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Punked the Warped Tech of a Victorian World That Never Was THE MAGAZINE OF TECHNOLOGY INSIDERS 10.08 STEAM PUNKED THE WARPED TECH OF A VICTORIAN WORLD THAT NEVER WAS www.spectrum.ieee.org volume 45 number 10 north american 10.08 UPDATE 13 OPEN-SOURCE VOTING Can open-source software save electronic voting? By Mark Anderson 14 VIRTUAL COLONOSCOPY 16 CAR TALK 18 KEEPING MEMS MOVING 20 HOME FUEL CELLS TO SELL IN JAPAN OPINION 22 48 9 SPECTRAL LINES Is the United States ready for digital television? The transition may not be so smooth. By Tekla S. Perry 10 FORUM Futurist Ray Kurzweil gets the last word on the singularity. 21 TECHNICALLY SPEAKING New words are needed to reprocess old electronics. By Paul McFedries DEPARTMENTS 4 BACK STORY 28 On the road to Tikrit. SPARKS FLY: COVER STORY 6 CONTRIBUTORS Engineers build community and 22 HANDS ON more at TechShop 48 THE STEAMPUNK TechShop, a high-tech hands-on [top left]; strange workshop, is expanding—perhaps to steam-powered CONTRAPTORS a city near you. By David Schneider critters inhabit Do-it-yourself enthusiasts are drawing on the aesthetics of the I-Wei Huang’s CAREERS garage [top right]; 19th-century Victorian era to create fantastic brass-adorned, steam-driven 24 Sam Altman is only 23 and on and solar panels machines. All hail the steampunk subculture. By Erico Guizzo leave from Stanford, but his software on a U.S. Air Force base harvest may already be on your cellphone. energy from the 28 A LESS WELL-OILED WAR MACHINE By Susan Karlin sun [bottom]. One of the world’s most profligate users of energy, the U.S. military, 25 Humor can hurt your career— is turning to renewable sources on a grand scale. By Sandra Upson or help it. By Carl Selinger COVER: BOOKS JONATHAN 34 FRESH PHISH 26 A new book rescues the lost SPRAGUE/ history of electrical engineering. REDUX A flaw in the Internet’s infrastructure makes it easy for scammers to By Mark Anderson THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE lure people to fake Web sites. By David Schneider FROM TOP LEFT: TIMOTHY 26 Does nuclear disarmament ARCHIBALD; JONATHAN SPRAGUE/REDUX; MMA still matter? By William Sweet RENEWABLE VENTURES 40 BOMB SQUAD DIARY 76 THE DATA Bomb disposal has gone high-tech, as our reporter saw firsthand when Little text messages are a very big his convoy encountered an IED north of Tikrit, in Iraq. By Glenn Zorpette business. By Steven Cherry WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG OCTOBER 2008 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 1 volume 45 number 10 north american 10.08 WWW.IEEE.ORG/ THEINSTITUTE AVAILABLE 6 OCTOBER ON THE INSTITUTE ONLINE CONFERENCE LOOKS AT PATTERN RECOGNITION Read up on the latest advances in the fields of computer vision, pattern recognition, speech and signal analysis, and biometrics. These topics and more will be discussed at the 2008 International Conference on Pattern Recognition, scheduled from 8 to 11 December in Tampa, Fla. IEEE MERCHANDISE AVAILABLE The new IEEE online store opens TOP: SEAN MCCABE; BOTTOM: RUTH FREMSON/ its doors this month with its THE NEW YORK TIMES shelves stocked full of T-shirts, caps, umbrellas, and briefcases WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG emblazoned with the IEEE logo. AVAILABLE 1 OCTOBER ON SPECTRUM ONLINE COMMITTEE BEST OF LUCKY TAKES ON CLEAN Fifteen years ago, a book compendium of Robert W. Lucky’s column, DRINKING WATER Reflections, was published asLucky Strikes...Again. Today, through the The IEEE Committee on Earth miracle of the Web, we can publish a compendium whenever we want. So Observation has been working on a we asked Bob [above] to pick his 10 favorites from his column since then. “Water for the World” project aimed at creating pilot programs to provide “Does the list have the one with Brutus, the telephone-answering computer clean, safe drinking water in areas that accidentally discloses the owner’s extramarital affair?” asked staffer where there is none. Nancy Hantman (who arrived at IEEE Spectrum in 1981, just months before the column’s debut). Sorry, Nancy, that one didn’t make the list—but just imagine what did. Let us know if Bob left out your favorite as well. Thanks to the Web, we can do this again, whenever the mood strikes...again. ONLINE FEATURES: ALSO ONLINE: ROBOTIC DINOSAURS GET BIG: • Webcasts In an exclusive video, two lucky kids • Podcasts get a sneak peek at Kota, a plush • News triceratops big enough to ride. • Blogs • Jobs NASA SPENT US $650 MILLION and • Career Accelerator Forum four decades developing Gravity Probe B • IEEE Xplore® digital library to test Einstein’s equations, but the data • White papers came back noisy. Cosmologist Paul S. • Opinions Wesson explains what went wrong and • More! how to save the experiment. IEEE SPECTRUM (ISSN 0018-9235) is published monthly by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved. © 2008 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5997, U.S.A. The editorial content of IEEE Spectrum magazine does not represent official positions of the IEEE or its organizational units. Canadian Post International Publications Mail (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 40013087. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Department, IEEE Spectrum, Box 1051, Fort Erie, ON L2A 6C7. Cable address: ITRIPLEE. Fax: +1 212 419 7570. INTERNET: [email protected]. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: IEEE Members: $21.40 included in dues. Libraries/institutions: $205. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to IEEE Spectrum, c/o Coding Department, IEEE Service Center, 445 Hoes Lane, Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Canadian GST #125634188. Printed at W224-N3322 Duplainville Rd., Pewaukee, WI 53072-4195, U.S.A. IEEE Spectrum circulation is audited by BPA Worldwide. IEEE Spectrum is a member of American Business Media, the Magazine Publishers of America, and the Society of National Association Publications. WWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG OCTOBER 2008 • IEEE SPECTRUM • NA 3 back story EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Susan Hassler, [email protected] EXECUTIVE EDITOR Glenn Zorpette, [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth A. Bretz, [email protected] SENIOR EDITORS Harry Goldstein (Online), [email protected]; Jean Kumagai, [email protected]; Samuel K. Moore (News), [email protected]; Tekla S. Perry, [email protected]; Philip E. Ross, [email protected]; David Schneider, [email protected]; William Sweet, [email protected] SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR Steven Cherry (Resources), [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITORS Sally Adee, [email protected]; Erico Guizzo, [email protected]; Joshua J. Romero (Online), [email protected]; Sandra Upson, [email protected] ASSISTANT EDITOR Willie D. Jones, [email protected] SENIOR COPY EDITOR Joseph N. Levine, [email protected] COPY EDITOR Michele Kogon, [email protected] EDITORIAL RESEARCHER Alan Gardner, [email protected] EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, SPECTRUM RADIO Sharon Basco ASSISTANT PRODUCER, SPECTRUM RADIO Francesco Ferorelli, [email protected] ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS Ramona Gordon, [email protected]; Nancy T. Hantman, [email protected] INTERN Monica Heger, [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS John Blau, Robert N. Charette, Peter Fairley, Alexander Hellemans, David Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Kieron B. Murphy, Beer, Not Bombs Carl Selinger, Seema Singh, John Voelcker ART & PRODUCTION xecutive Editor Glenn not only among the best-trained SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Mark Montgomery Zorpette traveled to Iraq this military units I’ve encountered, ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Brandon Palacio past January with a secret they’re also the funniest and most PHOTO EDITOR Randi Silberman E wish: that he would at some point irreverent,” Zorpette says. DIRECTOR, PERIODICALS PRODUCTION SERVICES Peter Tuohy get close enough to a roadside Arriving at the tactical operations EDITORIAL & WEB PRODUCTION MANAGER Roy Carubia bomb to see it with his own eyes. center of one EOD team he had been SENIOR ELECTRONIC LAYOUT SPECIALIST Bonnie Nani Little could he know that assigned to, he noticed a whiteboard WEB PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Jacqueline L. Parker not only was he going to see a in the room and, in one corner of WEB PRODUCTION SPECIALIST Michael Spector bomb, he was also going to help it, a terse message heralding his EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD two U.S. Navy bomb-disposal arrival: “Today’s forecast: sucking Susan Hassler, Chair; Marc T. Apter, Francine D. Berman, Jan Brown, Raffaello D’Andrea, Stephen L. Diamond, Hiromichi specialists blow it up. One of them up to a reporter. Talking s—t when Fujisawa, Kenneth Y. Goldberg, Susan Hackwood, Erik Heijne, snapped a picture [above] just as people are not around.” Charles H. House, David H. Jacobson, Christopher J. James, Ronald G. Jensen, Mary Y. Lanzerotti, Ruby B. Lee, Tak Ming Zorpette [at right] pulled the pin The humor and bravado are a Mak, David A. Mindell, C. Mohan, Fritz Morgan, Andrew M. on an igniter that blew up a charge mechanism for coping with some Odlyzko, Leslie D. Owens, Barry L. Shoop, Larry L. Smarr, placed on the bomb by a robot. of the most stressful duties in the Harry L. “Nick” Tredennick III, William Weihl, Bas¸ak Yüksel Zorpette admits that his war zone, Zorpette says. They’re EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE IEEE Spectrum, 3 Park Ave., 17th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5997 aspiration “may seem odd. But I was also a kind of social glue that helps Attn: Editorial Dept. Tel: +1 212 419 7555 Fax: +1 212 419 7570 in Iraq to report on how the military draw superbly capable people into Bureau: Palo Alto, Calif.; Tekla S. Perry +1 650 328 7570 is dealing with roadside bombs, and trusting, close-knit teams. Responsibility for the substance of articles rests upon the authors, not the IEEE or its members.
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