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Israel is one step closer to producing the most advanced air-to-air missile in history, according to Rafael, the government-owned Israel Armament Development Authority. Its Python-5 has recently passed "significant milestones" in testing and will be ready for operation by 2005. Together with the American manufacturer Lockheed Martin, Rafael currently produces the Python-4, a 1990s-era heat-seeking missile that effectively gives the attacking pilot a lethal gaze: anything he sees from his cockpit, he can shoot down. But the Python-5 promises, in addition to sharper target recognition electronics, a "full attack envelope" - meaning the pilot can destroy aircraft on his tail...

WASHINGTON - A vehicle control system that has been proven in Germany to cut down dramatically on accidents is available on just 6 percent of vehicles in the United States. Electronic stability control, a feature on one of every three vehicles in Europe, has yet to catch on among American drivers. Many have never heard of it, and that has prompted suppliers to kick off an eight-city tour Wednesday in Washington. Suppliers of stability control systems say they hope consumer demand, not government mandates, will persuade automakers to overcome their well-known aversion to added costs and offer the system on...

The Creation Story, By Hilary Leila Krieger Jul. 10, 2003 In search of the miraculous in the everyday: drip irrigation, the Arrow missile, and eight other inventions that make Israel great For nearly two decades Americans have been trying without success to create an anti-ballistic missile system that can bat down incoming enemy missiles. It took Israeli aeronautical engineer Dov Raviv and his Israeli Aircraft Industries crew just seven days to come up with a successful solution. The year was 1986 and the Israeli government had just signed on to develop an ABM defense system. Other experts proposed mechanisms involving...

Normally, glaucoma can be treated with medication or laser surgery; however, some cases are not responsive to these treatments. That is where Optonol’s patented Ex-PRESS Miniature Glaucoma Implant comes in. The treatment significantly reduces intra-ocular pressure, by ridding the eye of excess fluid, which does not drain normally in glaucoma sufferers. The device can also serve as an effective, long-term alternative to the traditional treatments. The Ex-PRESS implant - 3mm long, 400 microns in diameter - consists of a microscopic conduit that drains excess fluid out of the eye and harmlessly deposits it into the surrounding tissues. The resultant pressure...

It may be baseball's biggest technology controversy since lights were installed at Wrigley Field. Like Chicago's beloved baseball park, the umpire's home behind the plate is a somewhat sacred spot. So adding technology that claims to improve the game does not sit well with everyone, especially those who control the play on the field. Major League Baseball umpires are fighting the QuesTec Umpire Information System, a series of cameras that track each pitch and compare the machine's ruling with the ump's call. The technology, which first was tested by the major leagues in 2001, is currently used in 10 ballparks....

New Software to Unravel Stasi Puzzle   The orderly habits of communist bureaucrats have made it easier for new technology to uncover secrets they sought to destroy.   Researchers at Berlin's prestigious Frauenhofer Institute are programming software that will piece together documents destroyed by East German secret police workers as the sun set on the communist era. Everyone knows that if you really want no-one to discover your secrets, the trick is to completely destroy all the evidence. But this concept appears to have been lost on the workers at East Germany's secret police agency, the Stasi, during the...

File photo of staff walking in Infosys Technologies campus at Electronics City in Bangalore, January 20, 2003. Global firms such as IBM and Accenture are increasingly taking advantage of relatively low wages to hire software engineers in India, lifting the pressure on local firms already struggling with tighter margins. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski The newly opened International Tech Park in Bangalore, India Global tech firms compete to hire Indian staff ADVERTISEMENT Click to enlarge photo By Anshuman Daga BANGALORE (Reuters) - Global firms such as IBM and Accenture are increasingly taking advantage of relatively low wages to hire software engineers in India,...

Face the MusicEven as the Recording Industry threatens to launch questionably legal countermeasures to damage the computers of musiclovers . . . three music biz events indicate an inflection in the battle between Internet-as-threat and Internet-as-opportunity. First, a federal judge rejected the Recording Industry's most current legal attack on file sharing. U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that Grokster and Morpheus were not contributing to copyright infringement . . . . The second recent cyber-musical event is Apple's initiation of iTunes . . . . The third recent noteworthy event was the appearance in my inbox of a preview of...

High-tech CEOs have seen the future, and it is rosy, a survey says. Despite the continued economic downturn, the CEOs of North America's fastest-growing technology companies remain confident their companies will maintain the record-high growth rates they have enjoyed over the past five years, the 2003 Deloitte Touche's Technology Fast 500 report reported. The survey of more than 200 CEOs included 16 chief executives of Canadian companies. Of the respondents, 59 per cent said they are very or extremely confident their companies will maintain their high levels of growth. Companies in the Fast 500 posted an average growth rate of...

By Mercury News Before several hundred business executives in San Mateo, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and a key minister for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Russia could be the next big thing for telecom and information technology markets. With three straight years of substantial economic growth, a sharp increase in consumer spending, and a technology market that's averaging more than 20 percent annual growth, Russia is proving it can be a high-tech nation, they said. ``It's a no-brainer, it's a growth market. VCs should get on the plane,'' said Mark Sanor, a partner at Ernst & Young, who...

PORTLAND — Federal prosecutors on Monday (April 28) charged a former Intel Corp. engineer with allegedly conspiring to aid Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of a move to “levy war” against the United States, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday (April 29). The ex-Intel engineer, Maher “Mike” Hawash, was arrested in March and has been held by the U.S. government without charge as part of what the report called a “secret investigation.” Hawash, 38, a U.S. citizen of Arab descent, worked for Intel from 1992 to 2001, when he was laid off....

Although Iraq first needs basics like electricity and a government, it is already shaping up as a rare opportunity for technology companies. It is saddled with a tattered phone system, weak Internet access and virtually none of the wireless wonders sweeping other countries. Even if Iraq never becomes the Silicon Crescent, big money is at stake. Rebuilding the country's telecommunications networks and constructing new facilities from scratch would cost billions. U.S. officials have not explained how telecom contracts will be awarded, whether deals signed by Saddam Hussein's regime will be honored, or whether American and British companies will be preferred....

Buoyed by its decisive win in Iraq, the Pentagon is betting billions that the information technology system that helped defeat Saddam Hussein will evolve into a more potent weapon than cluster bombs and howitzers. Department of Defense futurists call it network-centric warfare. Other military strategists simply refer to it as the digital war. The first Gulf War was analog, they say. This one was digital. Digital it may have been--using real-time video images to target missiles in flight, wireless PDAs to connect with stateside medical records from the battlefield, and virtual-reality simulations to provide just-in-time delivery of material to front-line...

New High Tech Weapons And Advanced SystemsMay Debut In A Conflict With Iraq   Last updated Oct. 15, 2002 View Standard Version   Introduction The quick implementation of systems and networks that are geared towards near-instantaneous decision-making and rapid response has had a dramatic impact on U.S. war fighting doctrine since combat operations began in Afghanistan in October 2001. Testing of several weapons and systems in development has aggressively continued throughout this year. Some of the brightest engineers and technicians in the defense industry are working with the Department of Defense to accelerate promising weapons and systems to an...

Oracle's Ellison: 1,000 Tech Firms Should Go Bankrupt By Peter Loftus Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Just call Larry Ellison the dark oracle of Silicon Valley. Ellison, the founder and chief executive of software giant Oracle Corp. (ORCL), says the high-technology industry must undergo a sweeping consolidation that will spell the end for many of his rivals. "We think there's at least 1,000 Silicon Valley companies that need to go bankrupt," Ellison said during a meeting here Tuesday with reporters and editors from The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. Not surprisingly, the hard-charging billionaire predicted Oracle,...

SALEM, Utah, Apr 1, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- International Automated Systems Inc. (OTCBB: IAUS) ("IAS") announced today that it has been awarded a patent on its new breakthrough technology, a Propulsion Turbine, which some experts believe will be a revolutionary solution to low-cost solar hydrogen fuel production and electrical power generation. IAS has conducted many tests during the past two years at its own testing facilities, at a university laboratory and at various power plant facilities. Conservative numbers demonstrate remarkable advantages in areas of cost, maintenance, size, efficiency and versatility. IAS expects to deploy its new technology into the marketplace...

Firewalls set to become illegal in many American states Legislation by the ignorant By Staff at the Newsdesk: Friday 28 March 2003, 13:21 AN INTERESTING PIECE of news has surfaced that will have sys admins fainting in disbelief. Eight states have put forward bills that would have a devastating effect on network security and even networks themselves if they come to pass. The wording in the bills is dumb enough that firewalls could become illegal. The news about the bills was brought to our attention by Edward Felten, more famous for having a go at a different Bill. The states...

<p>Texas Instruments breaks new ground with its bundling of three technologies into a single chipset.</p> <p>Back in September, I wrote a column lauding Texas Instruments for its breakthrough designs that reduced from four to one the number of chips needed to operate a cell phone. Looks like the company is at it again.</p>

Goldman's Latest Tech-Spend Survey Shows Less Optimism By Donna Fuscaldo of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Spending on technology gear may finally be stabilizing, but hopes for an actual improvement this year could be premature, according to a survey of technology executives. In Mid-February, investment company Goldman Sachs polled technology buyers to gauge their views of the information technology spending environment. What the survey found is many executives expect information technology spending to increase 1% in 2003. While any growth would be viewed favorably given last year's declines, it is still lower than the 2% to 3% growth tech...

Tech M&A Premiums Show Air Still Seeping Out Of Bubble By Janet Whitman Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Nearly three years after the burst of the dot-com bubble, the air continues to seep out of the once high-octane technology sector. Highlighting the ongoing slump in the value of technology companies, premiums paid for mergers and acquisitions in the computer sector have slipped to their lowest level since the tech boom went bust in March 2000, a new report released Thursday shows. Acquirers paid an average multiple of 1.69 times annual revenue for computer software, supplies and services companies,...