'Herding cats' on the space station

Orchestrating the work of six full-time astronauts aboard the International Space Station is a bit like "herding cats," a Canadian crew member told reporters Monday, adding that living in the weightlessness of space is like floating in a Salvador Dali painting.

And then there's the part about recycling their sweat and urine for drinking and meal preparation.

"First of all, the water is great!" NASA flight engineer Michael Barratt said during the expanded crew's first orbital news conference. "It's probably as good as or better than anything you'd buy out of a fancy bottle on the ground.

"We try to use our water (regularly) to keep our processors primed and happy and we're all hydrating drinks and hydrating some of our sublimated food and it's a very convenient system. We've got hot water, cold water...and absolutely no complaints about the water up here."

Astronaut Mike Barratt describes life aboard the space station during a news conference Monday. His crewmates, from left to right: Koichi Wakata, Frank De Winne, commander Gennady Padalka, Roman Romanenko, and Robert Thirsk.

(Credit: NASA TV)

Barratt, space station commander Gennady Padalka, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata were joined Friday by three new full-time crew members--cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne of Belgium, and Robert Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency.

Although visiting shuttle crews can push the combined crew size even higher, the arrival of Romanenko, De Winne, and Thirsk opened a new era of space station operations. Withsix full-time crew members, the lab's science output is expected to increase dramatically.

The station's complex life support systems are working well, including the critical urine recycling system referred to by Barratt. The problems encountered so far, he said, are the minor sort of growing pains one might expect when doing something for the first time.

"For me personally, I feel very much at home," Barratt said. "I come from a large family and I'm used to a lot of activity and 'busyness' and a lot of laughter, and we certainly have that now with these guys coming (aboard)."

The size of the station helps, he said, given the astronauts can work in three dimensions in a way impossible on Earth.

"The station is very large and six people still don't quite fill it, it's a very comfortable venue for six people to work with, I would say, pretty intensive timelines," Barratt said. "And these guys got to work right away, so I can tell you for sure that that's true."

Thirsk said the greatest challenge is simply becoming more efficient.

"I think for the newer members of the six-person crew--it's a little bit like herding cats for Gennady, trying to get us all organized and getting us all to accomplish our tasks in a day," he said. "The learning curve is steep. We've been here, Roman says, five days now. I think we've learned an awful lot, so the working efficiency is coming.

"But believe me, this is a surreal world here. I sometimes feel like I'm in the middle of a Salvador Dali painting here. My greatest fear? Astronauts always have fear of injury or death, but our greatest fear is of making a mistake. So I just hope I can get through this six months without making any serious mistakes."

The station crew faces a busy first few weeks in orbit, gearing up for a pair of spacewalks June 5 and 10 and arrival of the shuttle Endeavour, scheduled for launch June 13.

For the first spacewalk, which begins around 2:45 a.m. EDT June 5, Padalka and Barratt plan to route cables and mount an antenna to prepare an upper docking port on the Zvezda command module for eventual use by visiting Soyuz ferry craft.

A second, internal spacewalk is planned for June 10 to rig the upper hatch with a docking cone. For the second spacewalk, Padalka and Barratt, wearing Russian spacesuits, will remain connected to umbilicals while working in the depressurized transfer compartment between Zvezda and the Zarya module. The work is expected to take about an hour.

If all goes well, Endeavour's countdown will begin that same day, targeting a launch at 7:17 a.m. on June 13. Assuming an on-time liftoff, docking with the space station would be expected around 3:50 a.m. on June 15.

"With 13 people up here, it'll be a challenge," Barratt said. "Of course, we'll have the added volume of the shuttle added to the stack, it'll be a massive stack. But it'll be busy, and there will be a lot of coordination, a lot of activity, a lot of patience, but these are the guys to do that."

FAQ: Swapping SIMs to save big on calls abroad

For travelers on a budget, slipping in a new SIM card may be the best way to ensure they won't break the bank while using their cell phones on a trip abroad.

U.S. carriers, such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless, have been trying to make it easier and less expensive for mobile subscribers to use their cell phones when traveling in another country. And indeed they have. All the major carriers offer phones that can be used for international roaming. And some have even added special international packages with reduced calling and data rates to encourage travelers to keep their cell phones on while they're on the go in a foreign country.

But for U.S. cell phone subscribers, who are used to free local and long-distance calling, as well as, free domestic roaming and big buckets of voice minutes and text messages, these "reduced" rates don't look so cheap.

But there are alternatives, especially for people who have unlocked GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phones. By simply replacing the existing SIM (subscriber identity module) card in the back of their phones with SIM cards from local operators or ones designed specifically for international roaming, cell phone users can save up to 80 percent when making calls instead of using a U.S. carrier's international roaming plan.

The proliferation of inexpensive prepaid cell phone services throughout the world has made this practice simple. But using a local or international roaming SIM often requires planning and a little legwork, which means it's not for everyone. Still, the savings may be just too big to pass up.

To help readers figure out exactly how all this SIM-card swapping works and to help them determine if it's the right solution for them, I've put together this FAQ to answer some of the most basic questions. If I've missed any important information, feel free to e-mail me and/or share your thoughts with other readers in the Talk Back section below.

Let's start with the basics. What is a SIM card?
A SIM card is a postage-stamp-sized chip, which is essentially the brains of the phone, that slides into the back of your phone, usually underneath the battery. Changing SIM cards is very easy.

If I replace my SIM with a different SIM from another country, will I be able to use my U.S. phone number or check my U.S. voice mail from my phone?
With most prepaid SIM cards, the answer is no. You will get a new phone number that is local to the country where you bought the SIM. Depending on the country and the service you have, you may have access to voice mail. But some wireless operators in some countries don't offer it for prepaid users.

One company I found during my research, Brightroam, offers customers the ability to forward their North American cell phone calls to their international cell phone numbers. Brightroam charges users about 69 cents a minute to accept these calls.

Where can I get a prepaid SIM card?
There are a few options. You can buy a prepaid SIM card for the specific country where you are traveling either online before you leave for your trip, or you can buy one from a local wireless carrier when you get to your destination. Buying a prepaid SIM in the U.S. will likely cost you a little bit more because companies often tack on a surcharge. For example, if you are going to the U.K. and you bought a prepaid SIM card online from a site such asTelestial, it will cost you about $29 for the SIM card. This will give you a little bit of airtime, between $1 and $7, depending on the service provider you choose.

Often it's cheaper to buy a SIM when you get to your destination. For example, using Orange in the U.K., you can get a SIM card for less than $15, which should also come with some airtime.

The other option is to buy an international roaming SIM card, which you can also purchase online from several different companies, including Telestial, Mobal, and Brightroam, to name a few. The benefit of these SIM cards is that they allow you to make inexpensive calls in almost any country you travel to.

SIM cards bought for a specific country often have high roaming rates when these SIM cards are used outside that country. Telestial, which offers low-cost roaming in over 130 countries, offers a unique international roaming SIM that offers users two numbers: one from the U.K. and one from the U.S. Users will receive calls and text messages when people call either number. Calling rates start as low as 29 cents a minute. The SIM card itself costs $29 and comes with $10 of airtime preloaded.

How much can I save using a prepaid or international SIM card instead of using my carrier's international service?
If you are on a tight budget and you don't mind leaving your regular cell phone number at home, prepaid SIM cards are really the cheapest option. I'll use the U.K. option as an example.

Using AT&T's service in the U.K. , you would be charged $1.29 a minute for all calls made while in the U.K. With the special discounted World Traveler package, which costs $5 extra a month, the international roaming rate would be 99 cents a minute. Text messages are 50 cents to send and picture messages are $1.30 each.

Compare this to swapping your SIM card for an international roaming SIM card from Telestial. With this card, calls to landline phones from the U.K. to landlines in almost any other Western European country as well as the U.S. and Canada will cost 29 cents a minute. It will cost 69 cents to make calls to a U.K., Western European, U.S., or Canadian cell phone number. Calls to Telestial voice mail and customer support are free. All incoming calls are 29 cents a minute, and sending a text message will cost 69 cents. Receiving text messages is free.

Calling rates for country-specific SIM cards are even cheaper. With a country-specific SIM card ordered from Telestial online, all incoming calls are free. For calls made to landlines and cell phones in the U.K., you can expect to pay about 30 cents a minute. Text messages will cost about 20 cents each to send and receive. And calls to the U.S. and Canada are about 8 cents to landlines and 12 cents to cell phones.

Buying a SIM card when you get to London from a local operator, such as Orange, can offer even better deals. Orange offers a variety of service options for prepaid customers. In general, domestic calls range from 30 cents to 40 cents a minute, depending on the exchange rate. (All calls are billed in local currency.) And texts are about 20 cents to send and receive. With a special international plan, customers can also make international calls for as low as 10 cents a minute. Orange also offers free text messaging for customers when they "top up" or add money to their phones. One plan offers 300 free text messages with a 10-pound top up. And you can get 600 free text messages with a 20-pound top up and a 30-pound top up gets you unlimited text messages until the card expires.

Do SIM cards work in any phone?
No they don't. They only work in GSM phones. And the phones must be unlocked. If you live in the U.S., phones from AT&T and T-Mobile USA operate on a GSM network and can be unlocked. You can call your carrier to ask for an unlock code, go online to pay a fee for the unlock code, or go to a cell phone specialty shop and pay to have them unlock your phone. Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel do not operate using GSM, so most of their phones don't use SIM cards, and therefore cannot be unlocked. But these operators also offer a select set of world phones, which use GSM. These phones can be unlocked just like any other GSM phone, and a new SIM card can be slotted into them. Check the Verizon and Sprint Web sites for a list of GSM-compatible phones.

Can I buy an unlocked phone before I leave for my trip?
Many Web sites, including Amazon.com through various partner retailers, sell unlocked GSM cell phones. Also big phone manufacturers, such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson, sell unlocked GSM phones in their stores and online. But before you buy an unlocked phone or plan to use your own unlocked phone abroad check to make sure that the phone supports the appropriate radio frequencies. In the U.S., GSM operators use the 850MHz and 1900MHz frequency bands. In Europe they use the 900MHz and 1800MHz frequency bands. So it is important to make sure the phone you buy or plan to use on your trip operates in the right frequency.

Can I buy an unlocked phone abroad?
Yes, many wireless operators around the world offer inexpensive prepaid phones. For example, Orange in the U.K. sells the Samsung E1120, a very basic phone, for about $15. If you plan on using the phone you buy on future trips, make sure it is a quadband phone that supports all the major GSM frequencies used around the world.

If I don't have an unlocked GSM phone can I rent one?
Yes you can. Several international travel Web sites offer phone rentals. For example, Telestial rents phones starting at $7 a day for trips that last between one and five days. The longer your trip, the lower the per-day rate will be. And for trips more than 46 days long, the company rents phones for $2 a day.

Sometimes you are also able to rent phones at the airport. But if you need to rent a phone, it's best to check ahead of time that it is available or order one online before your trip.

Ok, so now that I have an unlocked GSM quadband cell phone, should I get a local SIM card or one of these international roaming cards? What's the difference?
Whether you use a local SIM card or an international roaming SIM card depends on a few factors. Are you planning to stay in one country on your trip or will you be traveling to multiple countries? Do you plan on traveling to other countries in the future? Do you expect to return to the same country you're traveling to on this trip?

The general rule of thumb is that if you are planning to stay in one country during your entire trip or you plan on returning to that same country often, then a local SIM might be the best solution for you. But if you plan to go to more than one country during your trip or if you are a frequent international traveler to different destinations, then an international SIM might be a good fit for you.

So what are the pros and cons of the local SIM card?
Pros: Local SIM cards offer the best rate for local calls. You will have a local phone number in the country in which you are traveling, which will make it inexpensive for local people to call you.

Cons: If you don't order one online, you have to spend precious vacation time and effort looking for a store to buy a SIM card. The instructions and prompts to set up and use the service are in the local language. So if you only speak English, and you are traveling to Italy, for example, this could be problematic. Calling internationally to the U.S. or Canada may be cheaper than what your home wireless operator charges, but the rates could be higher than rates offered for international roaming SIM cards, which are designed for tourists. Roaming outside the country where the SIM is supposed to be used might not be available. And if it is available, it is likely to be expensive.

What are the pros and cons of using an International roaming SIM card?
Pros: Calls to the U.S. are often cheaper than any other cell phone calling plan. You can order the card online and get your international phone number before you leave on your trip, so that you can give it to friends and family. Because you have the card in advance, you won't have to waste time looking for a place to buy your SIM card. You can keep your international SIM card and phone number and use it on future trips. For example, Telestial allows you to reactivate your phone number even if you haven't used it in a long time. Instructions, prompts, and customer support are in English.

Cons: Making calls and sending text messages will be more expensive than using a local SIM card. You will likely have a cell phone number that is based in a country where you are not traveling. Telestial's numbers are from the U.K. This means that locals, outside the U.K., will be charged an international rate when calling your number.

Can I reuse my SIM card for future travel?
Most prepaid SIM cards have expiration dates. If the SIM card is inactive for a certain period, usually about three months, users will lose whatever money they have put on the card and haven't yet used. After about nine months to one year, many operators will deactivate the SIM card and phone number. This means that if you return to that country after this time, you'll have to get a new SIM card.

How can I add money to my prepaid SIM card?
There are often several ways to "top up" your phone. You can get prepaid cards at convenience stores, tobacco shops, or from the carrier's retail store. Some operators allow money to be added via a Web site or by calling a special number. Some services also will automatically top up your account using your credit card if your account falls below a certain limit.

What about data? Can I get prepaid services that offer 2G or 3G data services for surfing the mobile Web and checking e-mail?
It depends on the local carrier and the SIM card you are using. Some operators offer access for mobile Web surfing using WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) with their SIM cards. If that is the case, you will be able to surf the mobile Web and check Web-based e-mail. But some prepaid SIM cards don't offer any data service, so check before you buy. If you want 3G service for a smartphone, you must also ask for that. Some carriers offer it, and some do not.

Some international roaming SIM cards, such as the Passport products from Telestial, do offer data services. The Telestial service offers GPRS (general packet radio service) data service in 71 countries and 3G service in 10 countries. Your phone must be able to handle data services, and it also must be configured to work with the prepaid data service. The company offers instructions for doing this for different handsets on its Web site.

Rates vary depending on the country where you are using the service and they are also based upon kilobytes used. For example, using Telestial's service downloading 1MB of data costs $5 in the U.K and Ireland. And the rates go as high as $30 a megabyte in Chile and Australia.

What about push e-mail for my BlackBerry?
BlackBerry data services generally do not function using a SIM card from a foreign carrier. The service is usually tied to your existing post-paid service in your home country. That said, a SIM card in an unlocked BlackBerry will give you access to voice, text messaging, and in some cases Web browsing. So you can check your e-mail via a mobile Web browser or through specific applications loaded onto your phone.

There is at least one company called Brightroam that offers a BlackBerry SIM for $30.99. The company's Web site says it offers BlackBerry data services for $1.50 per kilobyte. The Web site also sells new and refurbished unlocked phones.

Here are a few additional tips for buying and using SIM cards overseas:
• Be prepared to provide some personal information, such as passport number and a local address if you buy a local SIM card from a carrier in the country you are visiting. In the past prepaid phones have been used by terrorists to communicate with one another and also to detonate bombs. So in many countries, especially in Europe, local carriers are requiring customers to register for prepaid cards. And some countries won't allow nonresidents to purchase prepaid phones or SIM cards, so check ahead of time.

• If planning to buy a SIM card or prepaid phone locally, go to a local carrier's Web site in advance and locate stores where are. This could save you time and effort looking for a store once you get there.

• Leave your international phone number on your outgoing voice mail on your home cell phone. This way friends, family, and colleagues know how to reach you.

• Take the number to check your voice mail remotely with you, so you can call and check your home messages while you are away.

• Don't forget an adapter for your phone charger.

Are there other options for making low-cost phone calls while traveling?
Yes. Wi-Fi is a great way to check e-mail or make cheap phone calls using services like Skype. But you must have a phone that has Wi-Fi built in. And you must be in a Wi-Fi hot spot. Skype uses the Internet to allow people to make free or very inexpensive calls to anywhere in the world. When using Skype in a hot spot, all calls to other Skype users are free. And calls to cell phones and landline phones can be made at very inexpensive rates.

'Best Video' scam on Twitter dropped malware

Twitter users were hit with another attack over the weekend featuring tweets reading "Best Video" and a link to a Web site that downloads malware, a security firm said on Monday.

The Web site, with a .ru (Russia) domain, purports to show an embedded YouTube video. Instead, the page downloads a malicious PDF that contains a "flurry of exploits" and if successful downloads fraudware that displays a fake security warning to try to get people to pay money, according to Kaspersky's Viruslist.com blog.

Contrary to earlier reports that the attack was a worm, the Kaspersky blog post speculates that the attackers were using accounts stolen in a phishing attack about a week ago.

Thousands of Twitter users were affected by what looked like a worm-like phishing attack last week, but was instead a site designed to help Twitters increase their number of followers quickly. The TwitterCut site looked like a Twitter log-in page and prompted people to type in their user names and passwords. Site administrators denied the phishing allegations and said they were shutting it down, according to the TrendLabs Malware Blog.

"This attack is very significant," the Kaspersky post says of the latest attack. "It would seem that at least one criminal group is now exploring the distribution of for-profit on Twitter. If the trends we've seen on other social platforms are any indicator for Twitter, then we can only expect an increase in attacks."

Twitter said on Saturday that it was aware of the problem and working on it. Another message from Twitter on its status page said some legitimate accounts affected by the attack were suspended but would be restored and that no personal information had been compromised.

The 'Best Video' scam displays a fake security warning in order to get people to pay for antivirus software they don't need, Kaspersky says.

(Credit: Kaspersky Labs)

AMD answers Intel with six-core processor

AMD launched its first six-core processor, which will compete against Intel's "Dunnington" chip.

The "Istanbul" Opteron processor is for high-end server computers that use two, four, and eight processors or "sockets." Intel has been shipping a six-core processor for this market since September of last year and will bring out a processor based on its new Nehalem architecture for this segment later this year.

Among other new features, AMD is touting an Istanbul technology called HT Assist. The previous way of retrieving data from the processor's memory was "like checking every room in your house for your car keys," said Pat Patla, AMD's general manager of the server workstation group, in a phone interview last week. With HT Assist, "You know where your car keys are," he said. "It's much more efficient and takes out a lot of traffic," Patla added.

Patla also said that AMD is ahead of schedule with this chip, in stark contrast with the company's ill-fated quad-core Barcelona processor, which saw repeated delays. "Within almost a 15-month period of time we were able to design the product, tape out the product (final stage before production), verify the product and launch," Patla said about Istanbul.

Systems based on six-core AMD Opteron processors are expected to be available beginning this month from server suppliers including Cray, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun Microsystems, AMD said Monday.

Istanbul boasts up to 34 percent more performance-per-watt over the previous-generation quad-core processors.

Microsoft buys Merck unit in life sciences push

Microsoft said on Monday it is buying the assets of Rosetta Biosoftware, a unit of Merck, as part of an effort to expand into the life sciences software arena.

The Rosetta technology will be used to add genetic and genomic data management abilities to Microsoft's recently announced Amalga Life Sciences effort.

As part of the deal, Merck will now become an Amalga customer, Microsoft said, Merck will also "provide strategic input to Microsoft on the direction and evolution of new solutions incorporating Rosetta Biosoftware technologies."

"This agreement establishes a stable and sustainable platform for the Rosetta Biosoftware technology," Merck Research Laboratories VP Rupert Vessey said in a statement.

Microsoft, which has a separate Amalga product family for hospitals, announced in April that it would offer Microsoft Amalga Life Sciences as an effort to help in the drug research software arena. The tools are designed to help manage and analyze the large amounts of data gathered in the process of designing new drugs.

The Merck deal is expected to close at the end of June 2009, and the new Amalga Life Sciences platform incorporating Rosetta Biosoftware technologies should be available in early 2010, Microsoft said.

Bing balloons into public view

Each day, Bing features a different background image, meaning that for many, the first public view was this hot air balloon-themed look that appeared on Monday.

(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)

Microsoft's Bing search engine has started to become publicly available, allowing the world to decide whether the company's latest effort has the goods to take on Google.

The engine, which replaces Live Search, debuted Thursday at the D: All Things Digital conference and is slated to be fully available by Wednesday. (Microsoft said it would start becoming publicly available Monday, but that it wouldn't be fully launched until Wednesday.)

Among the other naming changes that go along with the new search, Live Search Cashback is now Bing Cashback, while technology from Microsoft's Farecast acquisition now powers Bing Travel. Virtual Earth gets a name change (though not an upgrade in my book) and is now Bing Maps for Enterprise.

With Bing, Microsoft is trying to make the case that search today is still an often unsatisfying experience. That is a unique challenge for Microsoft. Although its research shows that most people repeat searches and give up without finding exactly what they are looking for, perceived satisfaction of search is actually pretty high.

To help make the case, Microsoft plans to spend (to borrow a Carol Bartz phrase) boatloads of money on advertising. Estimates in the advertising trade mags have pegged spending at $80 million to $100 million.

That's key, since very few people currently go out of their way to search using Microsoft's technology. Most Microsoft searches come via MSN, from toolbars and other methods, while just 1 or 2 percent come from people actually typing Live.com into their browser's address bar.

"Nearly 98 percent of the traffic at Live.com is passive (coming from MSN, etc.) and Bing will be an attempt by Microsoft to establish its search offering as a destination Web site with high active traffic," Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Agarwal said in a research note on Monday. "In our view, though Microsoft's search technologies are ready for prime time, making a call on the success of Bing now will be premature."

One of the things I'll be watching is how content creators react to the new ways that Microsoft pulls content into the search pages. The main results page offers the option to hover over the result for more information, while the product search site repurposes professional reviews, user reviews, and other information directly within product search results.

On the video side, Microsoft allows a live preview of videos from within its search results, also raising some questions of fair use.

Of course, other engines also borrow heavily from the sites they are searching. Don't forget, Google hosts its own cached versions of the pages it searches.

The bigger deal, of course, is whether people take to Bing at all. Microsoft does seem to have generated a good amount of initial buzz, as well as some early positive reviews.

What's your take on Bing? Drop me an e-mail (ina DOT fried AT cnet DOT com), along with your name and hometown, and we'll publish some of the responses later this week.

SanDisk hones in on Netbook spotlight at Computex

(Credit: SanDisk)

The Computex trade show, which opens Tuesday in Taipei, could also known as Netbook-pallooza. It seems as if every tech company has something related to the rapidly growing category of mini-notebooks to announce there.

SanDisk is one of them, and though the company doesn't make a Netbook, it is eager to hitch its wagon to this PC trend. On Monday afternoon, the company is preparing to launch two new Netbook-centric products at the show: an SD card sold specifically for Netbooks, and its second-generation pico SSD, or PSSD.

The SD card will be available in storage capacities of 8GB and 16GB. SanDisk went with the SD specification because "95 percent of Netbooks have an SD card slot," and this way portable storage wouldn't take up one of the few USB ports the devices usually have, senior product manager Susan Park said.

It's also another way to make Netbooks even less expensive that they already are, according to Don Barnetson, SanDisk's senior director of marketing, by making additional storage portable instead of increasing the size of a hard drive or solid-state drive inside the machine itself.

And when you do that, more and more mobile carriers will start offering Netbooks for sale subsidized by wireless contracts, bringing the cost to consumers down.

"Netbooks with ARM processors, coupled with Linux, and SSDs, could get to a $199 price point, which could be free with a subscription," he said. Barnetson thinks this will start to happen more frequently in the U.S. next year.

Once carriers are subsidizing Netbooks for free or almost free, then it would be in those carriers' interest to upsell Netbook buyers on things like SD cards for expandable storage, and other add-ons.

SanDisk also officially announced the availability of its PSSD, first announced at CES in January, to its original equipment manufacturing partners. SanDisk declined to name who would be offering its PSSD drive in new notebooks at this time.