Techno-News Blog

May 24, 2012

When Gadgets Get under Your Skin: My interface… myself?

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by David Zax, Technology Review

New Scientist’s Jim Giles calls attention to this freaky fact: that in the future–the rather near future–our interfaces with our gadgets may be our own bodies. “Left your phone at home again?” he writes. “A solution is at hand: make sure it is with you at all times by having it implanted in your arm.” That’s certainly a way of having a solution at hand, so to speak. This is pretty much no longer the realm of science fiction, according to researchers at the Canadian software company Autodesk. The team embedded, somewhat grimly, a button, LED, and touch sensor in a cadaver’s arm. Each element worked just fine when under the skin–Bluetooth connection and wireless charging even worked through the skin.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27862/?p1=blogs

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Gmail’s Security Hole Could Lead to Mass Harvesting of Accounts

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by Christopher Mims, Technology Review

Google’s account recovery procedure can make it unclear to users that they’re giving hackers full access to their account. A technique used by marketers to trick people into signing up for “free” merchandise could easily be re-deployed as an engine for harvesting untold numbers of Google account passwords. Fixing the issue won’t be trivial for Google, because the exploit is fundamental to how Google allows users to recover access to their accounts when they lose or forget their passwords. While others have reported on the use of this exploit by individual hackers, I believe what you’re reading now is the first account of how it could be transformed into a mass phishing scam that could dragoon even relatively sophisticated users.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27863/?p1=blogs

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European Physicists Smash Chinese Teleportation Record

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by kfc, Technology Review

Just a couple of weeks ago, we discussed a Chinese experiment in which physicists teleported photons over a distance of almost 100 kilometres. That’s almost an order of magnitude more than previous records. Today, European physicists say they’ve broken the record again, this time by teleporting photons between the two Canary Islands of La Palma and Tenerife off the Atlantic coast of north Africa, a distance of almost 150 kilometres. That’s sets the scene for a fascinating prize. Both teams say the next step is to teleport to an orbiting satellite and that the technology is ripe to make this happen.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27864/?p1=blogs

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May 23, 2012

Computer game helps rehabilitate stroke victims

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by the BBC

Scientists at Newcastle University have developed a computer game designed to help stroke victims recuperate. The Circus Challenge game, created with a computer game studio, aims to help patients recover motor functions. Players use wireless controllers to perform virtual circus acts such as lion taming and plate spinning. It is hoped the PC-based game will serve as a cheaper and more effective alternative to existing treatments, with patients able to play at home. The project received a £1.5m grant from the Health Innovation Challenge Fund, a partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, to allow further development.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-18102299#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Twitter backs browser privacy project

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by the BBC

Micro-blogging service Twitter has declared its support for an initiative that lets people browse the web without being monitored. The “Do Not Track” initiative stops firms tracking people as they visit several different websites. The monitoring is done to help advertisers craft ads to a user’s preferences and lifestyle. Blocking the tracking depends on websites honouring requests from users to browse anonymously. Do Not Track (DNT) has been brokered by the US Federal Trade Commission which wants people to be able to tell websites to stop gathering and sharing data when they visit.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18114990

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Memristors in silicon promising for dense, fast memory

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By Jason Palmer, BBC

Researchers have revealed details of a promising way to make a fundamentally different kind of computer memory chip. The device is a “memristor”, a long-hypothesised but only recently demonstrated electronic component. A memristor’s electronic properties make it suitable for both for computing and for far faster, denser memory. Researchers at the European Materials Research Society meeting now say it can be made much more cheaply, using current semiconductor techniques.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18103772#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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May 22, 2012

iPhone 5 Design: 10 Features You Can Count On

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By: Don Reisinger, eWeek

Apple’s iPhone 5 is more than likely going to hit store shelves in the coming months. According to the latest rumors, the device will probably be available at some point this summer, since Apple’s orders of iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 units have started to dwindle. Assuming that’s the case, Apple will unveil the iPhone 5 at the Worldwide Developers Conference next month. When that device is unveiled, customers can expect a number of nice features, according to the rumor mill. Everything from a bigger display to 4G connectivity is currently in the works, according to reports. Apple’s iPhone 5 might just be the very best handset the company has launched to date. Whereas the iPhone 4S was a nominal upgrade over its predecessor, the iPhone 5 will likely be an entirely new generation of the popular handset.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/iPhone-5-Design-10-Features-You-Can-Count-On-669718/?kc=rss

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IBM’s Watson Challenges University of Rochester MBA Students

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By: Darryl K. Taft, eWeek

The University of Rochester Simon School of Business and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced winners of the first Watson academic case competition. The competition is a way to develop new ideas for harnessing IBM Watson technology to solve societal and business challenges while helping students advance technology and business skills for jobs of the future. It also is part of a series of competitions for students studying a variety of academic concentrations. Watson, named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, was built by a team of scientists to accomplish a grand challenge –a computing system that rivals a human’s ability to answer questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and confidence.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/IBMs-Watson-Challenges-U-of-Rochester-MBA-Students-878029/?kc=rss

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Verizon-Cable Deal Poses Big Threat to Internet Access, Competition

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by Wayne Rash, eWeek

Verizon and the group of cable companies from which it is planning to buy a chunk of AWS spectrum don’t want you to know about a new Joint Operating Entity (JOE) that would control all aspects of how you get access to the Internet, what you can do online and how much it’s going to cost. Cloaked in a layer of secrecy behind a wall of redacted documents, filings to the Federal Communications Commission that can’t be read and responses that are deliberately concealed, Verizon and its cable partners have agreed to stop competing directly with each other, to stop offering services that the others offer and to jointly develop technology that would control what you can do on their networks.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/VerizonCable-Deal-Poses-Big-Threat-to-Internet-Access-Competition-680412/?kc=rss

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May 21, 2012

How Will Tariffs on Solar Panels Affect Innovation?

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by Kevin Bullis, Technology Review

The United States Commerce Department concluded today that Chinese solar panel manufacturers are dumping solar panels in the U.S., and is penalizing them by imposing a 30 percent tariff on 62 solar manufacturers in China and a general 250 percent tariff on other solar panel manufacturers in China. That’s on top of a small tariff of 2.9 to 4.73 percent it announced earlier this year. The decision may increase solar panel prices in the U.S. and will undoubtedly have political repercussions, as China has threatened to impose retaliatory tariffs. It could also have an impact on innovation, but exactly what that impact will be less clear.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/27858/?p1=blogs

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Facebook’s Technology Timeline

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by Rachel Metz, Technology Review

Visit the interactive technology timeline for Facebook. A look back at the moments that have shaped Facebook’s success. The software for this timeline was created by VéritéCo, as a project of the Knight News Innovation Lab.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/40394/?p1=A1

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Computer Modeling: Why Shutting Airports Is Not the Best Way to Halt a Global Flu Pandemic

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by kfc, Technology Review

In a deadly flu outbreak, shutting airports should reduce the spread of the disease. But networks scientists have discovered a better approach that’s just as effective. Jose Marcelino and Marcus Kaiser at Newcastle University in the UK, provide an answer. They say a better approach is to cut specific flights between airports because it can achieve the same reduction in the spread of the disease with far less drastic action. They found that shutting entire airports only had a significant effect on spreading if it reduced travel by 95 per cent. By contrast, they could achieve the same effect by removing just 18 per cent of flights between cities ranked by a network measure called edge betweenness.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27856/?p1=blogs

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May 20, 2012

Humanoid Robot Swarm Synchronised Using Quorum Sensing

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by kfc, Technology Review

In recent years, various companies and labs have developed impressive humanoid robots that walk, shuffle and even run. Some even dance in groups of up to 20, performing sophisticated choreographed routines. This kind of synchronisation is no easy task. One way to do it is have one robot as the leader, broadcasting details of its movement and position over a network that the other robots all follow. The trouble is that network dynamics are not as predictable as choreographers would like. Small delays of half a second or so are common while some messages can be delayed by several seconds. That’s clearly not good enough for a dance routine or any other type of synchronised behaviour. So the approach preferred by roboticists is to program each robot with the dance routine, synchronise their internal clocks at the start of the performance and then leave them to it.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27852/?p1=blogs

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Holy cow! BYU students develop technology to track milk production

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By Sarah Gambles, Deseret News

Billing themselves as the LegenDairy Team, four students from the information technology program at BYU developed a simple software program that helps farmers track how many cows they have in stock and tracks the health of the cows. “We wanted an idea that had a real-world application and something that would be more than a school project. It could make or break dairy farming (in) different countries.”

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765576344/Holy-cow-BYU-students-develop-technology-to-track-milk-production.html

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Nostalgia for old PC software has a place

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By SCOTT A. MAY, Columbia Daily Tribune

Out with the old, and in with the new. That’s the clarion call we’ve always followed when it comes to technology — where only the latest versions of anything will do. In the world of personal computers, there are two schools of thought when it comes to operating system upgrades: those who like or need to keep up with technology trends and those who live by the age-old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Personally, I can see the logic in both arguments. On the one hand, time waits for no one, and as technology marches on, you either get in step or fall behind. If it’s important to you or your work, by all means, upgrade. On the other hand, if you don’t care about having the latest and greatest software and your PC runs fine for the limited things you do, I don’t see any rush to upgrade.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/may/15/nostalgia-for-old-pc-software-has-a-place/

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May 19, 2012

A Computer Interface that Takes a Load Off Your Mind

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BY KATE GREENE, Technology Review

Conversations between people include a lot more than just words. All sorts of visual and aural cues indicate each party’s state of mind and make for a productive interaction. But a furrowed brow, a gesticulating hand, and a beaming smile are all lost on computers. Now, researchers at MIT and Tufts are experimenting with a way for computers to gain a little insight into our inner world. Their system, called Brainput, is designed to recognize when a person’s workload is excessive and then automatically modify a computer interface to make it easier.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/40406/?p1=MstRcnt

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First Simulation Of Quantum Tunnelling On A Quantum Computer

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by KFC, Technology Review

The exploitation of quantum weirdness for computing is one of the great goals of modern physics. It’s promise is dramatic for a wide range of number-crunching tasks. But quantum computers have another trick up their sleeves which is sometimes forgotten–the ability to simulate other quantum systems. Physicists have already shown how quantum computers of various types can simulate phenomenon such as quantum phase transitions and the dynamics of entanglement–things that classical computers simply cannot handle. There is one quantum phenomenon, however, that has never been simulated–tunnelling. This is the ability of quantum particles to cross a barrier without seeming to have passed through it.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27849/?p1=blogs

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Brain Chip Helps Quadriplegics Move Robotic Arms with Their Thoughts

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BY SUSAN YOUNG, Technology Review

A paralyzed patient equipped with an implanted brain chip has been able to use a robotic arm to reach for and pick up a bottle of coffee, bring it close enough to her face so she could drink from a straw, and then place the bottle back on the table. The quadriplegic patient was outfitted with an electronic brain implant that can drive a robotic arm to reach and grasp objects (see video). A study published today in the journal Nature shows that people with the brain chips can use the devices to perform complex three-dimensional tasks that could be helpful in daily life. Furthermore, the implanted electrodes can record neuronal signals for as long as five years—longer than had been suspected. In previous studies, patients using brain implants have been able to move a cursor on a screen, but not perform complicated movements with objects in the real world.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/40418/?p1=A2

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May 18, 2012

Stunning iPhone app is our first taste of the new Google

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by CNet news.com

Vic Gundotra has been running engineering teams at Google since 2006 but he’s never been more bullish about what Google is building than he is today and there’s one simple reason: Design. “We care more about design than we ever have in our history,” Gundotra said the day after his pet project, Google+, launched a groundbreaking new redesign for its iPhone app. The new app design is a stunning departure from the previous Google+ app and from the Google+ site interface itself. Released on May 9, it turns the act of scanning social media updates into a highly visual experience by combining a slick rendering of your avatar with the signature image of whatever you’re posting and then overlaying the first two lines of your text. The effect is quite appealing, and addicting.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57434097-93/stunning-iphone-app-is-our-first-taste-of-the-new-google/?tag=mncol;topStories

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Are Harvard and MIT pioneers on the frontier of online learning?

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By Navneet Johal, Ovum

Aiming to benefit campus-based education and more, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently announced an online learning partnership. The $60m ($30m each) open source platform edX will host online courses from both institutions free of charge, and has the potential to enhance campus-based teaching and learning, and give students worldwide a path to high-quality education. As the higher education sector continues to experience unpredictable change, this partnership is an exciting development; it not only builds upon these institutions’ experience by offering online instructional content, but also takes advantage of established and emerging technology. However, Ovum believes that what is of most significance is Harvard and MIT taking steps to establish a new and more accessible education model, and their interest in researching how technology can facilitate pedagogy.

http://ovum.com/2012/05/15/are-harvard-and-mit-pioneers-on-the-frontier-of-online-learning/

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Amazon Announces Kindle’s Owner Lending Library Will Now Lend All 7 Harry Potter Books, Showing an Irrefutable Trend Toward Digital Reading and Learning

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by Amazon, Houston Chronicle

Announced on their homepage earlier this week, The Kindle Owner Lending Library by Amazon will now have all seven Harry Potter Books available to check out. With this huge step towards making literature available without having to pay a huge fee, the trend toward digital reading and learning is irrefutable. My Colleges and Careers believes, along with Amazon, that interactive learning can provide opportunities for all people to experience the joy of reading and education.

http://www.chron.com/business/press-releases/article/Amazon-Announces-Kindle-s-Owner-Lending-Library-3558550.php

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