Techno-News Blog

By Susan Young, Technology Review

Companies market to you according to your shopping habits, your age, your salary, and your social-media activities. In the future, they may be able to advertise to you on the basis of your DNA. Do you carry the genetic variants associated with lactose intolerance? Here, Lactaid has a coupon for you. The genes for male-pattern baldness? That’s accelerated by stress, so maybe you should come in for a discounted massage Jimmy’s Spa & Bath. A Minneapolis-based startup called Miinome plans to build what it calls the first “member-controlled human genetic marketplace.” The company, which has just three full-time employees and is still hunting for financing, is notable mostly for its bold idea: to sell DNA information to marketers.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514396/marketing-to-the-big-data-inside-us/

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Watson, the IBM computer system that attracted millions of viewers when it defeated two Jeopardy champions handily in 2011, is finally going to meet its public.

Last week, IBM announced that a version of the artificially intelligent software that gave Watson its smarts is to be rented out to companies as a customer service agent. It will be able to respond to questions posed by people, and sustain a basic conversation by keeping track of context and history if a person asks further questions. An “Ask Watson” button on websites or mobile apps will open a text-based dialogue with the retired Jeopardy champion on topics such as product buying decisions and troubleshooting guidance.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/515296/trained-on-jeopardy-watson-is-headed-for-your-pocket/

by the Charleston WV Gazette

Higher education — the key to successful middle-class life — is on the brink of a major transformation in America, experts say. Wealthy families will continue sending their children to expensive, prestigious universities. But most average youths will learn through lower-cost online courses, perhaps mixed with partial classroom attendance. Two new books predict this impending change. They are Higher Education in the Digital Age by former Princeton University President William Bowen, and College (Un)bound by Jeffrey Selingo of the Chronicle of Higher Education. They outline this picture: Nearly 80 percent of America’s college students attend less-expensive state-owned institutions. But hard-strapped state legislatures have drastically cut taxpayer support for the schools — from an average of $10,195 per student in 2002 to $5,900 in 2012 — while college operating costs keep climbing.

http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/Editorials/201305260062

BY KATHLEEN MEGAN, Courant

Among those teaching a MOOC course this past semester was Wesleyan President Michael Roth, who said in an email Thursday that he approached the class “with only curious skepticism about what folks could get out of an online class.” But, Roth said, the class “has been a wonderful surprise. I have been so impressed by the level of discourse among the students and by their excellent questions back to me … I will offer the class again for Coursera, and my teaching at Wesleyan in the future will be informed by my online experience.” However, as the novelty of MOOCs wears off, educators are asking hard questions about how the sites will make money and what colleges stand to gain. Academic powerhouses sense a pivotal moment of risk and opportunity. Some are plowing ahead. Others are holding back.

http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-online-education-criticism-20130527,0,7896684.story

by Katya Soldak, Forbes

Coursera, one of the most popular providers for MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) has recently partnered with eight countries to translate its lectures for students around the world. The company will translate selected courses into many popular languages such as Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Ukrainian, Kazakh, and Arabic. Each Coursera Global Translation Partner will begin by translating 3-5 select courses, with the majority of translated courses being available by September 2013. This month, Coursera announced its Global Partnership with Victor Pinchuk Foundation for translation of its courses. A pilot translation collaboration of Coursera and Digital October took off in Russia earlier this spring.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/katyasoldak/2013/05/28/online-education-no-longer-lost-in-translation/

By Rachel Metz, Technology Review

It’s fast becoming cheaper and easier to connect all kinds of traditionally unconnected devices to the Internet, and doing so can increase their functionality. At first glance, you’d never guess there’s anything unusual about Tom Coates’s San Francisco home. Nestled at the end of a narrow passageway on a side street, it’s a peaceful, sunny house decorated with modern furniture and bright posters that say things like “Machines help us work” and “Make your own path.” But take a closer look at, say, the ficus tree in the corner of the living room and you’ll notice something odd: a sensor, sticking out of the dirt, that’s connected to a little box. The sensor monitors the plant’s moisture, and the box transmits readings wirelessly to the Internet; it is just one of numerous Internet-connected devices in Coates’s home, which help keep an eye on everything from how warm it is to whether someone is currently in the living room.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514941/home-tweet-home-a-house-with-its-own-voice-on-twitter/

By Jessica Leber, Technology Review

The job description “data scientist” didn’t exist five years ago. No one advertised for an expert in data science, and you couldn’t go to school to specialize in the field. Today, companies are fighting to recruit these specialists, courses on how to become one are popping up at many universities, and the Harvard Business Review even proclaimed that data scientist is the “sexiest” job of the 21st century. Data scientists take huge amounts of data and attempt to pull useful information out. The job combines statistics and programming to identify sometimes subtle factors that can have a big impact on a company’s bottom line, from whether a person will click on a certain type of ad to whether a new chemical will be toxic in the human body.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/513866/in-a-data-deluge-companies-seek-to-fill-a-new-role/

By Jessica Leber, Technology Review

Desktop 3-D printers are about to become available with higher-definition capabilities, with a new startup shipping its first model this month. At $3,299, the Form 1 could expand the market for 3-D printing technology. It can produce much higher-fidelity plastic objects than the consumer desktop printers available today. But it is still cheap enough to be affordable to a wide swath of professional designers, engineers, and dedicated tinkerers. The Form 1 can, for example, create detailed functioning prototypes with mechanical parts, such as precise screw threads.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/515071/next-generation-consumer-3-d-printer-arrives-but-a-lawsuit-looms/