With the power to buy, sell and make decisions on our behalf, phones will come to dominate our lives, invading our privacy and, via under-skin implants, our bodies.
It isn't all bad. As they become more sophisticated, phones will completely unshackle us from our desktops, will use up less time and money -- and could even save our lives.
"The fact that the word 'phone' is in the title of these devices is misleading," says Ray Hammond, a so-called futurologist who has carved a career out of accurately forecasting technological leaps.
Hammond envisages the candy bar-sized phones and shiny tablets of today being broken into separate components. Fashionable spectacles will provide the visual display, earring studs the audio. A third device will provide touch input.
"What we're talking about is a complete physical interface to the digital and virtual worlds," he said.
Read the entire article: http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/23/tech/mobile/technology-mobile-future/index.html [Read more ...]
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The Pirate Bay, one of the world's most infamous online piracy and file-sharing sites, is now hosting a type of mock-up file that allows your 3D printer to create physical objects.
ThePirateBay.org yesterday announced via its blog, first reported by GigaOM, that users can now search in a new category called "Physibles".
Physibles, as the blog explains, are mock-up files that allow a 3D printer to create a physical object:
"We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or, as we decided to call them: Physibles.
"Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three-dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future, you will print your spare parts for your vehicles," The Pirate Bay predicted in its post yesterday.
Read the entire article:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/pirate-bay-to-allow-real-object-downloads-339330303.htm [Read more ...]
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Users of tablet computers should place their device on the table and tilt its screen, rather than have it flat on their lap, to avoid potentially painful hunching of the neck, a study suggested Wednesday.
"Tablet users may be at high risk to develop neck discomfort based on current behaviours and tablet designs," it warned.
A team led by environmental health researcher Jack Dennerlein of the Harvard School of Public Health asked seven men and eight women who were experienced tablet users to carry out tasks on an iPad2 and a Motorola Xoom.
Using a motion-analysis system, the team filmed the 15 volunteers as they worked on the tablet in four common configurations.
In the first position the tablet was not placed in its proprietary case but held on the lap in one hand while the other was used to touch the screen.
In the second the tablet was placed on the lap, but stayed in its case. The user worked with both hands on the screen.
In the third, the tablet was set up in its case on a table, with its screen set at a lower angle, and the user worked with both hands.
The last configuration, dubbed "table-movie," entailed placing the tablet on the table in its case, tilted at a higher angle. The user did not work on the screen and instead watched movies or other programming on it.
Read the entire article: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.89b977dd5b786d4355e1a3521c5d20b8.61&show_article=1 [Read more ...]
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If you’ve ever used the Internet, you have an online identity. Maybe it’s slight: a Hotmail account here, a comment on a news story there. Or maybe you’ve been more prolific, leaving a trail of usernames, accounts, messages, and profiles across the digital landscape.
In any case, an active internet user owes it to himself to do a bit of self-Googling. What you’ll find will be both enlightening and humbling—even worrying.
Unease about your online identity shouldn’t be limited to how much information is publicly available. Online advertising is the engine that drives the Internet’s largest sites, including Google and Facebook, and it depends on your personal—and allegedly private—data for fuel. "The government, companies, and marketers all want us to share as much information as possible because that’s what’s good for them," says Rebecca Jeschke of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "and it’s time to think of what’s good for us."
While most Internet users seem fine with privacy tradeoffs, the lack of control will lead some to consider the nuclear option: total Internet evacuation. But taking yourself offline isn’t as simple as logging out—it requires a little bit of work. Here’s how.
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http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/computer-security/how-to-disappear-completely-from-the-internet [Read more ...]
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As advances in computer technology make gadgets ever smaller and more portable the idea of carrying a screen of any kind could soon be outdated. Consumer products with screens have dropped in size from computer to laptop to tablet via phone
But one company specialising in cutting edge visual technology waIsraeli company Lumus has shown off the PD-18-2, which may look like a cumbersome pair of shades but allow the user to see high-quality images while they walk.nts to beam information directly into your field of vision.
Lumus, an Israeli company, specialises in what it calls Light-guide Optical Element (LOE) technology.
It's latest product is the PD-18-2, which may look to the untrained eye like a cumbersome pair of sunglasses.
But inside the lenses of the glasses, the user can see high-quality full colour images. Products like this are already on the market for professional and military use, but where the next-generation PD-18-2 differs is that users can see though the spectacles too, instead of having the images block their vision.
The translucent lenses allow for what the manufacturer calls 'augmented vision', overlaying images or graphics over your usual field of vision.
They are designed for professionals such as pilots, surgeons and soldiers but there are hopes that it can be adapted for the consumer market so people could watch film or TV on the move, or play video games as they walk around.
Read the entire article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2086180/Lumus-PD-18-2-video-screen-glasses-lay-messages-GPS-field-vision.html [Read more ...]
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Internet addiction has for the first time been linked with changes in the brain similar to those seen in people addicted to alcohol, cocaine and cannabis.
In a groundbreaking study, researchers used MRI scanners to reveal abnormalities in the brains of adolescents who spent many hours on the internet, to the detriment of their social and personal lives. The finding could throw light on other behavioural problems and lead to the development of new approaches to treatment, researchers said.
An estimated 5 to 10 per cent of internet users are thought to be addicted – meaning they are unable to control their use. The majority are games players who become so absorbed in the activity they go without food or drink for long periods and their education, work and relationships suffer.
Henrietta Bowden Jones, consultant psychiatrist at Imperial College, London, who runs Britain's only NHS clinic for internet addicts and problem gamblers, said: "The majority of people we see with serious internet addiction are gamers – people who spend long hours in roles in various games that cause them to disregard their obligations. I have seen people who stopped attending university lectures, failed their degrees or their marriages broke down because they were unable to emotionally connect with anything outside the game."
Read the entire article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/addicted-scientists-show-how-internet-dependency-alters-the-human-brain-6288344.html [Read more ...]
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Some 300 Chinese Foxconn employees who manufacture X-box 360 machines said they would throw themselves from their Wuhan, China, plant if demands for lost wages were not met.
China Jasmine Revolution, an activist revolutionary organization with a name borrowed from the Tunisian revolt that set off the Middle East unrest, reported that employees made their demands for a wage increase for 100 employees on Jan. 2.
Management at Foxconn — the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and a crucial link in the supply chains of Apple, Dell, Nintendo and Song — responded with an ultimatum. Employees could quit with one month’s compensation awarded for each year with the plant or go back to working.
Many employees quit, but Foxconn allegedly dishonored the agreement and awarded former employees nothing.
Around 300 workers returned to the plant in an uproar, and staged their protest on the plant’s roof on Jan. 4.
Read the entire article: http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2012/01/10/hundreds-threaten-suicide-at-microsoft-supplier-plant-in-china/
The global warehouse for Internet addresses ran empty on Thursday. The non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) doled out its last five batches of "IP" numbers that identify destinations for digital traffic.
"A pool of more than four billion Internet addresses has been emptied this morning," ICANN chief Rod Beckstrom said at a Miami press conference.
"It is completely depleted. There are no more."
He brushed aside fears of modern life being devastated by an "IPocalypse," saying Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) worldwide will be doling out remaining addresses to support a shift to a bountiful new "IPv6" format.
"It is like running out of license plates," said Internet Architecture Board chairman Olaf Kolkman. "Driving on the road the next day would not change."
The touted solution to the problem is a switch to an "IPv6" format which allows trillions of Internet addresses, while the current IPv4 standard provides a meager four billion or so.
The effort and expense of changing to IPv6 would fall mostly on Internet service providers, websites and network operators that have to make sure systems can handle the new online addresses and properly route traffic.
"If an ISP (internet service provider) gets its act together, it shouldn't be a massive problem," Trefor Davies, chief operating officer of British ISP Timico, told AFP.
"We really should see this as an historic event," he continued. "The very nature of the Internet has changed with the transition."
Read the entire article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110203/ts_alt_afp/usitinternetsoftwareicann
It's a device that would be more at home on the set of a Star Wars movie than the streets of Britain. But an iPhone application has been developed that can read minds.
The XWave allows users to control on-screen objects with their minds as well as train their brains to control attention spans and relaxation levels.
The device - that could confuse Luke Skywalker himself - is the latest in the field of emerging mind-controlled games and devices and works via a headset strapped around the user's forehead, plugging into the iPhone jack.
A state-of-the-art sensor within the device can then read the user's brainwaves through the skull, converting them into digital signals before displaying them in various colours on the iPhone screen.
Read the entire article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1346900/The-app-read-mind-iPhone-brainwave-detector-matter-time.html [Read more ...]
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Intel is preparing to launch its Sandy Bridge processors at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. The most interesting thing about these new processors is the kill switches that are built into them.
Sandy Bridge is the code name for Intel’s processor configuration and it is the successor to Nehalem.
According to an ITBusiness.ca article, David Allen, director of distribution sales, North America at Intel said that although Sandy Bridge is now shipping to Intel's distribution and equipment partners, Intel Premier partners are the only ones that can purchase it before the general release date, which is scheduled to coincide with CES.
“This is our first microprocessor where we have one billion transistors on a single CPU like this,” Allen said. “Now we've built in more thermal capabilities and performance enhancements. With Sandy Bridge, we'll still have the naming conventions for Core i3, Corei5 and Core i7.”
The new performance capabilities are improved graphics, faster processing and “improved” security and trust features designed to keep the whole computing experience more secure.
That is if your definition of secure resembles the anti-theft technology that Intel has built into Sandy Bridge. Allen told ITBusiness.ca that users no longer need to worry if their laptop gets lost or stolen because with Sandy Bridge it can be shut down remotely.
Read the entire article: http://www.tgdaily.com/opinion-features/53108-analysis-intel-to-introduce-processor-with-remote-kill-switch
We recently experienced an outage at our hosting companies data center. If this has affected your guestbook gadget or NoBull guestbook then contact us for more info.
Due to the outage we have purchased hosting at another company and will keep the prior configuration intact temporarily as a backup.
As of November 17, 2010 all guestbooks should be up and running on new server space. If you need me to transfer your old messages to the new server space then please contact me at service@tropicalpcsolutions.com by December 7th 2010. After this date we will not be able to access the old messages.
A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower..
The computer, known as Tianhe-1A, has 1.4 times the horsepower of the current top computer, which is at a national laboratory in Tennessee, as measured by the standard test used to gauge how well the systems handle mathematical calculations, said Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee computer scientist who maintains the official supercomputer rankings.
Although the official list of the top 500 fastest machines, which comes out every six months, is not due to be completed by Mr.
Dongarra until next week, he said the Chinese computer “blows away the existing No. 1 machine.”
He added, “We don’t close the books until Nov.1, but I would say it is unlikely we will see a system that is faster.”
Read the entire article: http://www.cnbc.com/id/39886462
A series of computer errors at an Air Force base in Wyoming Saturday took 50 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles -- one-ninth of the U.S. missile stockpile -- offline for about an hour, CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder reports.
Engineers believe that the outage at F.E. Warren Air Force Base was caused by a hardware failure in a launch control computer rather than a power failure as had been previously reported, according to a defense official with knowledge of the situation.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was immediately briefed about the incident Saturday. He in turn told Defense Secretary Robert Gates. President Obama was briefed Tuesday morning.
According to an administration official, at no time did the president's ability to launch missiles decrease should that have been necessary.
A military official said that the failure triggered an emergency protocol and sentries were dispatched to verify in person that all of the missiles were safe and properly protected.
The military does not believe the incident was sabotage.
Read the entire article: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20020817-503544.html
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) issued its biggest-ever security fix on Tuesday, including repairs to its ubiquitous Windows operating system and Internet browser for flaws that could let hackers take control of a PC.
The new patches aim to fix a number of vulnerabilities including the notorious Stuxnet virus that attacked an Iranian nuclear power plant and other industrial control systems around the world.
Microsoft said four of the new patches -- software updates that write over glitches -- were of the highest priority and should be deployed immediately to protect users from potential criminal attacks on the Windows operating systems.
Microsoft said it also repaired other less serious security weaknesses in Windows, along with security problems in its widely used Office software for PCs and Microsoft Server software for business computers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1220677620101012 [Read more ...]
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