The First Two Years of Electromagnetic Follow-Up with Advanced LIGO and Virgo

We anticipate the first direct detections of gravitational waves (GWs) with Advanced LIGO and Virgo later this decade. Though this groundbreaking technical achievement will be its own reward, a still greater prize could be observations of compact binary mergers in both gravitational and electromagnetic channels simultaneously. During Advanced LIGO and Virgo's first two years of operation, 2015 through 2016, we expect the global GW detector array to improve in sensitivity and livetime and expand from two to three detectors. We model the detection rate and the sky localization accuracy for binary neutron star (BNS) mergers across this transition. We have analyzed a large, astrophysically motivated source population using real-time detection and sky localization codes and higher-latency parameter estimation codes that have been expressly built for operation in the Advanced LIGO/Virgo era. We show that for most BNS events the rapid sky localization, available about a minute after a detection, is as accurate as the full parameter estimation. We demonstrate that Advanced Virgo will play an important role in sky localization, even though it is anticipated to come online with only one-third as much sensitivity as the Advanced LIGO detectors. We find that the median 90% confidence region shrinks from ~500 square degrees in 2015 to ~200 square degrees in 2016. A few distinct scenarios for the first LIGO/Virgo detections emerge from our simulations.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables. For accompanying data, see http://www.ligo.org/scientists/first2year

Internet of Things: How to Avoid Short-Term Errors and Ensure Lasting Adoption

The pressure of delivering products in hyper-competitive markets often leads developers to ignore basic data management precautions, along with a failure to devote adequate resources to marketing. To assure that short-term errors don’t cause long-term damage for the IoT, developers must adopt new strategies. Converging on a single IoT standard could foster adoption as well as better security protocols. To handle the sheer number of connected items and their need for constant interaction demands investments in high-performance networks. For IoT products to integrate deeply into consumers’ daily lives, applications must be integrated into existing solutions from trusted brands. Finally, they must do more than simply replace existing and still-working items, but add new functions and new applications that existing technology can’t possibly duplicate

Oops, They Did it Again: What We Didn’t Learn From U.S. v. Microsoft

Both the AT&T and Microsoft cases demonstrate the danger of leaving to litigation the solution to market problems involving technology markets. Larry Downes (Tech Freedom)