The Bush administration is starving the U.S. tech industry of two crucial ingredients, according to members of a panel of academics and entrepreneurs at Stanford University: foreign students and research grants.

"If you make it difficult for foreign students to come here or work here, you will have a dramatic influence on education in the United States and the quality of industry," said Mark Horowitz, a professor of electrical engineering at the university and the founder of Rambus. "The U.S. is becoming less attractive for graduate students."

Academics often are hostile to politicians, but … Read more

If you type in 'Don' into Google, who do you think you would get first? Don Corleone? Don Johnson?

Actually, you get the home page of Don Knuth, professor emeritus of the art of computer programming at Stanford University and author of the three-volume classic The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth demonstrated it during a presentation at a symposium at Stanford today commemorating the 40th anniversary of the university's computer science department. (They taught it before, but it wasn't a full-on department.

I tried it on my own search and it works. He beats out Don Johnston Incorporated … Read more

What does a fuel cell manufacturer and a company formerly known for porn sites have in common? A Nasdaq over-the-counting listed listing.

Growth Merger Inc., a publicly traded shell company, merged this week with Neah Power Systems which has created a membrane for methanol fuel cells. Methanol fuel cells may one day help power MP3 players and even laptops.

Still, the market remains small and many companies have delayed putting out fuel-cell powered products, so getting enough business to pull off an IPO remains difficult.

Enter Growth. The company originally stated out as a purveyor of adult web sites, but … Read more

Your eyes evolved to see rosy cheeks.

The eyes in humans and their closest relatives in the primate world are geared to detect subtle changes in skin tone caused by blood oxygen levels, according to a new study from Caltech.

The spectral sensitivity of color cones in humans and chimps are somewhat unusual. Bees have four color cones that are evenly spread across the visible color spectrum. Birds have three color cones. By contrast, humans have three types of cones that are sensitive to a limited range of wavelengths. The closeness, however, allows for the detection of subtle tone changes. … Read more

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Humanity is perhaps teetering on the verge of a pandemic that could make millions of people ill. It could also lead to the popularity of the socially distant handshake, according to Bill Joy, a partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, speaking at PC Forum taking place here. The socially distant handshake basically involves bumping elbows. This way, you can stay distant and avoid exchanging germs over a handshake.

Joy is known for his gloomy view of the future (as well as his just-rolled-out-of-a-sleeping-bag hairdo). At various times, he's warned about nanotechnology, bioterrorism and the … Read more

Those who live in North America and Western Europe have more options in terms of food, careers, consumer items and everything else, said Barry Schwartz, Swarthmore professor and author of "Why Less is More" at PC Forum taking place in Carlsbad, Calif. this week. And that's the problem.

The bewildering number of choices is paralyzing people with fear, unrealistic expectations, self-blame and regret. As a result, a trip to the electronics store becomes an opportunity to make a decision you could easily regret. The phenomenon is a big contributor of the significant rise in clinical depression, he … Read more

Reading a book could one day involve a joystick.

At O'Reilly's Emerging Technology conference this week, Maribeth Back showcased results of experiments that emerged from her research group at the Fuji Xerox Palo Alto Laboratory, or FXPAL. Computer scientists developed more than 10 prototypes of reading devices years ago, and then began focusing on the human experience of reading through these new technologies.

One design, called the Speeder Reader, combined a computer protocol for speed reading with video game controllers like the joystick, letting readers "drive" through a book. The built-in technology called RSVP, for rapid … Read more

If the DVD trading activity on Peerflix is any indication, Keira Knightley and Terrence Howard could walk away with Oscars at this year's Academy Awards. The company, which runs a service that lets consumers swap their old DVDsfor $1, looked at the list of nominees for best actor and actress and checked whose movies are actively sought out by their users.

Knightley was the most popular actor with consumers seeking out "Pirates of the Caribbean", "King Arthur" and "Pride and Prejudice." Meanwhile, they wanted "Ray" "Crash" and "… Read more

Yahoo has settled a trade secrets lawsuit with Nuance Communications, one of the leading speech recognition software companies. Yahoo, the suit claimed, "gutted" Nuance's research and development unit, when it hired away 13 of its engineers.

Terms were not disclosed.

Long the next big thing, speech recognition is becoming more mainstream due to advances in the technology and a change in where and how the technology gets used. All the search giants are looking at ways to incorporate it into their offerings. Kai-Fu Lee, the engineer that Google lured from Microsoft, has conducted extensive research in the … Read more