America’s Quiet Energy Revolution

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An energy revolution is taking place within America’s borders. While the Obama Administration’s reaction to the nation’s energy needs has ranged from cool to downright hostile, market forces and the dynamics of capitalism are propelling the country towards energy independence.

Production of crude oil is up. Domestic natural gas production is booming, as exploration companies are finding untapped sources of supply and developing new ways to get at them. The rise in prices, although painful to consumers, is spurring conservation.

These developments provide a welcome break to government policy makers contemplating an increasingly volatile Middle East. The U.S is less susceptible to energy blackmail than it has been in a decade. On the economic front, the energy industry is projected to add over a million jobs by the end of the decade.

Politicians being what they are, it is likely that President Obama will try to take credit for this unusual bright spot in the economy. Do not be fooled. The revolution is taking place despite the federal government’s often bizarre set of energy policies. In the words of energy expert Philip Verleger, “It looks like we’re blundering into a solution for the energy problem.”

And let’s not forget good old-fashioned American knowhow!

Read more at:
Bloomberg.

Did Chinese Espionage Lead to F-35 Delays?

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Did Chinese cyber spying cause the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s cost spikes and production delays? That’s the question Pentagon budget officials are asking according to Aviation Week.

Chinese spies apparently hacked into secure conference calls and listened to meetings discussing the classified technologies aboard the jets. In particular, China may have stolen info about the F-35’s secure communications and antenna systems; leading to costly software rewrites and other redesigns to compromised parts of the plane.

The worst part, this problem isn’t just limited to the F-35, though the program’s size and the fact that it’s information systems were apparently designed without any concern for cyber espionage made it an easy target.

Anyone who has been following U.S.-China military relations and cyber warfare knows that China has been hacking into the networks of U.S. defense contractors and the Pentagon and rolling out brand new weapons like the J-20 stealth fighter.            More

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Website Finds Your Location Using Phone Number

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THE GIST
-The website Life360.com allows anyone to type in a cellphone number and locate the user.
-Network location services can save lives, protect children, and enable business services.

Is it possible to pinpoint your location with nothing more than a cellphone number? Absolutely.

Your smart phone always knows where you are. And thanks to the Life360.com service, powered by technology from a company called Loc-Aid, a parent can locate a child by her phone number or even an elderly parent who has wandered away from home.

Indeed, network location services can save lives, protect children, and enable business services — and they’re available to anyone.

Thanks to a free online demo at Loc-Aid.com, you can type in the cellphone number of anyone in the United States and find their precise location in just a few seconds.

Agreements with wireless carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint let Loc-Aid triangulate position using cellular towers and the GPS signal on your phone. In urban areas, the results are more precise than rural areas where there are fewer cell towers.

Locaid adds security measures to keep the site safe: You have to type in your own birthday (to prevent minors from using the service) and the person you are trying to locate must agree to the location search by replying to a text message.         More

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Sure, Facebook Is Growing, But Apple’s Growing Faster

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Think Different: The Company Growing Faster Than Facebook

How should investors value growth?

With Facebook now in registration for an initial public offering, the question is top of mind for investors in technology stocks. Facebook generated $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011, and a cool $1 billion in net income. If the conventional wisdom is right, and Facebook goes public with a $100 billion market cap, that makes the math easy – the company would have  a P/E of 100x trailing earnings, or if you prefer, 27x trailing revenues.

But not everyone is convinced that Facebook, astonishing as it with close to 850 million users and a rapidly growing revenue base, has done enough to be worth more than, say, Boeing ($57 billion market cap, $69 billion in revenue, $4 billion in profits), Disney ($72 billion market cap, FY September 2011 revenues of $40.9 billion and $4.8 billion in profits) or Hewlett-Packard ($58 billion market cap, FY October 2011 revenues of $127.2 billion, non-GAAP net income of $10.4 billion.)

Indeed, here’s a little conundrum for you.

While Facebook grew revenues 88% in 2011, the company actually grew a more modest 54.7% in the fourth quarter; advertising in the quarter was up 44%. On a sequential basis, revenue was up 18.5% in the fourth quarter from Q1, with advertising revenue up 18.2%; compare that with a year ago when Q4 revenues were up 56.5% sequentially, and ad revenue was up 45.6%. Succumbing to the law of large numbers already?

Now let’s do a little comparison with another well-known tech company, this one based in Cupertino, rather than Menlo Park.          More

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Redbox, Verizon Team on Streaming Service

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Redbox and Verizon are working on a streaming video service to take on Netflix, but so far have said little about how it will work.

The joint venture will launch in the second half of 2012. According to a press release, it will offer “subscription services and more in an easy-to-use, flexible and affordable service that will allow all consumers across the U.S. to enjoy the new and popular entertainment they want, whenever they choose, using the media and devices they prefer.”

Redbox’s parent company, Coinstar, has been toying with the idea of a streaming video service for at least a couple years. In 2010, the company began gauging customer interest with surveys, and a year ago Redbox confirmed that it was working on something. (At the time, a partnership with Amazon was rumored, but Amazon has since launched its own streaming video service without Redbox.)            More

 

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