Matt's Favorites: Tech Security Event Tomorrow, Kettering Dog Takes On Groundhog, And Much More
SOUTHFIELD -- So what's the latest in the tech world? Well, here goes...
* Here's one more request for the honor of your presence this Thursday, Jan. 31 at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield as we resume our monthly series of tech events, Last Thursdays Unwired @ LTU. This month we're talking IT security -- how to keep your family's and your business' information safe. Joining me will be a terrific panel of experts, including Detective Jerry DeRosia of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office Computer Crimes Unit; Adam Goslin, COO of Rochester-based High Bit Security LLC; and Paul Chambers, CEO of Core3 Solutions of Birmingham. Bring your most vexing security problems! Doors open at 7:30 a.m. and the program runs from 8 to 9:15. It's all free; coffee and donuts on us. Register at http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/01/08/technology-report-with-matt-roush-last-thursdays-unwired-at-ltu-131/.
* Kettering University is taking an alternative approach to the question of whether there will be an early spring or six more weeks of winter this coming Groundhog Day, Saturday, Feb. 2. On Kettering's campus, what the university describes as "highly trained dog whisperers" will confer with General Determination, the Kettering University mascot statue, positioned in a prime vantage point to predict the seasons as the sun rises. If General D sees his shadow it is a sure bet there will be six more weeks of winter-like weather. If he doesn't, then plan on an early spring. Acolytes of this wise prognosticator of seasonal shifts will share his insight with media and those assembled at 7:15 a.m. on the "Beach," the grassy plain at the heart of campus. Kettering University's Bulldog Hockey Team will be on hand with fingers crossed.
* Good grief, what got into you Tuesday, O Michigan technology community? I had eight more good quality news items than I could use in today's Technology Report. That's almost enough to build a daily newsletter all by itself! So stay tuned, I hope to use 'em on Thursday or thereafter.
* A new study finds that your sweet little kitty cat... is a cold blooded killer. They can't help it, they're made that way. And the only way to save billions of animals a year from death by cat is to keep Fluffy inside.
* Oh, lovely. Mild winters in America's northeast are leading to an explosion in the rat population. (Maybe the cats can help?)
* With the help of "citizen cartographers," Google adds detail to the map of the world's most closed nation, North Korea.
* New research sheds light on the brain circuitry behind a cigarette addict's cravings. (I'm still hooked and always will be. I quit 16 years ago as a 40th birthday present to myself, but to this day when I smell cigarette smoke, to me it smells like somebody's banking bread. Yum. Weird to people who were never hooked, I know.)
* Here's what to expect from BlackBerry 10.
* Microsoft announces the worldwide release of Office 2013.
* And Apple announces the 128 gigabyte iPad.
* Marissa Mayer has had good early success at Yahoo. Now comes the hard part.
* And here's an inside look at the complex Libor scandal.
* A personal hero of mine, Elon Musk, steps in to offer Boeing new batteries for their troubled 787 Dreamliner from his Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
