Techno-News Blog

April 23, 2012

Facebook’s Telescope on Human Behavior

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By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

The leader of the social network’s efforts to mine its piles of data says the effort can help explain why people act as they do. One way to describe Facebook is as the most extensive data set on human social behavior that ever was. Every month more than 845 million people record and share traces of their daily lives, relationships, and online activity through their friend connections, messages, photos, check-ins, and clicks. The richness of that information goes some way to explain why the company is expected to become worth more than $80 billion when it floats on the stock market later this year. One research group inside Facebook, known as the Data Team, is tasked with the challenge of mathematically sifting through that data to look for patterns that explain the how and why of human social interactions. The people who do that, mostly PhDs with research experience in computer and social sciences, look for insights that will help Facebook tune its products, but have also begun to publish their findings in the scientific community.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/40184/?p1=MstRcnt

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The Grid is Getting Smarter, but it’s a Long Way from Smart

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By Mike Orcutt, Technology Review

To lower fossil-fuel emissions while meeting demand for electricity, power grids around the world are going to need to become a lot more intelligent, and a lot more complicated. The smart-grid is an electrical grid that communicates. The idea is that the Internet and communications technology can make our electrical system far more resilient to problems like blackouts, better accommodate unconventional power sources, and ease energy demand by providing instant information about prices to consumers. Public investment in smart-grid infrastructure has ballooned over the past several years. The charge has so far been led by the U.S. and China. In 2009, the U.S. government set aside $4.5 billion as part of a larger economic stimulus package to fund projects designed to modernize the grid and deploy smart technologies. China has also committed billion of dollars.

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/40227/?p1=BI

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The Worrying Consequences of the Wikipedia Gender Gap

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by kfc, Technology Review

Male editors dramatically outnumber female ones on Wikipedia and that could be dramatically influencing the online encyclopedia’s content, according to a new study. There was a time when the internet was dominated by men but in recent years that gap has dissolved. Today, surfers are just as likely to be male as female. And in some areas women dominate: women are more likely to Tweet or participate in social media such as Facebook. Even the traditionally male preserve of online gaming is changing too. So what’s wrong with Wikipedia? Last year, the New York Times pointed out that women make up just 13 per cent of those who contribute to Wikipedia, despite making up almost half the readers. And a few months ago, a study of these gender differences said they hinted at a culture at Wikipedia that is resistant to female participation.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27777/?p1=blogs

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April 22, 2012

Malware Masquerading as Angry Birds Game

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By: Jeffrey Burt, eWeek

Security software vendor Sophos and game maker Rovio warn about a Trojan horse pretending to be the popular Angry Birds Space game. Malware authors are using the popularity of the Angry Birds series of games as a way to infect the smartphones of users who download the exploit from unofficial Android app stores, according to a security software firm. In an April 12 post on SophosLabs’ NakedSecurity blog, Graham Cluley said the Trojan horse masquerades itself as the Angry Birds Space game. When downloaded, the malware installs its malicious code onto the device. “The Trojan horse, which Sophos detects as Andr/KongFu-L, appears to be a fully functional version of the popular smartphone game, but uses the GingerBreak exploit to gain root access to the device, and install malicious code,” Cluley wrote. “The Trojan communicates with a remote Website in an attempt to download and install further malware onto the compromised Android smartphone.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Malware-Masquerading-as-Angry-Birds-Game-574517/

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IBM Predictive Analytics: How It Helps Tame Big Data

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By Darryl K. Taft, eWeek

IBM recently announced new consulting services and software that take the power of predictive analytics to new levels of impact for the highest-priority issues of corporate decision makers–those in the C-suite. The new analytic offerings address the emerging opportunities of big data to manage financial operations, decrease fraud and nurture next-generation customer relationships. Based on experiences drawn from more than 20,000 analytics engagements, the new solutions combine innovations developed by IBM Research with new predictive technologies from dozens of companies Big Blue has acquired.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/IBM-Predictive-Analytics-How-It-Helps-Tame-Big-Data-233355/

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One in Five U.S. Adults Does Not Use the Internet: Pew

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By: Nathan Eddy, eWeek

Among adults who do not use the Internet, almost half said the main reason they don’t go online is because they don’t think the Internet is relevant to them. Where’s the surf? One in five American adults does not use the Internet, according to the latest report from the Pew Internet Project. Senior citizens, those who prefer to take our interviews in Spanish rather than English, adults with less than a high school education and those living in households earning less than $30,000 per year are the least likely adults to have internet access, the survey found. Among adults who do not use the Internet, almost half have said that the main reason they don’t go online is because they don’t think the Internet is relevant to them. Most have never used the Internet before, and don’t have anyone in their household who does. About one in five say that they do know enough about technology to start using the Internet on their own and only one in 10 said that they were interested in using the Internet or email in the future.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/One-in-Five-US-Adults-Does-Not-Use-the-Internet-Pew-448389/

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April 21, 2012

Glitch delays Icann’s net suffix deadline

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by the BBC

Google is among the companies to confirm it is taking part in the domain name application process. The new net suffix application process has been thrown into disarray after the body in charge of the scheme was forced to take its computers offline. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said “a possible glitch” had allowed a limited number of users to view each other’s details. Icann said it planned to close down its application system until Wednesday and was extending its application deadline. Registered organisations now have until 20 April to apply for the new domains. The process had been scheduled to end at midnight GMT on 12 April.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17700148#

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Dual focus contact lens prototypes ordered by Pentagon

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By LJ Rich, BBC

The Pentagon has put in an order for prototype contact lenses that give users a much wider field of vision. The lenses are designed to be paired with compact heads up display (HUD) units – glasses that allow images to be projected onto their lenses. Much bulkier HUDs are already deployed by the US Army and Air Force to superimpose data about targets and other status updates over users’ views. The tech could help troops enhance their awareness on the battlefield.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17692256#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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First Raspberry Pi computers to be delivered

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by the BBC

The first batch of Raspberry Pi computers are being issued to users. A group of schoolchildren in Leeds are the first to get their hands on production models of the bare-bones computer. Costing only £16, the tiny computer has been designed to inspire anyone, especially children, to get started with computer programming. Eager fans who were the first to order a machine should get their Raspberry Pi by 20 April. Since the Raspberry Pi project began, the plan has garnered huge interest from developers, hobbyists and others keen to get their hands on a cheap, easy-to-use computer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17703852#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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April 20, 2012

A Monitor that Worries About Your Posture

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by David Zax, Technology Review

If you’re anything like me, your increasingly computerized life has wreaked havoc on your posture. If only I were more muscular, I could have been the model for that poster that parodies Darwin’s Ascent of Man: hunched over a computer like a chimpanzee. Thankfully, Philips is coming to my–to our–rescue. The company is putting out a desktop display called the ErgoSensor Monitor, reports Wired. Using a built-in CMOS sensor and software from DigitalOptics, the ErgoSensor Monitor detects whether you’re slouching, and whether you’re sitting too close to, or too far from, the monitor. Then, just like we want our technology to do, it chastises you. The monitor also sports something Philips terms, semi-illegibly, the SmartErgoBase.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27756/?p1=blogs

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Facebook’s Telescope on Human Behavior

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By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

One way to describe Facebook is as the most extensive data set on human social behavior that ever was. Every month more than 845 million people record and share traces of their daily lives, relationships, and online activity through their friend connections, messages, photos, check-ins, and clicks. The richness of that information goes some way to explain why the company is expected to become worth more than $80 billion when it floats on the stock market later this year. One research group inside Facebook, known as the Data Team, is tasked with the challenge of mathematically sifting through that data to look for patterns that explain the how and why of human social interactions.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/40184/?p1=A1

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China’s Mystery Internet Blackout

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by Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Last Friday between 11am and 1pm many – perhaps even most – Internet users in China were suddenly unable to access overseas web sites. The telecommunications providers that together handle all of China’s Internet traffic, China Telecom and China Unicom, have officially stated their infrastructure was not to blame, leading some observers to suggest the outage was a test of a government “kill switch”. In recent weeks the Chinese government has been actively punishing websites and users that spread “rumors”.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/27758/?p1=blogs

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April 19, 2012

A Win for the Robo-Readers

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by Steve Kolowich – Inside Higher Ed

Education technology has long since delivered on its promise of software that can grade most student work in lieu of instructors or teaching assistants. These days, debates about artificial intelligence in education are more likely to revolve around whether automatons can be relied upon to teach students new concepts. Yet when it comes to English composition, the question of whether computer programs can reliably assess student work remains sticky. Sure an automaton can figure out if a student has done a math or science problem by reading symbols and ticking off a checklist, writing instructors say. But can a machine that cannot draw out meaning, and cares nothing for creativity or truth, really match the work of a human reader? In the quantitative sense: yes, according to a study released Wednesday by researchers at the University of Akron.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/04/13/large-study-shows-little-difference-between-human-and-robot-essay-graders

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Tablet boosts business and school productivity

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by Eric Schwartzberg and Hannah Poturalski, Middletown Journal

Using iPods and iPads to take orders instead of the traditional pen and paper saves time and allows servers to be more attentive to diners, according to the restaurant manager. Delivering food to the table or pouring a cup of coffee is about the only thing it can’t do. The iPad takes an order, sends it to the chef and lets the waiter know when it’s done at the Florentine Restaurant. And forget about paper. At True West Coffee, a customer’s receipt is sent by text to their phone. The popularity of tablet devices such as the iPad is helping increase efficiency at area businesses and influencing learning for students at local school districts. That widespread use is projected to nearly double sales of the devices worldwide to 119 million units this year, and then triple sales to about 369 million units in 2016, according a report released this week by Gartner Inc., an international information technology research and advisory company.

http://www.middletownjournal.com/news/middletown-news/tablet-boosts-business-and-school-productivity-1359310.html

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Silicon Valley Needs Femgineers

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by Ayna Agarwal and Ellora Israni, Huffington Post

We have been told, time and time again, we need more women in technology. But we’re not entirely convinced. Is there really a difference? The greatest technology companies of our time — Apple, Google, Facebook — have been successfully founded and run by men. And they seem to be doing a pretty good job. What exactly would a female technical head do differently for the iPhone or Google Search or Faceboook Connect? We really have no idea why we need more women in technology. Two years ago, the message that ‘we’, females, were needed in the industry didn’t resonate strongly enough to change our plans. We entered Stanford a couple of eager fresh(wo)men with aspirations in medicine and psychology. We wanted to experience everything Stanford had to offer, to embody the collegiate stereotype, and to make the world a better place. And we know what you’re thinking: yeah, right. Ellora is now a full-fledged Computer Science major, and Ayna is studying Human-Computer Interaction in Symbolic Systems — a conglomeration of computer science, philosophy, psychology, and linguistics. In a couple years we’ll graduate from Stanford as engineers. But we like to think of ourselves as a little more than that: we’re femgineers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ayna-agarwal/silicon-valley-needs-femgineers_b_1419186.html

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April 18, 2012

No U.S. launch date yet for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet

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by Jessica Dolcourt, CNET news.com

Although Samsung announced the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet with its larger stylus and screen at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, don’t hold your breath for a U.S. announcement anytime soon. As for the Galaxy Note 10.1, Samsung told a group of journalists today in San Francisco not to settle on the specs for the tablet we saw in Barcelona in February. The electronics giant wanted to show off something new and interesting at MWC, said a representative, but warned that there’s still some time before the product will ship, and therefore time for Samsung to make some changes under the hood. Samsung also shared that its Galaxy strategy is not a “one size fits all” approach, which explains Samsung’s tendency to bring forth tablets and phones large and small, like the huge Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone with its 5.3-inch display, and the larger form factor of the 10.1-inch Note tablet.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57412740-94/no-u.s-launch-date-yet-for-samsungs-galaxy-note-10.1-tablet/?tag=mncol;cnetRiver

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This Internet provider pledges to put your privacy first. Always.

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by DeClan McCullagh, CNET news.com

Nicholas Merrill is planning to revolutionize online privacy with a concept as simple as it is ingenious: a telecommunications provider designed from its inception to shield its customers from surveillance. Merrill, 39, who previously ran a New York-based Internet provider, told CNET that he’s raising funds to launch a national “non-profit telecommunications provider dedicated to privacy, using ubiquitous encryption” that will sell mobile phone service and, for as little as $20 a month, Internet connectivity. The ISP would not merely employ every technological means at its disposal, including encryption and limited logging, to protect its customers. It would also — and in practice this is likely more important — challenge government surveillance demands of dubious legality or constitutionality.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57412225-281/this-internet-provider-pledges-to-put-your-privacy-first-always/?tag=mncol;editorPicks

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Why e-books cost so much

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by Nathan Bransford, CNET news.com

There’s a perception among consumers that an e-book should cost very little or next to nothing because there is no paper, printing, and shipping involved. But in fact, for a new best-selling hardcover, all of the costs associated with print, from the printing to the shipping to the distribution to the warehousing to returns, amount to a mere few dollars per copy, depending on the size of the print run. The vast majority of a publisher’s costs come from expenses that still exist in an e-book world: Author advances, design, marketing, publicity, office space, and staff. You can therefore imagine the fear that e-book prices instill in publishing executives’ hearts. They’re only saving a few dollars per copy in the switch to the e-book world, but the prices of books were slashed more than half: from $24.99 to $9.99 and even lower. That begins to explain why publishers are trying to keep e-book prices high. But it doesn’t tell the whole story.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57412587-93/why-e-books-cost-so-much/?tag=mncol;topStories

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April 17, 2012

Mobile-Ad Firms Seek New Ways to Track You

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By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Few smart-phone users realize it, but mobile-ad companies track them as they use many free apps. They do this in order to fine-tune the ads the users see. But now that Apple has started to restrict a common way of tracking users, ad companies are scrambling for alternatives, and hoping to “teach” consumers to appreciate the targeted ads that support free apps. This week, a large consortium of mobile-ad firms launched a new technical approach to tracking users of free apps. The consortium says the new method protects users’ privacy, and will allow people to opt out if they prefer not to have their behavior logged. That opt-out mechanism would be modeled on those offered by online-ad companies for people who do not want their browsing history used to tailor ads.

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/40102/?p1=A4

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A Startup Repackages the News for a Facebook Generation

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By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

It’s as if the world’s celebrities, politicians, and companies were your Facebook friends. News aggregation website Wavii, launched today, distills current affairs into a feed of the kind of pithy, easily digested updates seen on the social network. Users of Wavii (pronounced “wavy”) who logged in yesterday would have been informed of the biggest technology news of the day with a short update similar to those that Facebook produces when two people enter a relationship: “Acquisition: Facebook acquires Instagram for $1 billion.” Clicking on the update yields more information and a link to online articles about the event; clicking on a company name calls up a profile page showing all recent updates about it.

http://www.technologyreview.com/web/40119/?p1=A2

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Can an Intel Tablet Win Emerging Markets?

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by David Zax, Technology Review

Various outlets are reporting that Intel has plans to follow up its Classmate PC with a tablet computer aimed at emerging markets like China and Brazil. The Register notes that Taiwanese notebook OEM Elitegroup Computer Systems and Chinese manufacturer Malata are poised to produce the tablet, which is expected to be 10 inches and to be available by the second half of 2012. As is often the case, the rumor was kicked off by DigiTimes, which is well sourced among component makers. DigiTimes says that in addition to the education procurement market, the StudyBook will be aimed at regular retail channels, “priced below US $299.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27717/?p1=blogs

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