Raymond J. Mooney will be rooting for IBM’s Watson computer as it takes on two former Jeopardy! champions next week.

“As a tech person, you’re always rooting for the machine,” says Mr. Mooney, a computer-science professor at the University of Texas at Austin. But this time his allegiance is more pointed: His research is behind Watson’s ability to understand Alex Trebek’s questions (or answers, in the classic Jeopardy! format). In fact, Austin and seven other universities contributed many of the concepts that IBM developers drew on to make Watson work.

Writer’s block is miserable. What situations cause writer’s block?

1. When you don’t care about a topic.

2. When you don’t think anybody else cares about the topic either.

3. When writing feels too much like solving a math formula.

4. When you’ve had too much to drink.

5. When you haven’t had enough to drink.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (www.sep.benfranklin.org) – Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) recently approved investments totaling $1,975,000 for seven early-stage Pennsylvania companies with promising technology innovations.

“This latest round of investments is a restatement of the region’s ability to produce enterprises across a wide range of diverse technologies,” said RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, President & CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Growing numbers of Americans are striking out on their own as solo entrepreneurs. And a whole industrial complex has sprung up to support them.

Need a cubicle to put together a presentation or a conference room for a meeting? There are companies in most big cities that will rent you as much work space as you need. If you need someone to take your calls and arrange your appointments, a host of services will connect you with receptionists who work off site. There's also help available online. Digital marketplaces make it easier to land clients and projects, while new software lets you access files on the road and track your finances.

Feb 14 (Reuters) - The growth outlook for major industrialised economies is picking up, although big differences in momentum remain between countries, the OECD's leading indicator for December showed on Monday.

The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation said its December composite leading indicator for 29 of its member countries rose to 102.8 from a revised 102.5 in November, pointing to stronger growth momentum.

Japan, the United States and Germany were leading the charge, it said, with a more moderate outlook for Canada, France and Britain, and signs emerging of a downturn in Italy. It had previously given its OECD-area indicator for November as 102.8.

President visits Parkville Middle and Center of Technology Monday to champion math, science training.

"While it’s absolutely essential to live within our means, while we are absolutely committed to working with Democrats and Republicans to find further savings and to look at the whole range of budget issues, we can’t sacrifice our future in the process. Even as we cut out things that we can afford to do without, we have a responsibility to invest in those areas that will have the biggest impact in our future -– and that’s especially true when it comes to education."

Update: Looking at another report, it seems that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was talking about "billions" of value the deal would create, not money paid by Microsoft.

It's not very clear from the quotes we have, but it seems they're sayings there's various components worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and the "billions" will be in value created by the deal, not conditions of the deal.

On Feb. 15, 1965, a diffident but self-possessed high school student named Raymond Kurzweil appeared as a guest on a game show called I've Got a Secret. He was introduced by the host, Steve Allen, then he played a short musical composition on a piano. The idea was that Kurzweil was hiding an unusual fact and the panelists — they included a comedian and a former Miss America — had to guess what it was.

On the show (see the clip on YouTube), the beauty queen did a good job of grilling Kurzweil, but the comedian got the win: the music was composed by a computer. Kurzweil got $200. (See TIME's photo-essay "Cyberdyne's Real Robot.")

ASP Technology just launched its Anti Sleep Pilot iPhone and iPad application to help prevent fatigue-related driving accidents. The app calculates a your fatigue level in real-time, maintains your alertness via reaction tests, and alerts your when it is time to take a rest break.

Founder Troels Palshof fell asleep at the wheel in 2007 (soon after the arrival of his first child) and narrowly avoided a crash. Not being able to find a product that could prevent a similar accident, he decided to create his own.

A reader asks: I am following-up on your post last week, Demystifying the language of VC term sheets. My co-founder and I also have a term sheet question. We don’t understand what a price-based antidilution adjustment is and what it’s meant to address. The exact language under that section in our term sheet reads as follows: “Subject to standard and customary exceptions, the conversion ratio for Preferred Stock shall be adjusted on a broad weighted average basis in the event of an issuance below the Preferred Stock price, as adjusted.” Could you please explain? Thanks!

Rich Bendis, President and CEO, Innovation America and Jim Jaffe, President and CEO, National Association of Seed and Venture Funds support Senator Pryor’s new legislation to encourage early-stage VC’s (also know as Angel investors) to invest in small companies that have fallen into the financial “Valley of Death” and have potential for significant economic growth and job creation.  

Bendis, who also serves as the Chair of the Advocacy Committee for NASVF commented, “Senator Pryor’s legislation in providing a nationwide 25% federal income for those who invest in qualified small businesses will help stimulate the much needed early-stage capital in emerging technology enterprises.”

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mark Pryor today introduced legislation to encourage early stage venture capitalists, also known as angel investors, to invest in small companies that have potential for significant economic growth and job creation.

Pryor said angel investors provide entrepreneurs with capital that cannot be met by traditional bank loans, often helping businesses overcome the “valley of death” which is the stage between start-up and profitability. Citing concerns about declining angel investments due to the recession, Pryor said tax incentives will lead to new growth and industries. In 2009, angel investments led to the creation of 250,000 new jobs, or about 5 percent of the new jobs created in the United States.

We’ll see if an attempt to walk down the middle on the budget makes either side happy. President Obama unveiled a budget blueprint with sharp cuts to federal programs, higher taxes on the wealthy and businesses, and a few spending increases on things like energy and education. Obama requests $1.6 trillion in new revenue, much of it coming from an end in 2012 to the recently extended Bush tax cuts, an end to subsidies for oil and gas companies, new taxes on hedge-fund managers, and other taxes on the wealthy and businesses. The new plan would take a year to affect the deficit, which would hit a record $1.6 trillion this year, fall to $1.1 trillion the next, and then settle at around $600 billion through 2018. Republicans were quick to attack the budget, saying it didn’t do enough to cut spending. The budget will be tough to swallow for some Democrats as well, as it promises to terminate more than 200 federal programs and cut spending on domestic programs to a level not seen since President Dwight D. Eisenhower left office in 1961.

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - February 14, 2011) - Innovation leaders from twenty-two developed and emerging economies across six continents who are part of the non-governmental group the "i20" recently assembled at the US State Department with senior members of the US government for the i20 Annual Summit. Organized around the theme of "Marshalling Innovation to Address Global Grand Challenges," the meeting provided a unique platform for policymakers and thought leaders to exchange case studies, share best practices, and discuss how innovation capacities can be mobilized to address pressing global issues such as climate change, disease, poverty, and security.

"In an increasingly connected and economically interdependent world, the challenges we face transcend national borders and cannot be solved by any single government or organization," said Dr. John Kao, founder and chairman of Institute for Large-Scale Innovation (ILSI) that supports the i20. "This Summit marked a turning point in harnessing the collective intelligence and experience of so many innovation leaders, not for the benefit of any single enterprise or country, but to help address major problems facing global society."

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office requested a $2.71 billion budget for 2012, a 16 percent increase from the previous year.

The patent office says the 2012 budget “will contribute to America’s innovation economy and promote economic growth and competitiveness by cutting the average overall processing time of a patent application from 35 months to 20 months by 2015.”

Let's be honest, work for the most part, sucks. Even if you are part of the 20% of Americans who actually truly enjoy what they are doing, chances are likely that you would rather be doing something else.

Job satisfaction rates are horrendous and one of the reasons is that people are slowly starting to realize that there is a better way to live. We are wising up to the fact that we don't NEED to work a crappy job and just grind out a living.

If you own a business, especially one that's entirely online, it is likely that you’ve got a distributed workforce. That means your employees (and contractors and partners) are located in different countries around the world.

Running an online business efficiently — and productively — requires the use of various tools and apps that can help you properly communicate with your employees, collaborate easily on multiple projects and hence compensate for the lack of everyday face-to-face interaction that happens in a real world office.

Meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and happiness are essential ingredients in our lives.

Sometimes getting more of them can seem impossible. We’re plagued by the uncertainty of the future, and we have no idea what our purpose is.

Those are big questions that cannot be answered in the blink of an eye, and today instead of focusing on them, we’ll look at seven simple ways that will improve your body, mind, and soul.

All good and bad things must come to an end. Sometimes, that means telling an employee he or she will not be working for you anymore.

This is no easy task for an employer, but sometimes firing an employee is a necessary evil—especially if the employee’s work has been compromising the success of the business.

We know many of you are successful entrepreneurs who may not necessarily have the time to find a date for Valentine’s Day.

Not to worry, Lalawag’s got your back.

We dug up a surprisingly still relevant post from Charlie O’Donnell, a prominent New York entrepreneur/investor, on the top ten reasons to date an entrepreneur. That’s right, we traveled back in time (to 2008) for you. Just send this on over to the object of your affections and reap the rewards.

I report in today from Shanghai where preparations are underway for a major global summit on entrepreneurship at the end of March. The recent events in Egypt have put a spotlight on the role of a younger, well-educated generation of entrepreneurs peacefully channeling expressions of economic freedom. China has been miles ahead in reconciling a strong government with messy entrepreneurialism and offers some useful lessons for Arab nations as they grapple with enabling, rather than blocking, their citizens under the age of 25.

It is well-known China has seen dramatic increases in growth over the past decade and has enormous potential, plus the human resources, to realize even more growth in the future. The motivation and freedom to start new companies is evident here with plenty of examples of founders who have taken the leap. Baidu’s Robin Li and many more following Li and other rockstar entrepreneurs offer excellent role models. Tomorrow I will join, among others, Niu Wenwen, founder & president of The Founder Magazine—which has become a leader in shining the light on startup entrepreneurs in China—in announcing that China will host the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Shanghai next month, gathering hundreds of such Chinese entrepreneurs in one room.