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Matt's Favorites: More 4G LTE, DLove, And Much More

Well, here we are on another Monday, and there's fresh snow on the ground and fresh tech news all over the interwebs! Here goes...

* AT&T announced the availability of its mobile Internet service to seven counties in Northern Michigan, extending access for advanced mobile services, devices and applications to customers in the area. Improvements were made to seven cell sites, expanding coverage and capacity in Missaukee and Arenac counties in northern Lower Michigan and Iron, Ontonagon, Dickinson, Marquette and Gogebic counties in the Upper Peninsula. Customers who live or work in the Lake City and AuGres areas of northern Lower Michigan and the communities of Iron Mountain, Bessemer and Wakefield in the UP will be most affected. This upgrade is part of AT&T's Project Velocity IP, a three-year investment plan announced last fall to expand and enhance its IP broadband networks. As part of Project VIP, AT&T plans to add more than 10,000 macro cell sites nationwide by year-end 2015, as well as deploy more than 40,000 small cells and add more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems to increase the density of its wireless network. AT&T invested more than $275 million in its wireless and wireline networks in Michigan in the first half of 2013.

* The Resource Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County will host an electronic waste collection event March 22 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Power Park in Novi, 45175 10 Mile Road. Accepted items include televisions, VCRs DVD players, game consoles, computers, laptops, monitors, printers, copy machines, and much more. These events are open to the public. Last year, RRRASOC and Vintage Tech responsibly collected and processed more than 83 tons of obsolete e-waste.

* The #313DLove movement will share a third year of Detroit love in an event March 13 at the Charles H. Wright Museum of Afircan American History. Movement co-founder Terry Bean, who also founded the pioneering business networking group Motor City Connect, notes that the world is paying attention to good things happening in Detroit. The idea of the March 13 event is to get people to say what they love about Detroit. The afternoon will be filled with inspirational stories from local professionals, artists, non-profit execs and thought leaders. The common theme among them is they choose to make a difference and continually make that choice. Starting in late afternoon and spilling over into the evening, a cocktail reception held in the rotunda of the museum will let attendees connect, reflect and contemplate who should be selected to speak at #313DLove 2015. The event is co-produced by MITechNews.Com, a weekly tech newsletter publisher (and friendly competitor with this here Tech Report). Also on the leadership team are entrepreneurs Paul S. Funk, an executive consultant to businesses and nonprofits, and Michele Hirschfield, opportunity cost strategist with WelcomingResults.Com. For sponsorship information, contact Hirschfield at mhirschfield@welcomingresults.com.

* The Midland Information Technology Consortium named Dawn Wright its new program manager. At her new position at MITCON, Wright succeeds Ed Haycock, who left to become the new managing director of Dow Gardens. Her first day on the job will be March 3. Wright, 30, has worked at Michigan Molecular Institute for the past 12 years in various capacities, most recently as manager of grants, contracts and intellectual property. Wright earned her bachelor's degree in business administration at Central Michigan University and a master's degree in organizational leadership from the University of Michigan-Flint. Established in 1999, MITCON originally began as a project to rebuild the IT platform at MMI. From there, it blossomed into an organization that today provides expert IT service and support to more than 40 local non-profits, the bulk of them health and human service agencies. Michigan Molecular Institute is a provides contract research and development and other services to the global chemistry indsutry. More at www.mmi.org. More about MITCON at www.mitcon.org.

* The Project Management Institute Great Lakes Chapter will hold its 13th annual symposium April 25 at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi. This year's developing lineup of accomplished speakers will establish their messages around this year's theme, "Project Management: Staying Relevant Through Continuous Evolution." The importance of creating and continuing professional relevance and thereby bringing rapid value in today's business environment is a requirement placed on professional project managers in all industries. Participants at this one-day event will have a selection between 12 presentations, view poster presentations of real projects, enjoy networking opportunities with sponsors and participants, earn 8 PDUs, and be treated to a continental breakfast, lunch and refreshments. Morning keynoter Jerry Brightman will speak on "Sustainable Leadership for Project Success." Brightman is president of The Leadership Group and focuses on a range of organizational and leadership issues that impact growth, development, innovation, and change. Brightman's Leadership Institute, conducted for PMI Global from 2000 to 2005, is the basis for today's PMI Masters Class. He has done this work in more than 100 countries. Many other quality speakers, including a closing note speaker are currently under review. The lineup of speakers that are currently being vetted possess a diversity of backgrounds including manufacturing, software engineering, healthcare, financial management, banking, project management, entrepreneurship, and marketing. Professionals leading initiatives for HP, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corporation, and Chrysler Corporation will be joined by independent consulting practitioners with international engagements. For more information about the 2014 Symposium, visit http://pmiglc.org/Symposium2014/default.htm.

And now here's the national and international stuff, courtesy of CBS News, CNet's News.com and others...

* The scary situation in Ukraine is of course also playing out on the internet. The Russian news website RT.com, for Russia Today, was hacked and defaced Saturday.

* NASA'S Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft has sent over 200 terabits of data back to Earth. (1 terabit = 1000 gigabits.) On Nov. 4, 2013, the day that MRO passed the 200-terabit mark, the orbiting observatory obtained this stunning image of sand dunes on the western rim of the Red Planet's Hellas impact basin. Researchers call these dunes "barchan," which form when wind blows in one direction for long periods of time. Barchan dunes appear commonly on Mars and in Earth's desert regions. Dunes like these have been observed to creep slowly across the surface of Mars through wind action, researchers said.

* Yellow chunks of the world's oldest "cheese" may have been discovered on the bodies of mummies buried in China's Taklamakan Desert. The mummies, which are each about 3,800 years old, were buried with hunks of the dairy treat, presumably a tasty snack for the buried to enjoy in the afterlife. This particular cheese was also simple to make, nutritious and easily digestible, according to the study.

* Technology can solve big problems -- the least of which is falling asleep during a movie and losing your place. Thankfully, Netflix staffers have created a solution for this by hacking a Fitbit device. Netflix staffers created a way to pause a video based on a Fitbit device's sleep tracking feature.

* In a move that seems to be straight out of a science fiction movie, Japan launched a magnetic net on Friday that is meant to act as a trash bag for the pieces of space debris hurtling around the planet. In theory, scientists say that the electrified net will slow down the debris and -- when it starts to fall towards Earth -- burn up in the atmosphere, the Guardian reports.

* Following the massive success of "The Lego Movie," it sounds like block-based blockbusters -- a pun no one could possibly refrain from using -- are a sure-fire recipe for Hollywood success. Up next: the Minecraft movie. Dropping a bombshell on Twitter in the form of a sneaky 128-character admission, "Minecraft" creator Markus "Notch" Persson revealed that he and Mojang, the studio the 34-year-old Swedish developer formed to manage the title and its expansion, are working with Warner Bros. Pictures to develop a film around the popular video game.

* Here's a look at the United States Navy's new high-tech submarine hunter, the P-8A Poseidon.

* A new book about Apple after Jobs has few surprises, this observer says. The new CEO, Tim Cook, is described as more practical, more pragmatic, more orderly, more disciplined, and more modest than Jobs, but lacking "the quasi-religious authority that Jobs had radiated." (Oh, and on Friday, he said that if you don't like the company's green initiatives, you can damn well sell your Apple stock.)

* Don't mistake this for something out of the mouth of Stephen Colbert's ultra-conservative, Bill O'Reilly-modeled TV persona: The popular funnyman actually believes that former NSA contractor and domestic spying whistleblower Edward Snowden should come back to the U.S. and face trial. In front of more than 6,000 people at the RSA Conference's closing keynote at the Moscone Center here, Colbert had the audience roaring within minutes over his jokes about computer security and encryption.

And so begins Mt. Gox's bid for recovery, days after it filed for bankruptcy protection and acknowledged a massive loss of the virtual currency.

Meet the HAV 304 Airlander, the world's largest aircraft. It can fly for three weeks. It's green, it's efficient, it's a hybrid, and boy, is it completely bizarre.

* Apple's "iOS in the Car" operating system, which would let drivers access various iPhone functions through a car's built-in screen, is set to head out of the garage next week, says a report. Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo are the automakers on board for the launch, said the Financial Times, which cited unnamed sources in reporting that the official announcement will take place at the Geneva Motor Show. The FT said neither Apple nor the carmakers would comment.

* The New York Times says bringing animals back from extinction is about to start happening -- for realsies. And to quote the article, it's going to be really, really cool, unless it's really, really bad.

* It's a different kind of Google bus: In a move to quiet the controversy surrounding tech-driven gentrification in San Francisco, Google has agreed to donate $6.8 million to the city to fund free bus passes for low- and middle-income kids.

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