in mid 2013, will offer a full suite of capabilities including cell culture, purification, analytical solutions, protein characterization and microbiological tools. This latest COE will complement recently announced Life Sciences Centres in the United States (Westborough, Massachusetts and Menlo Park, California) as well as investments previously announced in China, Singapore and India.
“The announcement of Pall’s new Portsmouth Centre of Excellence provides another example of our commitment to meeting the diverse needs of our Life Sciences customers across the globe,” said Yves Baratelli, president, Pall Life Sciences. “Portsmouth represents an important Life Sciences hub for Pall. By upgrading and expanding our capabilities at the site, we are not only enhancing our ability to service our customers, but also creating a multi-disciplinary and responsive environment in which Pall scientists and engineers can thrive and innovate.”
The new Portsmouth COE will include a dedicated 4000 m² scientific area with a connected walkway to another recently opened facility that houses an additional 2000 m² for Life Sciences technical support and training, R&D engineering and product management. Manufacturing and test areas will remain at the current Walton Road site in Portsmouth.
In addition to customer service support, COE offerings will include the development, testing and validation of a wide range of products that now form part of Pall’s portfolio. There also will be an extensive range of scale-up technology on hand for applying industry-leading standards to match demands for fully representative and rapid drug development.
About Pall Life Sciences
Pall Life Sciences provides cutting-edge products and services to meet the demanding needs of customers discovering, developing and producing biotech drugs, vaccines and classic pharmaceuticals. Pall’s membranes and membrane devices optimize detection and sample preparation in the drug research, clinical diagnostics, genomics, and proteomics markets. Pall is a leading provider of separation systems and single-use filtration and purification technologies to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to support faster development of new drugs and vaccines that are safer and require less energy and water to produce. Pall technologies are also used in clinical institutions and the food and beverage industries.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Facebook is choosing substance over flash with the new office campus it is building across the street from its current headquarters building.
The social networking service this week received the go-ahead from the City of Menlo Park, Calif., to erect the custom-built facility that it has been planning for months. Its current home is a former Sun Microsystems facility.
Facebook, however, apparently wants something a bit more low key than the original design.
Facebook hired world-renowned architect Frank Gehry to design the campus. He’s perhaps best known as the architect behind the Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, both of which feature distinctive modern-looking metal curved faces.
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…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld
On Sept. 13, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced the formation of the Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies (“Advisory Committee”) to focus on interests and priorities of small businesses and smaller public companies; pointedly the mandate was to advise on rules, regulations and policies pertaining to emerging companies, privately-held small businesses, and publicly traded companies with less than $250 million in public market capitalization. Among the specific topics on which the Advisory Committee’s guidance was sought were: raising capital through securities offerings, including private and limited offerings and initial and other public offerings; trading in the securities of emerging and smaller public companies; and public reporting and corporate governance requirements of emerging and smaller public companies. Get Yer Scorecard! As initially reported, the roster for the Advisory Committee comprised: Co-Chair Stephen M. Graham, Partner at Fenwick & West LLP in Seattle, and Co-Chair M. Christine Jacobs, CEO and Chairman at Theragenics Corp. in Buford, Ga. Members: David A. Bochnowski, Chairman and CEO, Northwest Indiana Bancorp, Munster, Ind. John J. Borer III, Senior Managing Director and Head of Investment Banking, Rodman & Renshaw LLC, New York, N.Y. Dan Chace, Manager, Wasatch Micro Cap Fund, Salt Lake City, Utah Milton Chang, Managing Director, Incubic Venture Fund, Menlo Park, Calif. Joseph (Leroy) Dennis, Partner, McGladrey & Pullen, Bloomington, Minn. Shannon L. Greene, CFO, Tandy Leather Factory, Fort Worth, Texas Kara B. Jenny, CFO, BlueFly Inc., New York, N.Y. Steven R. LeBlanc, Senior Managing Director of External Private Market, Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Austin, Texas Richard L. Leza, Chairman of the Board, Exar Corp., Fremont, Calif. Paul Maeder, General Partner, Highland Capital Partners, Lexington, Mass. Kathleen A. McGowan, Vice President – Finance, Tobira Therapeutics Inc., Manalapan, N.J. Catherine V. Mott, CEO and Founder, Blue Tree Capital Group, Pittsburgh, Pa. Karyn Smith, Deputy General Counsel, Zynga Inc., San Francisco, Calif. Dan Squiller, CEO, PowerGenix, San Diego, Calif. Charlie Sundling, Chairman and CEO, Pipeline Software, Orange County, Calif. Timothy Walsh, Director, State of New Jersey Division of Investment, Trenton, N.J. Gregory C. Yadley, Partner, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick LLP, Tampa, Fla. Observor Members: Sean Greene, Associate Administrator for Investment and Special Advisor for Innovation, U.S. Small Business Administration A. Heath Abshure, Arkansas Securities Commissioner and Chairman of the Corporation Finance Section of the North American Securities Administrators Association. Read the biographies of the Advisory Committee New Equity Market On February 1, 2013, the Advisory Committee unanimously recommended to the SEC the creation of a separate U.S. equity market that would purportedly facilitate trading in the securities of small and emerging companies. The recommendation was formally conveyed to the SEC on March 21, 2013, the substance of which is reprinted below: AFTER CONSIDERING THAT: The Committee believes that current U.S. equity markets often fail to offer a satisfactory trading venue for the securities of small and emerging companies because they fail to provide sufficient liquidity for …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Brian D. Pacampara, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool’s free investing community, social networking giant Facebook has received the dreaded one-star ranking.
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at Facebook and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Facebook facts
|
Headquarters (founded) |
Menlo Park, Calif. (2004) |
|
Market Cap |
$62.2 billion |
|
Industry |
Internet software and services |
|
Trailing-12-Month Revenue |
$5.1 billion |
|
Management |
Founder/Chairman/CEO Mark Zuckerberg CFO David Ebersman |
|
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) |
0.6% |
|
Cash/Debt |
$9.6 billion / $2.4 billion |
|
Competitors |
|
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 40% of the 1,748 members who have rated Facebook believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.
Just yesterday, one of those Fools, OklaBoston, kindly updated our community on the Facebook bear case:
Ended a red thumb on this a while ago when I thought it had bottomed. It’s gone into another downtrend since then, insiders have been selling, and the valuation numbers are still absurd. So I’m resurrecting a pick I’m not sure I should ever have ended.
After the world’s most hyped IPO turned out to be a dunce, most investors probably don’t even want to think about shares of Facebook. But there are things every investor needs to know about this company. We’ve outlined them in our newest premium research report. There’s a lot more to Facebook than meets the eye, so read up on whether there is anything to “like” about it today, and we’ll tell you whether we think Facebook deserves a place in your portfolio. Access your report by clicking here.
var FoolAnalyticsData = FoolAnalyticsData || []; FoolAnalyticsData.push({ eventType: “TickerReportPitch”, contentByline: “Brian D. Pacampara”, contentId: “cms.28025”, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
By The Huffington Post News Editors
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc will unveil a new look for its popular “newsfeed” next week, the latest move by the Web company to revamp key elements of its 1 billion member social network.
Facebook will showcase the newsfeed makeover at a media event on March 7 at its Menlo Park, California headquarters, the company said in an emailed invitation to reporters on Friday.
The event will be Facebook’s second high-profile product event this year, following the rollout of its social search feature in January.
The social network sent press invitations to a March 7 event at the company’s offices in Menlo Park, Calif. “Come see a new look for News Feed,” the invite reads. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Computerworld Latest
A radio transmitter and then a feast of quail and mouse led to the capture of a California zoo’s bald eagle after three days on the lam.
The Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo’s tame 24-year-old bald eagle Sequoia was enjoying her daily exercise Saturday at a park when strong winds spooked her.
Instead of returning to handlers, she flew north and roosted in Menlo Park.
The San Jose Mercury News (http://bit.ly/YUEwSH ) reports Sequoia was tracked Monday to a Redwood City tree.
The famished bird finally dropped from her perch to the arm of trainer John Flynn, who rewarded her with a quail and mouse feast.
Sequoia ventured out on her own eight times while at the San Francisco Zoo. She joined the Palo Alto zoo last year.
The former archbishop of San Francisco said Monday that Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has a rightful place among Vatican officials who will choose the next pope, even though Mahony has been battered in recent days by disclosures about his role in covering up clergy sex abuse.
The comments by Cardinal William Levada, a high-ranking Vatican official until recently, came in the wake of a grass-roots campaign to shame Mahony into refraining from participating because of his role protecting sexually abusive priests.
Mahony left for Rome over the weekend after recently released church documents showed he had covered up for other priests who raped and molested children.
“There are some victims groups for whom enough is never enough, so we have to do our jobs as best we see it,” said Levada, 76, who spoke with reporters from a Menlo Park seminary as he prepared for his trip to the Vatican for the papal conclave.
“He has apologized for errors in judgment that were made,” Levada said. “I believe he should be at the conclave.”
On Monday, Mahony took to social media and his own personal blog to write about persecution and forgiving one’s enemies. He said he has a special prayer group for people who “cannot forgive me for my past hurts and offenses,” including members of the media, attorneys, protesters and those who “hate and despise me.”
He also tweeted from Rome, writing: “Anyone interested in loving your enemies, or doing good to those who persecute you? See my blog for today. Wow, Jesus is demanding.”
Levada said Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s decision Monday to step down as archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh and to opt out of the conclave will “provide the freedom to do a good independent investigation and decide on appropriate measures to take on this case.”
Levada, who leaves for Rome on Tuesday, retired in 2012 after spending six years as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s orthodoxy watchdog, which also defrocked pedophile priests.
He played a key role in several church sex-abuse reforms. While serving previously as an archbishop in California and Oregon, he kept some accused molesters in the church and failed to share some allegations with police or parishioners.
On Monday, Levada drew a sharp divide between gay men and pedophile priests.
“By nature homosexuality is a not a predatory activity, it is a sexual activity that the Catholic church does not condone,” he said. By contrast, he said pedophile priests are violating the sanctity and purity of young people.
Levada also said bureaucratic reforms at the Vatican will require a lot of attention from the next pope. He said he’ll be looking for a candidate with deep faith, someone who has shown leadership and has language skills. He said youth is also a factor, and he extinguished any rumors that the next pope might be from the U.S.
“I don’t know what the Las Vegas oddsmakers are saying today,” he said, “but I don’t think it’s likely that we would see an American pope. It would …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
A prominent member of the US Catholic hierarchy who will take part in the selection of the next pope says retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony should also participate in the process.
Cardinal William Levada made the comments on Monday at a Menlo Park seminary ahead of his trip to the Vatican to help with the selection process.
Levada’s comments came in the wake of a grass-roots campaign to shame Mahony into refraining from participating because of his role protecting sexually abusive priests.
Mahony has said he would participate in the voting for the new pope.
Jed Yueh graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa English major from Harvard, founded a data de-duplication software, Avamar Technologies, in 1999 and sold it to EMC (EMC) in 2006 for $165 million in cash. And his latest start-up, Delphix — which I first wrote about last March — helps companies roll out App projects 20% to 80% faster and is growing at 225%. Yueh attributes some of that success to his move from Irvine, Calif. to Menlo Park. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Anthony Wing Kosner, Contributor I was not at the Facebook announcement in Menlo Park on Tuesday, so I neither drank the KoolAid nor felt compelled to respond immediately. I’m glad I waited. Facebook’s new Graph Search feature is both a bigger and a smaller story than what most observers were expecting. On the one hand, this will now be an integral part of the product, a third pillar, as Zuckerberg described it, along with the newsfeed and timeline. On the other hand, for consumers, this is somewhat of a product in search of a use-case. I don’t think that users have been clamoring for this—but marketers have.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Elise Ackerman, Contributor MENLO PARK, CA – JANUARY 15: Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg introduces Graph Search features during a presentation January 15, 2013 in Menlo Park. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) Online pundits almost immediately declared Facebook’s new graph search, announced Tuesday morning after days of frenzied media hype, to […]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Larry Magid, Contributor Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explaining new search feature (Photo: Larry Magid) As he opened the press conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg proudly announced that this was the first product announcement held from Facebook’s sprawling new campus in Menlo Park, California. He then wasted no time talking about the company’s new “Graph […]
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Shares of Facebook are pushing above $30 for the first time since July after it sent out invitations to “come and see what we’re building” Tuesday at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
