Wanted: Hypersonic Aircraft That Can Reach Anywhere on Earth in an Hour

Fly anywhere on Earth in an hour. That’s the goal for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), according to Nextgov.com. DARPA is the Department of Defense’s secretive research arm known mostly for commissioning freaky robots.

How fast do you have to travel to reach any point on the globe in 60 minutes? Mach 20, or 20 times the speed of sound, in something called extreme hypersonic flight. To put that in context, Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird, the world’s fastest air-breathing piloted aircraft, maxes out at about Mach 3.2.

Making the jump to Mach 20 won’t be easy. According to DARPA, flying that fast would create temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than a blast furnace capable of melting steel. Not to mention compensating for things like wind gusts is difficult when you’re traveling at around 13,000 miles per hour.

A hypersonic aircraft would be used for “missions ranging from  space access to survivable, time-critical transport to conventional prompt global strike.” In case you were wondering, “prompt global strike” is military-speak for being able to blow something up anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice.

To reach its goal of launching a successful test flight by 2016, DARPA is hosting a “Proposers’ Day” on August 14 to reveal exactly what it’s looking for from companies that want to compete for about $40 million in initial prize money and $30 million in renewal contracts.

Facebook Now Lets You Download More of Your Account History

Ever wonder what information Facebook is collecting about you? Well, you’ve been able to find out since 2010, when Facebook first introduced the Download Your Information feature.

Now the company has announced that it’s making the downloads even more thorough. On top of the photos, posts, messages and list of friends that you could download before, now you can get information on things like previous Facebook names, friend requests and the IP addresses you’ve logged in from.

(MORE: Dear Facebook: Here’s How to Not Screw Up Instagram)

The process is pretty simple. Go to Account Settings and at the bottom of the page should be a link that says “Download a copy of your Facebook data.” (The feature is rolling out gradually, so it might not be available for you yet.) Click it and your report will be emailed it you. My 26.3 MB file took more than an hour to reach me.  Was it useful? If you have the time to search through a huge folder filled with jpegs and HTML files, sure.

Of course, this won’t stop Facebook from using your photos in embarrassing ads or make its privacy settings any less confusing, but it’s still nice to know what information it has on you. In a blog post, Facebook said “more categories of information will be available for download in the future.”

As for those new categories, may I suggest the following: people who have tagged you in pictures and the number of times a user has been featured in Sponsored Stories. Also, if they could somehow organize and sum up the information, that would be nice too.

In other Facebook news, the site announced that it’s making addresses consistent across the site, meaning the address that people use to send you email on Facebook is the same one they’ll use to find your Timeline. This will both make you easier to find and, Facebook hopes, make you more likely to use its email product.

FTC Calls for Better Transparency, Warns Google About Latest Changes

Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill has a simple message for companies that violate user privacy: We took care of Facebook, we took care of Google, and we’ll take care of you, too. Even bolder, her remarks came during an event that was livestreamed via Facebook itself.

Brill, speaking at a cybersecurity forum in Washington D.C. earlier this week, said the FTC felt that “consumers should not have to give up control over their most sensitive data as the toll to enter the information superhighway,” calling such a price “just bad business.”

(MORE: Senators Ask FTC to Investigate Google Just Two Months After Last Investigation)

Brill went on to demand a higher level of transparency from companies about the user information they harvest, saying:

Companies should provide consumers with more information about what is being done with their personal information. One way of putting this principle into practice is providing consumers with access to the information about them that a company possesses. Access is critical, particularly when we’re talking about entities that consumers can’t identify or don’t even know exist—like data brokers. These entities control details about consumers that can have a direct impact on their credit, employment status, and financial well-being.

We are also seeing entities that combine data from multiple sources, including off line and social networks… I am calling on data brokers to take the transparency principle and put it into practice. Develop a user friendly one-stop shop where consumers can gain access to information that data brokers have amassed about them and, in appropriate circumstances, can correct that information.

In the meantime, she continued, the FTC will continue to step in where it sees blatant abuses of user trust or privacy policy. “Facebook and Google learned this the hard way,” Brill said, talking about the FTC investigations into both companies that ended with settlements resulting in changes to privacy policies and transparency, along with periodic audits for the next couple of decades to ensure they’re keeping on the straight and narrow.

Such audits may figure into Google’s future sooner rather than later, in fact. After delivering her prepared remarks, Brill was asked about the changes Google is making to its services, including its controversial “Search, plus Your World” features. “We do have an outstanding consent order with Google, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment about it at this time,” Brill answered. “It is something that is certainly of interest to us.” Consider that a subtle warning, Google. After all, you already know what it’s like when the FTC goes after you.

Will Windows 8 Mark the End of the Post-PC Era?

My Technologizer column over at TIME.com this week was inspired by recent talk of the death—or at least the decline—of the PC, most recently inspired by HP’s decision to consider spinning off or selling its PC division. My take: The PC is actually in great shape, because smartphones and tablets have every right to be called PCs.

I realize this is a minority view. Some people use the term “PC” to refer only to computers that run Windows, a usage that always makes me wince, even though I’m occasionally guilty of employing it myself. (I do try to say “Windows PC.”) Others think a PC can run Linux, Apple’s OS X, or another non-Microsoftian operating system—but even these folks usually have something that looks like a traditional desktop or laptop in mind.

(MORE: The PC Isn’t Dying — It’s Just Evolving)

If nobody agrees about what a PC is, it’s tough to come to any conclusions about the state of the PC’s health, or whether we live in a post-PC era (Apple’s opinion) or a PC plus one (Microsoft’s view), or whether, as I think, we’re still very much in the PC era. But I’m hoping we might soon get some help from a source that certainly has some skin in the game: Microsoft.

The company is just now beginning to talk (and blog) about Windows 8, the next version of its operating system. We still don’t know that much about it. But we do know that it’s going to offer two user interfaces: one that looks pretty much like the familiar one that’s evolved over the past quarter century, and one that’s a variant of the simpler, touch-friendly “Metro” look and feel of the Windows Phone platform. It’s going to be part PC, part post-PC.

(VIDEO: Microsoft’s First Official ‘Windows 8′ Interface Demo)

At the moment, the distinction between a PC and a post-PC device such an iPad is sharp, at least if you’re a literal-minded type. But with Windows 8, it’s going to be possible to build machines that run Windows and look much like iPads. We don’t know yet whether they’ll be any good, but at least they’re going to change the status quo. Will they be PCs? Will they be post-PCs? Something else? How will research companies such as IDC and Gartner classify them?

I’m hoping that however they do, they’ll tend to end the PC/post-PC/PC plus debate. More thoughts soon: In a couple of weeks, Microsoft is holding its BUILD conference, where it should have much, much more to say about Windows 8.

Ford to Open Silicon Valley Lab

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is the latest automaker to open a research lab in Silicon Valley, where it hopes to scout out new technology and keep ahead of trends.

The company said Friday that it plans to open the lab near Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., in the first few months of this year. It will employ around 15 people, including some recruited locally and others who will rotate in from Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn.

Ford’s Chief Technical Officer Paul Mascarenas said the company decided about a year ago that it needed a bigger presence in Silicon Valley.

“This is a very natural extension into one of the most innovative communities in the world,” he said.

He said the lab will work on ways to better integrate phones and other personal devices into cars, as well as safety systems that alert drivers when they’re approaching another car.

(MORE: Diabetic? Cloud-Connected Ford Could Someday Save Your Life)

The lab will also solicit and test applications from independent programmers. One app Ford is currently studying can find an open parking space and reserve it. Another would improve weather reporting by transmitting signals when a car’s rain-sensing wipers are triggered.

Mascarenas said the lab will also study larger issues, including population growth in developing countries like China and India, and how best to handle traffic in those countries.

The lab will work with Ford headquarters as well as its design studio in Southern California and its office at Microsoft Corp. in Washington. Microsoft and Ford jointly developed Ford’s Sync voice-activated entertainment system and My Ford Touch touch-screen dashboard.

But Mascarenas said it’s important that the lab be in Silicon Valley – not Dearborn – so employees feel free to experiment.

Ford joins several other automakers that have similar offices in Silicon Valley, including General Motors Co., BMW AG and the Renault-Nissan alliance.

K. Venkatesh Prasad, a senior technical leader at Ford who will commute between Dearborn and the new office, said Ford considered opening a Silicon Valley office in the past but the technology wasn’t ready. Now, he said, the Sync platform makes it easier and faster to reprogram the car and update it with new applications. Ford introduced Sync four years ago.