Roy Mark

Perhaps they’ll play “Send in the Clowns” when Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte departs for the International Space Station Sept. 30. After all, the Canadian billionaire, who paid $35 million for a tourist seat on the next Russian mission to the ISS, said Sept. 2 he’s bringing along nine red clown noses.During a video […]

The space shuttle Discovery’s blastoff to the International Space Station was delayed twice the week of Aug. 24 due to stormy weather and a faulty liquid hydrogen valve sensor. The launch finally took place Aug. 29, but bad weather and sensor woes have followed the crew to the ISS.During the first of three scheduled space […]

Deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s Ethernet service routing capability, Qwest said Sept. 2 it plans to deliver speeds of up to 100G bps to enterprise and government customers. The next-generation network will allow business customers to handle broadband-intensive services such as unified communications, video, multimedia and virtualized applications.At 100G bps, a 2-hour high-definition movie or presentation can be […]

Business travelers and frequent fliers are willing to change their travel plans depending on in-air airline Wi-Fi availability, according to a new survey by the Wi-Fi Alliance. More than 70 percent would opt for a flight with Wi-Fi access over one that provided meal service. The survey also showed that among business travelers who have […]

WASHINGTON-Less than a week after the Federal Communications Commission launched an inquiry into the state of competition and innovation in the wireless carrier industry, CTIA-the wireless industry’s chief voice-is cranking up a publicity campaign to tell “our story.” Steve Largent, CTIA’s president and CEO, has even gone so far as to say he welcomes the […]

CTIA, the major lobbying association of wireless carriers, urged the IRS Sept. 1 to repeal a law that taxes personal use of employer-provided cell phones, joining a growing movement in Congress to repeal the 20-year-old law. Even IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman has recommended that the law be done away with.Originally passed in 1989, the law […]

The Indian software industry association Nasscom is proposing that the U.S. Congress create a new category of visas to replace the increasingly controversial H-1B visas. As Nasscom sees it, Congress should create a “service” visa to allow companies to send workers to the United States for a limited amount of time. The new visa would […]

Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s revised Cybersecurity Act of 2009 is creating as much controversy as his original effort in April did. Both versions give the president unprecedented authority to shut down private Internet networks in the case of a cyber-security emergency.The original draft bill gave the president the broad authority to designate various private networks as […]

The space shuttle Discovery finally got under way late Aug. 28 for a resupply mission to the International Space Station. After two postponements-one for weather and another due to a faulty liquid hydrogen valve-Discovery’s midnight launch went smoothly, and the spacecraft is expected to arrive Aug. 30 at the ISS.Unlike recent ISS missions, which have […]

A faulty liquid hydrogen valve forced NASA Aug. 27 to delay the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery by almost 24 hours. After two postponements earlier this week, NASA had tentatively scheduled a 12:22 a.m. EDT launch Aug. 28 but later pushed the blastoff to the International Space Station to no earlier than 11:59 p.m. […]

The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted Aug. 27 to launch two inquiries into the world of wireless communications, including the competitive and innovative state of mobile Internet providers and the billing practices of U.S. wireless and broadband carriers.Chairman Julius Genachowski said the inquiries strike at the heart of what he called “core components of the […]

Scientists got their first glimpse Aug. 24 of NASA’s expanded high-end computing system that will serve as the modeling centerpiece of a new climate simulation. The expansion added 4,128 computer processors to Goddard Space Flight Center’s Discover high-end computing system.The IBM iDataPlex “scalable unit” uses Intel’s newest Xeon 5500 series processors, which are based on […]