Spotlight Features

As energy prices -- crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, electricity and natural gas -- continue to increase, the focus of governments and other groups, such as car makers, has turned to finding alternative energy sources. High on that list of potential technologies are fuel cells. Much has been made a...

Less than a decade ago, it seemed touch-screen had the touch. In the years after the 2000 Florida general election controversy, election officials worried about public confidence in voting and, fueled by $3 billion in federal funding for election improvements, presided over a swift transformation of...

Internet radio station operators are concerned that skyrocketing royalty fees could zap an industry that's still in its infancy. However, technology may be bringing some solutions to the vexing problem of paying artists a royalty fee each time a listener hears a song. It just may take some time -- a...

"Smart" shopping carts have been around for a while, but until recently, they haven't managed to gain much traction. Now, some momentum is building, according to proponents of the computer-rigged market baskets that -- with a swipe of a card -- can flash an alert that a customer's favorite brand of ...

Portable electronics like smartphones and laptops aren't generally known for their ability to withstand drops, splashes and harsh conditions. Yet the portable nature of these devices means they're often in the line of fire -- swimming pools and toilets for cell phones, dusty places like construction...

Digital age, and the stealin' is easy. Regardless of the content type -- be it a text, audio or video file -- computer users can seemingly download and upload copyrighted content with near impunity. After all, it doesn't cost anything to share this material. It's there for the taking. Besides, what...

Some two weeks after the FCC rebuked Comcast for its network management practices, the government agency has spelled out details of the cable provider's marching orders in a 67-page supplement. Within the next 30 days, Comcast must make a full disclosure to the FCC of the behavior that lowered the r...

Online media coverage of this year's Summer Olympic Games on MSN is shaping up to be a breakout event for Internet TV, as well as quite a big hit for NBC and its tech partners. The network reported 12 million hits and 70 million page views on its Olympics Web site -- and that was before the opening ...

The leading edge of online corporate outreach once was the executive blog. Carefully crafted messages on a range of topics, closely vetted by PR firms, were posted every few weeks, calculated to appear spontaneous and thoughtful. Not surprisingly, many companies learned that customers didn't find th...

Despite the declining cost of supercomputing, the technology still remains out of reach for many businesses and universities, some of which have found alternative solutions. Bringing supercomputing to industry is just what the Blue Collar Computing program at the Ohio Supercomputer Center was design...