Bob Seidensticker, 48, graduated from MIT in 1980, and spent 25 years in the field of technology, including a stint developing software and products for Microsoft. He quit that job in 1997. He spoke with U.S. News about his new book, Future Hype, a history of technological advancements and how they change the way we live. Read the rest of this entry »

A 130-mile course in the Mojave Desert. Millions in prize money. Hundreds of mechanics. No drivers.
The Great Robot Race, a Nova documentary (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/darpa/) airing March 28 on PBS, covers the contest (http://www.grandchallenge.org) sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (aka DARPA–they’re the guys who actually invented the Internet). We won’t spoil the ending, but one contestant, Stanford University robotics Prof. Sebastian Thrun, spoke with U.S. News about the event and the future of robotic cars. Read the rest of this entry »

You might be used to getting text messages from your friends. Or from the phone company if you’ve missed your last payment. But your phone’s inbox may soon be filling up with college mail, too. Those glossy pamphlets promoting colleges both familiar and unfamiliar are fast becoming antiques. Even the e-mail blast from universities is very yesterday–I mean, who checks all their mailboxes? So colleges are changing the way they communicate with students, even before they set foot on campus, and applicants should be aware. Take charge of your communications options-or it could cost you. Read the rest of this entry »

About 600 students who took the SAT last October got very lucky. And about 4,000 of their classmates didn’t.
Last week, the College Board, the nonprofit organization that administers the SAT, announced it had found systematic errors in grading the October results, mainly to the detriment of the student but sometimes to the advantage. And even as the board sought to make amends, its critics swooped in for the kill. “Snafu is the perfect word,” says John Katzman, CEO of Princeton Review. “The fact that they waited three months to make these errors known is further evidence the College Board cannot be trusted with college admissions.” Read the rest of this entry »

The job market hasn’t been this good in four years, and new entrants into the labor force are finding employers finally ready, willing, and able to hire them. The country’s unemployment rate was 4.8 percent in February. Businesses are hiring more workers, paying them more money, and letting them use technology to work from home, according to surveys. “Companies are now fat with cash, and they need to invest in workers to increase their productivity,” says Richard Castellini, senior career adviser for CareerBuilder.com. Many employers are even looking to hire retired workers to compensate for lost experience as the baby boomers approach their own retirement. Read the rest of this entry »