Tag Archive for Detroit

| August 21, 2010
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GM built Robot Works for NASA

GM built Robot Works for NASANASA recently had a coming-out party at the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for one of its newest projects. The party was for a human-like robot called the Robonaut 2 (R2) developed with General Motors (GM). The R2 robot has a human shape, weighs about 300 pounds, runs on a battery. The NASA/GM-robot will join the team of the space shuttle Discovery on  STS-133 mission to the International Space Station. STS-133 is scheduled for takeoff on November 1, 2010. Although it will initially only take part in operational tests, upgrades could eventually allow the robot to realize its true purpose. R2 can help astronauts on spacewalks with tasks outside the space station.

The dexterous humanoid astronaut helper is now tweeting at www.twitter.com/AstroRobonaut.

R2 is now tweeting

With the help of its team, R2  sent its first tweet on July 26, 2010.

Robonaut 2

I liked the big blue GM logo on R2. This is another example of the value of the domestic auto industry for the good of the U.S.  Alan Taub, vice president of GM’s global research and development said in a press release, “Partnerships between organizations such as GM and NASA help ensure space exploration, road travel and manufacturing can become even safer in the future.”

GM LogoGM’s manufacturing engineering team is already working to find potential applications for R2’s array of vision, motion, and sensor technologies that will aid workers in manufacturing operations. According to GM’s Taub, “The work done by GM and NASA engineers also will help us validate manufacturing technologies that will improve the health and safety of our GM team members at our manufacturing plants throughout the world.”

“For GM, this is about safer cars and safer plants,” says the GM VP for global research and development. “When it comes to future vehicles, the advancements in controls, sensors, and vision technology can be used to develop advanced vehicle safety systems. The partnership’s vision is to explore advanced robots working together in harmony with people, building better, higher quality vehicles in a safer, more competitive manufacturing environment.”

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Maybe it will be a reminder to politicians like Dick Shelby of AL who opposed loans to GM to further the interests of the foreign car assemblers in Alabama.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Cars | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
| August 13, 2010
Comments Off on Another Tech Loss for Michigan?

Another Tech Loss for Michigan?

Another Tech Loss for Michigan?Earlier this week Texas-based Tektronix Communications announced it had acquired Arbor Networks, which makes software for network security and management. Arbor Networks employs about 90 people in Ann Arbor and 270 worldwide. According to Xconomy-Boston. Farnam Jahanian, who is chair of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, formed Arbor Networks in 2000 with Rob Malan, who was Jahanian’s Ph.D. student at the U-M and is now Arbor’s chief technology officer (he will stay on as CTO).

Arbor Network’s core technology, based on Malan’s and Jahanian’s research, involves software that monitors entire computer networks, from data centers and Internet service providers to broadband customers and mobile interfaces. According to the article, the firm’s products protect its customers against all manner of security threats, most notably, denial-of-service attacks that can shut down big networks and popular websites. Jahanian and Malan’s team raised a Series A venture round in 2000, led by Battery Ventures and Cisco Systems, and then a Series B round in 2002, led by Thomas Weisel Venture Partners. Those two rounds, the only outside funding taken by the company, were worth about $33 million.

Arbor CEO, Colin Doherty, told Xconomy-Boston that Danaher (NYSE: DHR), a Washington D.C.-based technology conglomerate, owns Tektronix Communications. According to Doherty, Arbor will stay “whole and intact as an operating unit under the Danaher brand.” The company will become part of Danaher’s communications and enterprise group which comprises a half-dozen companies, including Tektronix Communications, Fluke Networks, and AirMagnet.

Arbor will give its new parent company deep Internet security knowledge, what Doherty calls a “security beachhead.” Now “they can detect, secure, and mitigate network security. It was a really good fit for them,” he says. Doherty told xconomy.com that with Danaher’s size and influence, “it’s a unique opportunity for us to change our model…and be part of a larger public vehicle.” Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, and the principals at Arbor and Danaher weren’t saying much beyond the platitudes that typically follow such a merger.

For his part, Jahanian who is exiting the company calls the Danaher acquisition a natural next step in Arbor’s broader evolution. “It’s another inflection point,” he said in the article, and it will help the firm “expand into a new emerging market.” David Munson, the dean of engineering at the University of Michigan, says he is “heartened that the acquisition of Arbor Networks calls for Arbor’s research and development activity to remain in Ann Arbor. This is a cornerstone for Ann Arbor’s rapidly developing software and networking industry” in the article.

Doherty did not offer Xconomy.com many specifics on the new firm’s commitment to Michigan, other than the usual corporate platitudes that Arbor will “continue to grow our presence in Ann Arbor and in Chelmsford (MA).” However, even the U-M professor admits Michigan does not cut it for big-time Tech. “We knew we could build a phenomenal R&D team in Ann Arbor,” Jahanian says. “But to recruit the quality of executives [we wanted], we had to be either on the East or West Coast.” The combination of Battery Ventures being in the Boston area, the strong local business talent, and proximity to the East Coast’s big wireless carriers and Internet service providers swung the decision in Boston’s favor, he told Xconomy.com.

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From where I sit, the DHR product lines seem to be a good match for Arbor’s, but it is only a matter of time before the bean-counters in charge at DHR decide that even a “phenomenal R&D team in Ann Arbor” is too expensive and Michigan (and the US) will lose 90 more leading-edge, well-paying jobs.  Another example of how tech unaware Michigan is that Xconomy-Detroit did not cover this, the article came from Boston.

Related articles
  • Arbor Networks Partners With Ingram Micro in Asia Pacific to Help Enterprises Mitigate DDoS Threats to Their Businesses (prweb.com)

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| June 26, 2010
Comments Off on Detroit PC’s Cleaner Than Most

Detroit PC’s Cleaner Than Most

Detroit PC's Cleaner Than MostHelp Net Security reports that Detroit has one of the lowest malware infection rates in the US, based on information from Enigma Software Group. An analysis of more than one million malware infections in the United States shows that only PC’s in Boise, ID and Memphis, TN have malware infection rates less than Motown’s.

Enigma recently pulled a 30-day history of infections in the 100 largest cities in the United States. Not surprisingly, New York City had the most infections, because New York has the most computers. However, after the number of infections as a percentage of a city’s population was considered, Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL have the highest malware infection rates in the United States.

“Malware makers are becoming more and more sophisticated, and the risk they pose to your computer and your valuable personal information is growing,” says Enigma Software Group CEO Alvin Estevez told Help Net Security. “We think it’s important to keep an eye on where the malware is doing the most damage and our Malware Tracker map (link broken a the far end) helps us and consumers know what’s going on.”

According to this data, the cities with the highest PC malware infection rates are:

  1. Atlanta, GA
  2. Birmingham, AL
  3. Denver, CO
  4. Chesapeake, VA
  5. Madison, WI.

Other notable cities included:

28. Dallas
35. San Francisco
51. Houston
63. Los Angeles
64. Chicago
84. Phoenix
85. New York City
89. Philadelphia

Enigma Software Group’s Malware Tracker uses data from its SpyHunter software to estimate how many computers have worms and Trojan infecting them. After collecting the data, it uses the Google Maps API, to zoom into specific neighborhoods and find out who’s infected. The data can also be separated into different types of malware.

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While it is always a plus to have good things to say about Detroit, it does not take much analysis to know these stats do not mean that Detroiters are better PC drivers than the rest of the world. The first thing I noticed about the Enigma map was that Ontario had more outbreaks reported than most of the U.S. east coast. I would attribute that to the degree of market penetration by Enigma’s software.

A second cause, which I wrote about last March when Symantec declared Detroit the least risky online city, is that the depression global financial crisis turns these stats on their head. Symantec found that Detroit ranked last in categories like:

  • WiFi and hotspots per capita,
  • Annual expenditures per household on Internet Access and Computers,
  • Adult Internet use.

All of which will cut the number of personal PC’s with malware infections.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| March 27, 2010
Comments Off on Detroit Least Risky Online City

Detroit Least Risky Online City

Detroit Least Risky Online City Symantec has declared Detroit as the least risky online city in America. In a joint study with Sperling’s BestPlaces, Symantec released a report Norton’s Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities The U.S. cities under the greatest threat from cybercrime (PDF) (03-22-10) of the 50 riskiest places in America to be online and at the bottom of the list is Detroit.

DetroitThe report indicates that Detroit is the least risky online city, with residents less likely to take part in risky online behavior. Detroit has low levels of Internet access, expenditures on computer equipment, and wireless Internet access. The city also ranked low in cybercrime, wireless Internet access, and Internet access generally compared to other cities. El Paso, Texas, and Memphis were the second and third safest cities, respectively as reported by eWeek.

Data from several sources were used to determine the rankings. The data came from Symantec Security Response as well as third-party data about online behavior, such as accessing WiFi hot-spots and online banking. Each city was scored across several categories. For example the number of malicious attacks per capita, prevalence of Internet use, and the number of bot-infected machines per capita.

Symantec logoDetroit ranked last in all categories including:

  • Individual cybercrimes,
  • WiFi and hotspots per capita,
  • Annual expenditures per household on Internet Access and Computers,
  • Adult Internet use.

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Up is down and down is up in Detroit. These are not promising statistics for Detroit. The depression “global financial crisis” has ravaged Detroit and southeastern Michigan for the past 11 years. These results are just another indicator of how far Detroit has fallen. Low levels of Internet access, not buying computer equipment along with slow and limited wireless Internet access cause the city to rank low in cybercrime. This is just like driving a car, the more you drive the more risks you take. Until the Motor City gets on the information super-highway there is little chance of Detroit moving forward.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| May 4, 2009
Comments Off on Cars Collaborate to Reduce Risks

Cars Collaborate to Reduce Risks

Cars Collaborate to Reduce RisksAccording to InScience scientists and engineers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) tested an innovative technological system in the Detroit area in April 2009. The study will ultimately help protect cars and drivers from being surprised by black ice, fog, and other hazardous weather conditions.

The prototype system is designed to gather detailed information about weather and road conditions from moving cars. NCAR’s road weather system is part of IntelliDrive. IntelliDrive is a national initiative overseen by the Department of Transportation (DOT) to use new technologies to make driving safer and improve mobility.

The project included collecting information from 11 specially equipped cars in the Detroit area. Test drivers in Jeep Cherokee’s, Ford (F) Edge’s, and a Nissan Altima were on the prowl for adverse conditions. They sought out heavy rain and snow to collect, store and transmit data. The test vehicles used sensors to collect data about weather conditions such as temperature, pressure, and humidity.

on-board digital memory device recorded that informationAn on-board digital memory device recorded that information, along with indirect signs of road conditions. They recorded events like the cars windshield wipers being switched on or activation of the anti-lock braking system. The information was transmitted to a central database. There the information was integrated with other local weather data and traffic observations, as well as details about road material and alignment. The processed data will then be used to update motorists in the area when hazards are present and, when appropriate, suggest alternate routes. Engineers analyzed the reliability of the system by comparing data from the cars with other observations from radars and weather satellites.

Sheldon Drobot, the NCAR program manager in charge of the project told Inscience, “The system will tell drivers what they can expect to run into in the next few seconds and minutes, giving them a critical chance to slow down or take other action.”

Not only will the system provide motorist warnings/ It will alert emergency managers to hazardous driving conditions. The alerts would help state highway departments efficiently keep roads clear of snow. It can also help meteorologists refine their forecasts by providing them with continual updates about local weather conditions.

The tests helped the NCAR team refine its software to accurately process data from motor vehicles. “The results look very encouraging,” Drobot says. “The tests show that cars can indeed communicate critical information about weather conditions and road hazards.”

One of the biggest challenges for NCAR is how to process the enormous amounts of data that could be generated by about 300 million motor vehicles. “It’s not enough to process the information almost instantaneously,” says William Mahoney, who oversees the system’s development for NCAR. “It needs to be cleaned up, sent through a quality control process, blended with traditional weather data, and eventually delivered back to drivers who are counting on the system to accurately guide them through potentially dangerous conditions.”

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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