Portland has a fast emerging tech culture that is seeing a number of new technology startups.

Today, $225,000 is on the table for one of the year's biggest events: The Oregon Entrepreneur Network's annual Angel Oregon.

One of the major contenders is ActiveTrak, which tracks lost or stolen devices. The company is launching a SaaS service in the next three months for the enterprise.

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Have you been hearing a lot of gloom-and-doom talk about the need for American "cyberwar" preparedness lately? The coming cyberwar threat? Cybergeddon?

Me too.

Wired's Ryan Singel makes a good case in this article that cyberwar hype -- like terrorism hype -- has been fuelled by government contractors who have a product to sell, and who don't give a damn about the consequences to the net or to freedom.

Minister – rather than Parliament – to determine timeframe for 'temporary suspension', leading to fears of indefinite bans

A government minister, not parliament, will decide on the maximum period for which people found guilty of illicit filesharing can have their accounts suspended if the Digital Economy bill becomes law.

Chinese authorities have not commented on NY Times reports that intelligence has linked the hacking strikes to two schools

A spate of internet attacks that hit Google and other companies have been traced to two schools in China, according to reports – but Chinese sources have responded by denying knowledge of the strikes.

Disney is getting involved in the White House's new "Let's Move" campaign. Their goal: Cure the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. 

Will the future be cyber-attacks and an uneasy balance of terror or cultural collaboration hosted by Google's servers?

"THE FUTURE", WROTE the novelist William Gibson in a justifiably famous aphorism, "is already here: it's just not evenly distributed".

Australian court rules that country's third-largest ISP is not liable for the actions of customers who illegally share files

An Australian court has ruled that the country's third-largest broadband operator cannot be held responsible for the actions of illegal file-sharers, in a landmark case that has been warmly welcomed by British internet companies fighting government plans to make them police the web on behalf of film and TV firms.

Last Friday, Mr. Obama and the GOP staged the equivalent of a British Parliamentary Question Period in front of the TV cameras. It showed the quick-thinking, articulate President at his best. Unfortunately, the subsequent Saturday morning national radio address showed him at his worst. Obama reiterated the need for job creation even as he decried government deficits, which allegedly imperil our long-term economic prosperity.

As the trademark battle over the iPad name looks to heat up in the coming weeks, a Fujitsu internal memo suggests a lawsuit against Apple is in the works.

The memo, which comes in the wake of last week’s Apple iPad unveiling, describes Apple’s product as a “possible infringement on our trademark, which has been in use in connection with Fujitsu mobile retailing computer products since 2002.”

Conservative message-maker Frank Luntz's latest memo, which lays out a rhetorical strategy for Republicans to defeat financial regulatory reform legislation, includes a dishonest talking point that's been around since before the bill came out of the House Financial Services Committee. It's the myth that the bill creates a "permanent bailout fund" to prop up failed banks.

WASHINGTON — Getting to space is about to be outsourced.

The Obama administration on Monday will propose in its new budget spending billions of dollars to encourage private companies to build, launch and operate spacecraft for NASA and others. Uncle Sam would buy its astronauts a ride into space just like hopping in a taxi.

You might imagine that by now the public would know every last cause and consequence of the government's $180 billion bailout of insurance giant American International Group.