NEW NET Weekly List for 17 Jan 2012

Below is the final list of issues for the Tuesday, 17 January 2012, NEW NET (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Entrepreneurism and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 PM weekly gathering at Sergio's Restaurant, 2639 South Oneida Street, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1.        Why Do People Use Facebook?  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/study_why_do_people_use_facebook.php  “Facebook is an accepted means of communication. It is a never-ending virtual social gathering filled with adopted puppies, cute LOL kitties, baby announcements…But why do people really use it? A new study…proposes that the social network meets two primary human needs: (1) the need to belong and (2) the need for self-presentation…Before 2009, MySpace led the social network race. By April 2009, it was dead…A 2010 study entitled "Narcissism and social networking web sites" found a positive association between narcissism and Facebook use, especially in relation to profiles and photos, both features that allow users to promote themselves. The study found that people with a high level of narcissism and people with low levels of self-esteem spent more than an hour per day on Facebook…The study goes on to note that frequent Facebook use may be associated with lower academic performance, but it may lead to higher self-esteem and a sense of belonging…Females and ethnic minorities tended to use Facebook more than males and Caucasians…Mashable writer Sam Laird…deactivated his account in July 2011…He misses what most every Facebook user would miss if they shut down their account: that sense of belonging and of self-presentation. These are the reasons people use Facebook, despite its long list of privacy issues.”           

2.       OfficeDrop Now Lets You Scan Documents To Social Networks — And The Cloud  http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/09/officedrop-now-lets-you-scan-documents-to-social-networks-and-the-cloud/  “…OfficeDrop…online solution…allows people to take all the paper documents cluttering their offices, scan them, then manage, organize, and store them in the cloud. With its round of angel funding, OfficeDrop set out to work on the development of mobile apps…Among other things, these apps allow users to take a picture of a recept when on a trip and send it their expense folders in OfficeDrop’s cloud “filing cabinet.” These apps also allow users to search documents on their phone, pulling up a receipt you scanned four months ago. OfficeDrop is hardly the only app that turns your mobile device into a scanner…ScanDrop Mac and ScanDrop Lite apps…let any Mac user integrate scanned paper with digital screenshots to create multi-age, searchable PDFs. But what’s really cool about this is that, with a single click, users can now share these scanned docs via social networks or store them in Evernote, Dropbox, OfficeDrop, and Google Docs…Since ScanDrop is compatible with online cloud filing services like Dropbox, Google Docs, etc, users can drop their OfficeDrop PDF files into their accounts and share them with just about anyone, from anywhere. Users also tend to create documents to send not only by scanning hardcopies of documents into their computer, but also by taking screen shots — and these can also be converted into text-searchable PDFs…”

3.       Aussie wunderkind gets $US250k for technology that could revolutionise web  http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/aussie-wunderkind-gets-us250k-for-technology-that-could-revolutionise-web-20120113-1pz35.html 
“He is 16, an Australian living in London and recently scored $US250,000 in investment from a billionaire for a technology that could change the way we read emails, news articles…on our computers. Meet Nick D'Aloisio, the former Perth and Melbourne boy who is among many other teenagers making it big online…His technology summarises text using algorithmic technologies, allowing for simplified dot point summaries of anything on the web such as search results. He believes that in the future it could be used to summarise emails, social networking posts and product descriptions…As well as scooping such a large investment at an early age, he has also organised for Micha Breakstone, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to research his summarisation technology…Mr Breakstone, manager of MIT's experimental syntax and semantics lab and founder of ExceLingo, said in an email that tests he conducted proved Nick's technology outperformed industry summarisation standards by 30 per cent…Nick began his journey with computers when he was eight and his family moved to London…"I basically begged my parents for six months to get [an Apple] computer," he said of his father, an investment banker, and his mother, a lawyer. "And when I finally got it, instead of using it for just watching videos or browsing the web, I kind of had an interest to create things."…when Apple's iTunes app store was unveiled, he began to teach himself how to create apps. "They weren't anything special," he said almost four years later. "They were just kind of almost test apps but at the time, because there weren't enough apps available on the store, they actually did all right."…his first "serious" application, Songstumblr, a geo-social music discovery service…meant users with it on their iPhones in the same room could find out what songs they were each listening to instantly via a Bluetooth connection…early last year…he began to create a more sophisticated app that has since received about $US250,000 in investment from the 11th richest person in the world, the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. "I began kind of looking into algorithmic technologies and natural language programming," Nick said. The technology is now integrated into his latest app, formerly known as Trimit and now known as Summly…”

4.       A Design Primer for Engineers  http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2012/01/16/a_design_primer_for_engineers.html  “For a word that can so vastly change the fortunes of a company, it’s worth noting that no generally accepted definition of the word design exists. This means when your boss stands up in front of the team at that all-hands and says, “We’ll have a design-centered culture,” there’s a good chance he’s saying nothing at all…To understand the historic tension between the designer and the engineer, you need to go back to when software became mainstream, and in my mind that was with the arrival of the Internet. Software had been around and making piles of money long before Netscape, but…The arrival of everyone (and their cats) presented a challenge to these early software development teams. These teams were used to working with early adopters and their particular needs. See, early adopters are willing to put up with a lot of crap — it’s part of the deal we have with them. “You get to play with the latest and greatest, but it may explode at any point.” Early adopters are cool with these explosions because early adoption makes them feel, well, cool. When everyone arrived, everyone didn’t want explosions — they just wanted it to work. Engineers hear “just works” as “they want fewer explosions”, but that’s not what everyone wanted. They wanted to send a picture of their cat in the simplest way possible. They didn’t care about JavaScript, security, frames or plugins; they just wanted to mail a picture of their goddamned cat without the application exploding…traditional engineers…don’t see an explosion as a bad thing because we’re intimately aware of how the sausage is made. We know that when a program crashes, you just re-launch the application and get back to work. Most humans on the planet do not see a crashed application this way. They are, at the very least, alarmed when something explodes. They’re wondering, “Did permanent damage just occur?”…” [if you haven’t read Rands’ Handbook, http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html , read it today! – ed]

5.        On the Usability of Codecademy  http://programmingzen.com/2012/01/16/on-the-usability-of-codecademy/  “I asked a friend of mine (who isn’t a coder) if she could try out the amazing Codecademy for me. She is a smart person, but…she isn’t a programmer. I thought Codecademy would be a great way to introduce her to programming for the web. As a programmer, I thought it was extremely well made and assumed it would work for anyone. She landed on the homepage and read the instructions. She wrote her name (“Elizabeth”), then decided however to change it to…“Liz”…she highlighted the whole string she had just typed and tried to press the backspace key to delete it. The whole page disappeared and the browser redirected her to the new tab. Liz: “Why did it do that?” Me: “You can’t highlight a word like you’d do in Microsoft Word…Next, she had to measure the length of her name. But she forgot the quotes…Liz: “What happened?” Me: “What do you think happened?” Liz: “Some kind of error, but what does ‘Liz is not defined’ mean?” Me: “You accidentally forgot the quotes.”…Liz: “I typed it right this time, why didn’t it work?” Me: “Since you didn’t close the first string, it thinks that the second line is still part of the first command…the same exercise (#1) was reloaded. After completing it successfully though, instead of exercise #2, exercise #0 reappeared, asking her to enter her first name again. After raising an eyebrow at that point, she went along with it…At that point I suspended this tiny hallway test and I asked her what she thought of this system…above all felt like she didn’t know how to get unstuck when she made an error…keep in mind the very point of this post. Usability is hard because real users use our UIs and software in different and unexpected ways…”

6.       2011: The Year I Plunged Into Streaming  http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/244585/scitech/technology/2011-the-year-i-plunged-into-streaming  “2011 was the year I finally experienced the Internet as a head-on replacement for traditional broadcasting. Not just for words (the net already replaced print media in my life) but for music and “tv” broadcasts…The tipping point in my case was bandwidth. My TV was already the “third screen” for internet consumption, after computers, and mobile devices (phones and tablets)…the tipping point: This year my home DSL connection moved up from a miserly 1.8 Mbps to a fairly respectable 3 Mbps…An increase to 3 Mbps meant I could now watch YouTube clips without buffering regularly at 480p resolution…Here were the apps that got me hooked on streaming in 2011: For video…YouTube remained my go-to channel for video of all types…I also access Hulu and Amazon Instant Video (movies and TV specials) on my laptop. I’m considering adding Netflix for 2012…For audio, I rely on two free go-to internet radio apps on my mobile devices – Sticher and Tune-In (available for both iOS and Android). These allow me to stream hundreds of podcasts and foreign radio stations…For music…Spotify’s music service is so comprehensive, I have given up on stuffing my iPod with new content. Also…Pandora…I sometimes use Google Music for accessing my own music collection through the cloud…I don’t see any of these technologies become mainstream soon. For the forseeable future these will be the playground of crazed early adopters like myself and some like-minded geeks..This is all still too complicated for the masses. But you never know when the next tipping point will arrive to make this all explode into the mainstream…”

Gigabit Internet

7.        Fluidata and IFNL to deploy nationwide 1Gbps FTTH services  http://www.broadbandwatcher.co.uk/fluidata-and-ifnl-to-deploy-nationwide-1gbps-ftth-services-4333/  “…Fluidata…has teamed up with Independent Fibre Networks Limited…to roll out a grand fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) scheme. This would involve providing true 1Gbps fibre services to more than 50,000 fresh residential and commercial premises throughout the UK (20 locations to be exact)… “This is a big step forward and demonstrates that FTTH is a viable and sensible option for the long-term. It also shows that fibre can be commercially deployed on scale without government hand-outs, which compliments the work we are doing in rural communities.”… “work in rural communities”, Broadbandwatcher is fairly certain…was referring to firms such as B4RN, Fibrestream, Hyperoptic…”

8.       WiGig promises low-power 2Gbps wireless  http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/01/wigig-promises-low-power-2gbps-wireless-device-communication-by-2013.ars  “…WiGig Alliance is moving full steam ahead with its plan to enable devices to communicate wirelessly at mulit-gigabit speeds using unlicensed 60GHz spectrum…802.11ad WiGig operates on unlicensed 60GHz spectrum; it won't propagate through walls and has a range of about 10 meters. As such, isn't necessarily meant as a replacement for 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi."If Wi-Fi wants to get to 2Gbps, you need at least 3x3 antennas, and much wider bandwidth, maybe consuming 3 watts," Sadri said. "2Gbps using WiGig in a handheld device will consume about 500 to 600 milliwatts. That's five times the efficiency of Wi-Fi."…he sees WiGig and Wi-Fi as being complementary, rather than competing, technologies. Devices can use WiGig to communicate with each other at shorter ranges, and Wi-Fi for Internet access or longer-range connections…”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

9.       India OKs censoring Facebook, Google, Microsoft, YouTube  http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/india-oks-censoring-facebook-google-microsoft-youtube/7308  “…The Indian government has given the green light for the prosecution of “21 social networking sites.” The list features 10 foreign-based companies, and could affect websites provided by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and YouTube. The recent development is part of an ongoing argument between the companies and India over whether content should be regulated (read: censored) in the country…Delhi’s High Court warned various companies they will be blocked in India if they fail to check and censor content. When counsel for Facebook and Google pointed to their global policy of non-interference even if content posted on their services are found to be obscene or objectionable, the court told the Internet firms that this policy won’t work in India…”

10.     Cyberattacks on Israel escalate  http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/attacks-on-israel-escalate-in-cyber-nightmare-20120117-1q4r7.html  “……”  http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=253487  “The IDF is assembling elite teams of computer hackers to lead the nation’s cyber-warfare efforts…amid concern over the growing threat to Israel’s civilian and military networks…Last month, the army recruited close to 300 young computer experts, many of them without college or even high-school degrees. “These are some of the top experts in their field,” a senior officer said. The new soldiers will serve in Military Intelligence as well as in the C4I Directorate, the two military branches responsible for cyber-warfare in the IDF…The Jerusalem Post reported on an ambitious Iranian plan to invest $1 billion to develop technology and hire computer experts with the goal of boosting the Islamic Republic’s offensive and defensive cyber-warfare capabilities…The new division is run by a colonel who took up his post over the summer. The officer is the former commander of Matzov…Matzov writes the codes that encrypt IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Mossad networks…” [so the Israeli-Arab cyberwar raises several questions; (1) is there really a ‘cyberwar’ or is it all/mostly media hype? (2) did the IDF really recruit a bunch of hackers who didn’t have high school degrees (no college degree isn’t surprising, since IDF service is generally mandated post-high school (3) are any of the 300 new recruits really ‘top experts in their field’ and, if so, what were they doing before they got recruited? (4) If the guy in charge of the new IDF cyber division was a former commander of the cyber group that was supposed to be securing Israeli systems against hacking, why should better anti-hacking results be expected from his new cyber group?(5) Does the US military recruit hackers with no high school degree for its many cyber warfare teams? – ed.]

11.      Elsevier = Evil  http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/01/elsevier_evil.php  “Along with SOPA and PIPA, our government is contemplating another acronym with deplorable consequences for the free dissemination of information: RWA, the Research Works Act. This is a bill to, it says, "ensure the continued publication and integrity of peer-reviewed research works by the private sector"…it's purpose is to guarantee that for-profit corporations retain control over the publication of scientific information…This is a blatant attempt to invalidate the NIH's requirement that taxpayer-funded research be made publicly available. The internet was initially developed to allow researchers to easily share information…and that's precisely the function this bill is intended to cripple…The corporations who love this bill are the commercial publishers who profit mightily from scientists' work…If passed, the Research Works Act (RWA) would prohibit the NIH's public access policy and anything similar enacted by other federal agencies, locking publicly funded research behind paywalls…The only winners would be publishing corporations such as Elsevier…what kind of American politician would support it? The RWA is co-sponsored by Darrell Issa (Republican, California) and Carolyn B. Maloney (Democrat, New York). In the 2012 election cycle, Elsevier and its senior executives made 31 donations to representatives: of these, two went to Issa and 12 to Maloney, including the largest individual contribution…”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

12.     Uh-oh, PC: Half of computing device sales are mobile  http://gigaom.com/mobile/uh-oh-pc-half-of-computing-device-sales-are-mobile/  “…For some time to come, especially in certain industries or specific use cases, the PC will be important. For most folks, however, the PC is losing relevance as we’re morphing from a local / desktop user base to one of mobile / cloud. A rather timely graph illustrates this. Horace Dediu, who tracks market data on his Asymco blog, tweeted an image showing a “brief history of personal computing platforms” on Saturday, going back from present day to 1975. Notice anything interesting? Starting around 2007…sales of devices running mobile platforms have eaten into a large portion of traditional desktop and laptop sales…I’m planning to get an Asus Transformer Prime review unit…to truly test if an ARM-powered mobile device can take the place of my computing needs. Note that I don’t draw CAD files, create stunning 3-D movie files, build programs or calculate equations that require heavy processing power. The fact is: Most other people don’t do these tasks either. So for many, a traditional computer can be overkill in terms of price, power and performance. And if you need 3-D graphics for gaming or some other processor intensive tasks, there’s always the option of remotely accessing a PC at home or in the cloud: Amazon now offers 750 hours a month of free Windows Server instances through its EC2 product line, for example…”  [consider looking at the infographic in this article; the trend for Wintel computers on the graphic is interesting (or scary if you’re Intel or Microsoft) – ed]

13.     How France’s Free will reinvent mobile  http://gigaom.com/2012/01/09/how-frances-free-will-reinvent-mobile/  “Xavier Niel, the maverick founder of Iliad, the company behind Free.fr broadband service, is about to redefine the mobile landscape…when he launches the much-talked about Free Mobile. In doing so, he will redefine what the idea of a carrier in the 21st century is, thanks to a radical new approach. Utilizing a blend of Wi-Fi, HSPA+ 3G, femtocells and its all-fiber backbone, Free will offer unlimited voice, texting and data over the mobile networks; just bring your own iPhone…”

14.     Qualcomm Unveils Thinnest, Lightest Mirasol E-reader, The Hanvon C18  http://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethwoyke/2012/01/10/qualcomm-unveils-thinnest-lightest-mirasol-e-reader-the-hanvon-c18/  “…Hanvon will sell the thinnest and lightest e-reader yet to utilize Qualcomm’s energy-efficient mirasol displays, the Hanvon C18…Hanvon is the third company in two months to incorporate mirasol displays into an e-reader device…The C18…sports a 5.7-inch “XGA” format, touchscreen mirasol display and runs on a 1.0 GHz Snapdragon (S2, single-core) processor from Qualcomm. Its operating system, like that of Kyobo’s eReader and Bambook’s Sunflower, is a custom interface on top of a Google Android (version 2.3) core…the Hanvon C18…promises…bright colors even in the sun, weeks-long battery life and a refresh rate fast enough to support video. Mirasol enables this by reflecting light between two conductive plates. The setup allows mirasol displays to be built without backlights, which Qualcomm says improves outdoor readability and conserves power…”

15.     Samsung In Talks With Intel To Merge Bada OS With Tizen  http://allthingsd.com/20120117/another-os-bites-the-dust-samsung-to-fold-bada-into-smartphone-linux-effort/  “…Samsung apparently plans to merge its homegrown bada software with Tizen, which is itself the merger of multiple mobile Linux projects…The move means that apps written for bada (which is Korean for “ocean”) should run on Tizen, assuming that operating system finds its way onto devices. Tizen is a successor to MeeGo, an effort that was backed by both Intel and Nokia, until Nokia revamped its plans to focus on Windows Phone…”

16.     DOD, DOT: LightSquared cannot coexist with GPS  http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/dod-dot-lightsquared-cannot-coexist-with-gps-366922/  “In what may be the death knell for nascent L-band broadband provider LightSquared, nine federal agencies that have analysed the potential interference to GPS receivers from network over the past year agree that the system can not coexist with GPS operations. "Based on testing and analysis, there appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service, as proposed, to operate in the next few months or years without significantly interfering with GPS," said the Deputy Secretary of Defence, Ashton Carter, and Deputy Secretary of Transportation, John Porcari…"It is the unanimous conclusion of the test findings…that both LightSquared's original and modified plans for its proposed mobile network would cause harmful interference to GPS receivers," said Carter and Porcari. "Additionally, an analysis by the FAA has concluded that the LightSquared proposals are not compatible with several GPS-dependent aircraft safety-of-flight systems…”

17.     What to Expect From Mobile Marketing Tech in 2012  http://mashable.com/2012/01/11/qr-codes-augmented-reality-2012/  “As new technologies emerge that seek to bridge the real world with the digital, the offline-to-online marketing learning curve only gets steeper. For instance, what is the future of the QR code, and should we prepare to be wowed by augmented reality? Read on for my mobile marketing predictions of 2012….Quick Response (QR) Codes…We’ll witness the disappearance of non-standard formats, an exponential rise in capable mobile devices, and a steady march toward improved calls-to-action spurred by more accountable analytics…Overwhelmed by the variety of QR uses in marketing campaigns, bad “carpenters” keep blaming their tools, and repeat simple mistakes that disappoint many first-time consumer scanners. Whether you love or hate QR codes, they’ll become…more ubiquitous and useful as they mature…Augmented Reality (AR)…a few AR campaigns will successfully break through to capture mainstream imaginations…the wider availability of easy AR creation tools will result in many more uninspired efforts, disappointing first-time users…exacerbated by the broad definition of what “augmented reality” is and by uncertain consumer expectations…Near Field Communication (NFC)…Early campaigns will appear in tandem with QR codes…Total NFC mobile penetration will remain below critical mass for mainstream deployments, constraining good campaigns to tightly focused areas…”

18.     Woz concedes Android advantages over iPhone  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57359883-37/woz-concedes-android-advantages-over-iphone/  “…In an interview with Dan Lyons…comparing iPhones with Android phones, the Woz laments the limitations of Apple's smartphone. "My primary phone is the iPhone," the Woz said. "I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does, I really do."…his main beef is with Siri, which he said no longer works as well as he would like. "I used to ask Siri, 'What are the five biggest lakes in California?' and it would come back with the answer," he said. "Now it just misses. It gives me real estate listings…He also said he prefers the GPS navigation on Android phones and he also takes issue with the battery life on the iPhone…Woz says he still recommends the iPhone, especially for people who might be intimidated by Android's complexity. "The people I recommend the iPhone 4S for are the ones who are already in the Mac world, because it's so compatible, and people who are just scared of computers altogether and don't want to use them. The iPhone is the least frightening thing…”

19.     NSA Releases Secure Android Version  http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/232400479  “…National Security Agency has made its first public release of SE Android, a secure version of Google's Android platform. SE Android aims to close Android's security gaps by isolating apps from one another, mitigating problems with flawed or malicious apps, instituting permission and other security checks, restricting use of system facilities by apps, and taking related steps. The project is based on SE Linux, a security-hardened version of Linux which the NSA initially released in 2000…There are not yet any pre-compiled builds of SE Android, so installation is anything but simple at this point…One big focus of SE Android is application security. Application-level permissions control access to application components and system resources. A big change from SE Linux is that SE Android switches from Discretionary Access Control, which lets users set permissions, to Mandatory Access Control, which does not. This can, for example, prevent malicious apps from running processes that wipe a device of all data. Sandboxing and process isolation also play large parts. Android SE isolates applications from one another and the system--unlike many apps on Google's Android Market that have broad permissions to access other apps and device elements like Bluetooth and the camera. Sandboxing prevents bypass of the application-level controls as well…”

Apps

20.    Can New iPhone and Android App Savvy Help You Save Money?  http://www.lockergnome.com/social/2012/01/11/can-new-iphone-and-android-app-savvy-help-you-save-money/  “Have you ever bought a full-priced pair of jeans from your favorite store, only to return a few days later to find them on sale? If you know the store return policy and saved your receipt, you’ll usually be eligible for a refund of the price difference…many consumers…not only are unaware of these policies for every single store at which they shop, but don’t carry their receipts with them for every recent purchase…Savvy, built by Pricetector.com, is an app for both Android and iOS that is designed to eliminate the common problem of post-purchase price reductions by indexing the price adjustment policies for dozens of popular stores and notifying consumers via email of any potential savings. Users simply snap a photo of the barcode of the price tag of each of their purchases with the app, which Savvy will then store with a built-in personal receipt manager. If an item goes on sale within the window that a consumer can receive a refund, Savvy will send you an email to alert you that you can save money by bringing in your receipt to the store for a price adjustment…”  [what retail shopping apps would you like on your smartphone? –ed ]

21.     CBS Sports Opens Site to App Makers  http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203721704577159270507577072-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwNjExNDYyWj.html  “CBS Corp., in a move aimed at boosting its share of the nearly billion-dollar fantasy-sports business, is opening up its CBS Sports website so outside developers can create apps geared toward fantasy enthusiasts…Most fantasy leagues are hosted by a small group of websites including Yahoo Sports, ESPN.com and CBSSports.com. But an ecosystem of smaller websites draws enthusiasts by offering analysis and other tools to help them win their fantasy leagues. CBS Sports executives are now hoping to create a hub for this universe of mom-and-pop fantasy operators by letting them build products that will live on CBSSports.com. The site will offer free and paid apps, with CBSSports.com keeping a 30% share of sales of paid ones…$800 million is spent annually on fantasy games and related products, mostly online, according to a study…conducted back in 2008…Football is by far the most popular fantasy sport, with nearly three-quarters of the 29.6 million fantasy players in the U.S. participating, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. CBSSports.com has differentiated itself from competitors in that it charges people to play in its leagues, a distinction executives and partners say makes for a user base more likely to spend on apps…”

22.    5 Useful iPad Apps for Doctors, Patients and Med Students  http://mashable.com/2012/01/16/ipad-medical-apps/#view_as_one_page-gallery_box3827  “…iPads and tablet computing have revolutionized the way many companies do business, and the medical field is no different. The sharp, intuitive displays and interactive content of tablets naturally make doctor’s visits a more collaborative process…Recently Apple hired a director of medical marketing, so it’s game on in this burgeoning sector. Plus, with $44,000 available in economic stimulus incentives via the HITECH Act, it’s no surprise that doctors are beginning to make the switch to digital. Here’s a look at some apps that are being used in doctor’s offices and hospitals around the U.S…1. Interactive Anatomy…2. EMH Records…3. Radiology…4. Educational…5. Assistive Technology…” [when I pointed a doctor I know toward the radiology app, his comment was that (because of today’s corporate American approach to health care and a focus on seeing as many patients as possible during the day) most doctors won’t have time for most patients to show them anything on a tablet – ed.]

SkyNet

23.    Log into Gmail on a PC via Your Smartphone and a QR Code  http://www.pcworld.com/article/248235/log_into_gmail_on_a_pc_via_your_smartphone.html  “Google recently introduced a fun (and more secure) way to log into your Google account from a public terminal without entering your password into the PC, and instead using your smartphone and a QR code. The method is similar to how Google sets up your handset for its two-step log-in process introduced in February 2011. Google's two-step authentication system requires you to enter your password as well as a unique short code generated by a trusted device (your smartphone) to access your account. The new Google QR log-in…uses your smartphone as a kind of proxy for the desktop PC's browser. You will be able to enter your Google account password into your smartphone and then the PC will "automagically" log you in to your Google account on the PC. This is a neat trick to use when traveling and relying on public computers, and can protect you from a PC with keylogging software that records every keystroke entered into a compromised machine…”

24.    Google+ gets LOLcaterizer photo caption tool  http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57360451-264/google-gets-lolcaterizer-photo-caption-tool/  “Watch out, Facebook, because Google+ just got the feature that will wipe you off the social-network map. I'm talking about a LOLcat text generator. "Today we're rolling out a feature that makes it easier to add big, bold text on top of your photos," programmer Colin McMillen said in a Google+ post…OK, so maybe it won't it won't dent Facebook's dominance, but it could help with photo captions such as when parents want to put words in their babies' mouths…McMillen has serious geek cred. He's cofounder of the Recaptcha project that Google gobbled up…Speaking of techie trends, Google+ also is getting another feature announced today: hashtag autocompletion…”

25.    Google Launches Style Guide for Android Developers  http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/01/android-design-matias-duarte/  “Matias Duarte is a man who loves a challenge…“Designing an open mobile operating system — and doing it really well — that’s never happened before in human history,” Duarte tells me…his new gig is a nightmare. Not only does the Android team have to engineer adroit, adaptable code, but they must serve third-party developers who are trying to create apps for a constantly updated operating system. This second task has been especially difficult in the wake of the most recent Android code overhaul…Duarte wants to remedy this. On Thursday, Google launched Android Design, a web site created specifically to help aid developers in the creation of applications for ICS. The site offers a comprehensive visual to third-party application developers, giving suggestions on everything from how to implement different visual elements to overall back-end patterns for the OS itself…”

26.    Overcoming 4 Google + issues for small businesses  http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/15/2589037/overcoming-4-google-issues-for.html  “…Google + is fast becoming one of the most used social media tools for business. The burgeoning social network has garnered 62 million users and is on track to reach 400 million by the end of 2012…This makes Google + a must-have tool for small business owners. But it’s not like Facebook, and many small business owners are finding it difficult to create an engaging, active network of potential customers on Google +…here’s a list of solutions to help you…Problem: No one is reading your content on Google +…Solution: Make sure that your content itself is engaging and relevant…Get your Google + followers used to receiving your content on a regular basis by posting at established intervals…Problem: Your comment engagement is low…Solution:…ask questions. Make sure the questions you ask are relevant to the topic…You should also leave comments on other people’s Google + posts…Problem: You’re not in anyone’s Google + Circles…Solution:…You have to invite people to join. Get started by asking people from your other social networks to join you on Google +. Also, make sure you are +1’ing other people’s comments…Problem: No one is +1 sharing your content…Solution: It might be because your content is not engaging or relevant enough…”

27.    Google fixes offline Gmail app, increases student appeal?  http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/google-fixes-offline-gmail-app-increases-student-appeal/14589  “…key updates have now been made to…offline Gmail app, available for the Chrome web browser…changes made to the application are:  The addition of a settings page, accessible via a new settings icon…All attachments are now downloaded and available for offline use…Messages and attachments now download at a faster rate…My personal favourite is the increased synchronisation capacities of the Gmail offline app. Users are now able to choose between various time frames — 7, 14, or 31 days’ — of email to be synchronised without an Internet connection. The idea of trawling through a month’s worth of emails is enough to make one’s head spin, but simply having the option to use this feature is a vast improvement. This is a big step for Google, considering the last version only synced up to the last 7 days’ worth of email. It is suspected that Gmail dominates the student marketshare of email use. Once a user signs up for an email account, generally it becomes unlikely that they will switch provider…Google is one of the few email providers I view to be interested in making continual improvements to their email functionality…”

General Technology

28.    Apple To Announce GarageBand for eBooks, Tools, Platform To ‘Digitally Destroy’ Textbook Publishing  http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/01/apple-digital-destroy-textbook/  “Apple is slated to announce the fruits of its labor on improving the use of technology in education…on…January 19…sources close to the matter have confirmed…Apple will announce tools to help create interactive e-books—the “GarageBand for e-books,” so to speak—and expand its current platform to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users…Apple is expected to announce support for the ePub 3 standard for iBooks going forward…authoring standards-compliant e-books (despite some promises to the contrary) is not as simple as running a Word document of a manuscript through a filter. The current state of software tools continues to frustrate authors and publishers alike, with several authors telling Ars that they wish Apple or some other vendor would make a simple app that makes the process as easy as creating a song in GarageBand…Apple CEO Steve Jobs was working on addressing learning and digital textbooks for some time, according to Walter Issacson’s biography. Jobs believed that textbook publishing was an “$8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction…”  http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/17/apples-education-event-is-getting-seriously-over-hyped/  “…Foresman's main source, quoted half a dozen times in his piece, is Matt MacInnis, CEO of a digital textbook company…that has developed more than 100 titles for the iPad. We interviewed MacInnis over the weekend, and as near as we can tell, Foresman -- and the 18 other reporters who followed his lead -- got it wrong. "Apple is not trying to kill the incumbents," MacInnis told us. "They've learned their lesson from upending the music industry." He told Foresman the same thing, although it doesn't seem to have registered…”

29.    ICube UPU, the next step in processor evolution?  http://vr-zone.com/articles/icube-upu-the-next-step-in-processor-evolution-/14518.html  “In the last part of our Chinese CPU story, we covered ICube and their processors with a brand new instruction set, something not seen in like two decades. Here's a bit more about the new architecture…Ever since Alpha in 1991, there was no new major instruction set architecture to appear in the general market. In fact, since then, most of the non-X86 architectures disappeared from the scene, leaving the X86 - even though widely agreed to be technically the worst - as the pre-dominant one. Power and Sparc still keep a part of the server field, while ARM is, of course, the king of the hill right now in the mobile arena…Now, for the first time in two decades, there's a company openly promoting its own new instruction set, and launching a processor based on it right into the hot waters on the mobile device market. Furthermore, UPU is a brand new philosophy too - for the first time, CPU and GPU are truly fused into one processor core, MVP (Multi-thread Virtual Pipeline)…ICube was set up by Fred Chow and Simon Moy, two industry veterans: Simon was behind the world's first 64-bits MIPS processors in SGI, and after that the principal engineer in Nvidia for 7 years until 2004, in charge of all the inital GPU, shader and GPU computing efforts. Fred was chief scientist at SGI, in its golden days of funky coloured superworkstations, and principal engineers at MIPS, later developing the Pathscale compiler suite that enabled AMD Opteron its first 64-bit X86 support. He is the chief architect of the open-source Open64 compiler suite…UPU (Unified Processor Unit) approach in their 'Harmony' architecture is the first situation where CPU and GPU threads are sharing the same execution units, register file and many instructions. In a sense, it is a 'total fusion' of the two, unlike the AMD Fusion APU approach where CPU and GPU are still distinct, with separate instruction sets, registers, execution units and such…”

30.    AMD to launch lower cost ultrabook platform  http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120116PD219.html  “…AMD is…set to launch its Trinity-based platform for the ultrabook market, which AMD codenamed Ultrathin, in June with an overall cost 10-20% lower than that from Intel…AMD has recently changed its strategy and will have Trinity-based APU to handle the ultrabook market and will push a low-price strategy to expand its share in the ultrabook market…Compared to Intel's Ivy Bridge-based ultrabooks, although AMD's Ultrathin machines do not have any significant innovations in terms of performance or function, they have advantages over cost, which allows the average price of Ultrathin machines to be US$100-200 lower than those of Intel's ultrabooks…some notebook vendors are also concerned that AMD's Ultrathin machines could cause a rapid price drop of ultrabook models…”

31.     MEMS manufacturer targets mass-market apps  http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4234032/MEMS-targets-mass-market-apps  “…Now that it has been acquired by Rohm Co. Ltd…Kionix is expanding its targeted design philosophy with multi-sensor combos, fusion software, and a second-sourcing strategy aimed to catapult it into maturing mega-markets…Kionix, which to date does all its manufacturing at its headquarters in Ithaca, N.Y…are building a new eight-inch fab in Japan."…Kionix promises a three-axis magnetometer in 2012 to add to its three-axis accelerometers and three-axis gyroscopes, enabling it to supply complete inertial measurement units (IMUs)…Kionix will be showing its latest and most advanced MEMS inertial sensors to date, including it first six-degree-of-freedom combo-sensor, a three-axis accelerometer wire-bonded to a three-axis gyroscope stacked atop a single application-specific-integrated circuit (ASIC) all packed into a single four-by-four millimeter package.  "Our combo part has the lowest power consumption in the industry [4 milliamps operating] plus you can put everything to sleep except the accelerometer for ultra-low-power [10 microamps asleep] with auto wake-up when motion is detected,"…A pin on the chip can also send a signal to shut-down other circuits, such as an altimeter (barometric pressure sensor), and an on-chip first-in-first-out (FIFO) memory enables the combo part to log readings while waiting to be polled by the application processor…The new accelerometer alone is also being made available in a legacy 3-by-3 millimeter package as well as a new ultra-small 2-by-2 millimeter package for the most demanding ultra-small mobile handsets where real-estate savings justifies the extra cost and handling equipment needed for assembling boards with such small devices…”

Leisure & Entertainment

32.    Nintendo Gives 2nd Glimpse of Wii U Game Machine  http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/nintendo-2nd-glimpse-wii-game-machine-15331937  “Nintendo Co.'s upcoming Wii U game console will come with a controller that has a big, touch-enabled screen…in demonstrations Tuesday, the company emphasized that the Wii U will work with the cheaper, stick-like Wii controllers as well, making family multiplayer games feasible…Nintendo said the device will go on sale after the next Electronic Entertainment Expo gaming trade show in Los Angeles in June…Although the company successfully courted casual gamers with the Wii, it is now facing increased competition from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other devices that offer simple games. It had hoped to win new gamers through a 3-D handheld device. But sales were slow, and Nintendo slashed prices on the 3DS within six months…”

33.    Smart TV: Six big features that matter  http://www.zdnet.com/blog/gadgetreviews/smart-tv-six-big-features-that-matter/28778  “…you are probably aware of the “Smart TV”, a term used, generally, to describe televisions that are able to connect to the Internet…Samsung, LG, Sony, Lenovo and especially Google are all pushing the concept in a major way, which is probably a clear indication that there is going to be some major movement in the area over the next year…it’s helpful to take a look at six of the key features that are likely to separate the Smart TV winners from their less fortunate counterparts…A smart interface…A robust recommendation engine…Over-the-top content…Cloud-based gaming…The ecosystem…Second screen compatibility…”

34.    Canon PowerShot G1 X Hands-on Preview  http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canong1x/default.asp  “The Canon PowerShot G1 X may look like the company's existing G-series compacts, but is a very different prospect. It's a large sensor camera with a flexible 28-112mm-equivalent, 4x zoom lens and extensive manual controls. The company says it sees it as a camera for photographers who already have a high end DSLR such as a 5D Mark II or 7D, but at a price of $799, we think it'll appeal much more widely than that. After repeated waves of cameras aimed at point-and-shoot upgraders, it's heartening to see a camera really living up to the billing of a 'serious compact.'…Canon is being a little modest in suggesting that this is a camera for high-end DSLR owners. There's every reason to suspect the G1 X will offer the capability of a Rebel/600D in a smaller package and at a slightly lower price. Given that few low-end DSLR users ever take the kit lens off their camera, then so long as they're not put off by its 'serious' looks, the G1 X could find a much bigger audience…”

Economy and Technology

35.    Security software firm AVG files for U.S. IPO  http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/security-software-firm-avg-files-for-u-s-ipo/  “Following on the heels of competitor Avast, security and antivirus developer AVG has announced it has filed…to make an initial public offering to raise up to $125 million, which it plans to use to continue and expand its operations—potentially through acquisitions…AVG is based in the Netherlands and is backed by the likes of Grisoft Holdings (the company that founded AVG back in the early 1990s)…and Intel Capital. AVG says it had 106 million active users at the end of the third quarter of 2011; however, AVG’s problem is that the vast majority of those customers are users of its free antivirus product. Only 15 million customers pay for AVG’s subscription security and antivirus services, generating about $130 million revenue during the first three calendar quarters of 2011…”

36.    Create A Mobile App And Increase Your Visibility  http://marketingland.com/create-a-mobile-app-and-increase-your-visibility-3144  “…mobile is the future. 35% of American adults own smartphones, and that number is constantly on the rise…app use has outstripped mobile browsing on mobile platforms by a margin of 81 minutes a day to 74 minutes a day on the web…the trend is very much toward app usage, with a 91% increase in app usage year-over-year…Most companies now have websites, and if you have a mobile version, you’re off to a good start. There are a number of tools designed to help non-developer create apps, or let developers create apps in the programming language they’re most familiar with and convert it to the appropriate format for iOS or Android. For programmers, the options include Appcelerator, MotherApp, and PhoneGap . For non-developers, there’s AppsGeyser (disclosure: I manage content and community for AppsGeyser), as well as RunRev, AppMakr, Genwi, SassMob, MobBase and many more…”

37.    The "Army of One" entrepreneur  http://swombat.com/2012/1/17/army-of-one-entrepreneur  “What's the best strategy to get from having no startup to having one that provides you with income? Is it to find the best idea you have, focus all your energy on it, and make it work at all costs? This seems to be the standard mode of operation for most new entrepreneurs. They'll wait until they have an idea that they can pursue and that seems worth pursuing, and then pour all their energies into that idea. If it works, great. If the idea happens to be a stinker, they'll probably fail. Some might be lucky enough to know that they should validate the idea before pouring a year of development effort into it, and so find out the idea is not so good before all the money is gone. Once upon a time, it used to be that starting a company and building a new product was a big and all-consuming affair (notice I'm not even talking about cost)…Even today, many such businesses are still started. Dropbox, AirBNB or Spotify are not the kind of business that you can start with only part of one person's attention. You need several people to dedicate all their time to proving the idea, if you want it to stand a chance. But is that true of all startup ideas? Clearly not. There are many ideas which you can validate very cheaply and without pouring all your time into them over a long period of time…”

38.    Placing Customers at the Center of QR Code Strategies  http://www.1to1media.com/weblog/2012/01/placing_customers_at_the_cente.html  “…While the emergence of other technologies such as near field communications and digital watermarks may shape the durability of QR, ultimately, the potential for the technology rests with how effectively companies place customers at the center of their QR efforts…it's important for companies to offer and promote the right incentives for customers to use QR codes. This includes educating consumers about what QR codes are and how they can be used. There needs to be a compelling reason for customers to stop whatever it is they're doing - say at a shopping mall or sporting event - and make use of the technology. Offer customers a chance to win a contest or to download a free song…Sears offers a compelling example for making QR codes useful for customers. Sears allows customers to scan QR codes with their smartphones while shopping in their stores. The service prevents shoppers from having to lug merchandise around the store while they continue shopping for other items while allowing customers to pick up ordered merchandise from a convenient pick-up location once they've completed their purchases…many marketers are missing prime opportunities to use QR codes to surprise and delight and deeply engage customers. Instead, many companies are often leading those who do scan to static websites that aren't optimized for mobile…”

DHMN Technology

39.    3D printer makers' rival visions of future  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16503443  “…3D printing is nothing new - engineers and designers have been using it for more than two decades to create prototypes. What has changed is that the printers are now being pitched at consumers…"We want to get this into the hands of the next generation because kids these days are going to have to learn digital design so they can solve the problems of tomorrow."…3D System's more advanced printers can print plastics in determined "a pixel at a time" as well as in metals, nylons, powders and liquids - offering the prospect of a future in which home made devices can replicate any object Star Trek-style. For the moment Makerbot notes that its Replicator is advanced enough to build most of the components necessary to reproduce itself. Both firms describe their efforts as having "democratising" effects with the potential to change the world…”

40.    THE GRINDER’S GUIDE TO THE NEXT 5 MINUTES: Part Two  http://grinding.be/2012/01/10/the-grinder%E2%80%99s-guide-to-the-next-5-minutes-part-two/  “…do you see any potentially disruptive technologies on the horizon? will 2012 be the year of drone deployments or ramped up ubicomp? Further breakthroughs in citizen science equipment or personal manufacturing?...m1k3y: open source artificial general intelligence – mixed into EVERYTHING. specifically the Open Cog project [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCog ]. I saw Ben Goertzel speak at the local Singularity Summit, and I was very impressed…Kevin: Again, I think it’s a toss up between 3d printing/rapid fabrication and drones.  And you can obviously see the point where those circles overlap to make a sexy self-replicating Venn diagram.   This will be the year a horrible act of police/state brutality is captured by citizen-operated drones, as well as the year that the idea of downloading and fabricating items sneaks in the mainstream.  And if you think “piracy” gets people pissed off now, you haven’t seen anything yet.  It’s not post-scarcity by any means, but it’s going to be disruptive nonetheless…”

41.     Hopefully These Robotic Farmers Will Harvest More Than Our Organs  http://www.pcworld.com/article/247483/hopefully_these_robotic_farmers_will_harvest_more_than_our_organs.html  “The Japanese government is planning to develop a farm where all labor is carried out by robots…The initiative, dubbed the "Dream Project," will use robotic tractors to plant and harvest the crops, and other robots for tasks such as packaging the produce for shipping…The farm will be located on 600 acres in the Miyagi Prefecture, and it'll be used to grow fruit, vegetables rice, soybeans and wheat…Use of chemicals will be minimized, with pesticides being replaced by special LED lighting. Carbon dioxide produced by the robots will be recycled by feeding it back to the crops to reduce the amount of fertilizer needed…Hopefully, such a project brings us one step closer to the Jetsons and not one step closer to the Matrix…”

Open Source Hardware

42.    ZPM Espresso is making an open source home espresso machine  http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/16/zpm-espresso-is-making-an-open-source-home-espresso-machine/  “Making good home espresso is possible, but the machines tend to cost a small fortune. ZPM Espresso, a startup in Atlanta, is hoping to change that with its open-source espresso machine…The founders like drinking espresso and they took apart a bunch of old machines to see how it’s done. They figured out how to make a machine for less money, but including important features such as PID controls, custom temperature, pressure profiles, and open source hardware and software using Arduino, a kind of microcontroller. The microcontroller governs the behavior of the thermoblock and the pump, rather than relying upon mechanical controls…Typical machines that can do that can cost more than $700, but ZPM is aiming at a target price of $300 to $400. One of the secrets is a custom-designed thermoblock that ZPM is creating itself…The company is raising a round of money on Kickstarter, the crowdsourced funding site. Based on the progress so far, it looks like the company will raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. The hope is that a community of users will share their temperature and pressure profiles online so that more people can figure out how to make a good cup of espresso. The open-source machine will be user serviceable…”  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zpmespresso/pid-controlled-espresso-machine

43.    Raspberry Pi computers in production, ready soon for orders  http://singularityhub.com/2012/01/14/raspberry-pi-is-about-to-be-served-%E2%80%93-manufacturing-has-begun-for-the-35-computer/  “……”  http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/01/17/0014220/raspberry-pi-25-linux-computer-now-in-production-video   “…The long-awaited $25 Linux single-board computers are finally being shipped from the Chinese factory where they're being assembled and will be available for sale in just a few weeks. Eben talks not only about the Raspberry Pi boards and the add-on Gertboard, but about the eBay auction that helped finance Raspberry Pi…”  [watch the Slashdot video]

44.    IoT open-source computers – The Rascal  http://postscapes.com/iot-open-source-computers-a-conversation-with-rascal-creator-brandon-stafford  “The Rascal is a small (about 5 cm x 10 cm), open-source computer designed for "connecting sensors, motors,and whatever else you can build to the internet". One of the things that sets it apart from the Arduino and other microcontrollers is its built-in Ethernet connection and ability to act as its own web server (hosting its own development tools, giving you the ability to edit files directly from your browser through a web-based editor)…I had a chance to talk with Rascal creator Brandon Stafford about the project and how he sees open-source hardware…My name is Brandon Stafford, I live outside of Boston and make a small computer for artists, scientists, hobbyist types who want to connect stuff to the Internet. The idea is that it is a general purpose tool that people can use to connect whatever they want to the Internet. It's called the Rascal and I've started a company called Rascal Micro that consists entirely of me sitting in my house making small computers…”

Open Source

45.    Google's 3D Human Body Browser Is Now Open-Source  http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/googles_3d_human_body_browser_is_now_open-source.php  “Google announced yesterday that its layered 3D browser of the human body has become an open-source project. Google Body was built by Google engineers in their "20% time"…Zygote Media Group, which provided the imagery for Google's modeling, has built Zygote Body with the code. It offers the same navigation and features. To support this launch, the Google Body team has built a new, open-source 3D viewer at open-3d-viewer.googlecode.com. Thanks to the work of Google engineers, any developer can now use the same kind of 3D model browser for her or his own project …”

46.    Microsoft mandating Secure Boot on ARM, making Linux installs difficult  http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/01/microsoft-mandating-secure-boot-on-arm-making-linux-installs-difficult.ars  “With Windows 8 coming out later this year, there has already been controversy about whether computers that ship with Windows 8 will have the ability to run Linux, either as a replacement for Windows or in a dual-boot setup…a process called UEFI secure booting prevents the booting of operating systems not signed by a trusted Certificate Authority—and hardware makers must enable the secure boot technology to qualify for a Designed for Windows 8 logo. This would make it difficult, but not impossible, for Linux operating systems to be installed on Windows 8 computers. Hardware manufacturers can still give users the option of disabling secure boot and running any operating system they wish…it now appears that flexibility will only be available to Windows 8 systems running on Intel chips, and not ARM ones…"On non-ARM systems, it is required to implement the ability to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup," Microsoft writes…But the opposite is true for ARM systems running Windows 8. "On an ARM system, it is forbidden to enable Custom Mode. … Disabling Secure MUST NOT be possible on ARM systems," Microsoft states …”

47.    Cracking Open the Scientific Process  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/science/open-science-challenges-journal-tradition-with-web-collaboration.html?_r=2&ref=science?src=dayp&pagewanted=all  “…For centuries, this is how science has operated — through research done in private, then submitted to science and medical journals to be reviewed by peers and published for the benefit of other researchers and the public at large. But to many scientists, the longevity of that process is nothing to celebrate. The system is hidebound, expensive and elitist, they say. Peer review can take months, journal subscriptions can be prohibitively costly…It is an ideal system for sharing knowledge, said the quantum physicist Michael Nielsen, only “if you’re stuck with 17th-century technology.” Dr. Nielsen and other advocates for “open science” say science can accomplish much more, much faster, in an environment of friction-free collaboration over the Internet…Open-access archives and journals like arXiv and the Public Library of Science (PLoS) have sprung up in recent years. GalaxyZoo, a citizen-science site, has classified millions of objects in space, discovering characteristics that have led to a raft of scientific papers… “I want to make science more open. I want to change this,” said Ijad Madisch, 31, the Harvard-trained virologist and computer scientist behind ResearchGate, the social networking site for scientists…Dr. Gupta called Dr. Madisch the “quintessential networking guy — if there’s a Bill Clinton of the science world, it would be him.”…Dr. Madisch, of ResearchGate, acknowledged that he might never reach many of the established scientists for whom social networking can seem like a foreign language or a waste of time. But wait, he said, until younger scientists weaned on social media and open-source collaboration start running their own labs. “If you said years ago, ‘One day you will be on Facebook sharing all your photos and personal information with people,’ they wouldn’t believe you,” he said. “We’re just at the beginning…”

Civilian Aerospace

48.    Solar Powered Dragon gets Wings for Station Soar  http://www.universetoday.com/92444/solar-powered-dragon-gets-wings-for-station-soar/  “…SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has gotten its wings and is set to soar to the International Space Station (ISS) in about a month…Dragon is a commercially developed unmanned cargo vessel constructed by SpaceX under a $1.6 Billion contract with NASA. The Dragon spacecraft will launch atop a Falcon 9 booster rocket also built by SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies…COTS 2/3 represents the first test of NASA’s new strategy to resupply the ISS with privately developed rockets and cargo carriers under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) initiative. Following the forced retirement of the Space Shuttle…NASA has no choice but to rely on private companies to loft virtually all of the US share of supplies and equipment to the ISS. The Feb…Dragon mission…is also the first time that the Dragon will fly with deployable solar arrays. The twin arrays are the primary power source for the Dragon…The solar arrays can generate up to 5000 watts of power on a long term basis to run the sensors and communications systems, drive the heating and cooling systems and recharge the battery pack. SpaceX designed, developed and manufactured the solar arrays in house with their own team of engineers…”  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0117-spacex-launch-delay-20120117,0,999082.story  “…SpaceX, planned to send its Dragon capsule into space…Feb. 7 from Cape Canaveral…on Monday the company said that more engineering work was needed before it would embark on the historic mission…"We believe that there are a few areas that will benefit from additional work and will optimize the safety and success of this mission," Kirstin Grantham, a SpaceX spokeswoman…"We are now working with NASA to establish a new target launch date, but note that we will continue to test and review data…it's unclear when the mission will take place…”

49.     Volunteers wanted for planet hunt  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16512017  “Members of the public are being asked to join the hunt for nearby planets that could support life. Volunteers can go to the Planethunters website to see time-lapsed images of 150,000 stars, taken by the Kepler space telescope. They will be advised on the signs that indicate the presence of a planet…"We know that people will find planets that are missed by the computer," said Chris Lintott from Oxford University…Already several planets have been discovered by the public since the site was put live last year by an international team including scientists from Yale and Oxford universities…”

Supercomputing & GPUs

50.    GPU-Accelerated Air Traffic Management   http://developer.nvidia.com/content/cuda-spotlight-gpu-accelerated-air-traffic-management  “…Every day, the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) services tens of thousands of commercial, military and general aviation aircraft safely across the country. Air traffic flow management involves balancing air traffic demand with system capacity in the NAS and managing the traffic flow in a safe, efficient, and coordinated manner…At any given moment, there are over 7000 aircraft flying in the skies of the U.S…The project we are working on with NASA is related to NextGen, a multi-agency initiative to improve the coordination of air traffic flow in the NAS. Our project is focused on predicting the "4-Dimensional Trajectory (4DT)" for every aircraft in the NAS. A 4DT describes the 3-dimensional position (latitude, longitude, altitude) of aircraft at regular time intervals (time is the 4th dimension)…all air traffic control decisions are performed based on the predicted 4DT, i.e. the predicted position of the aircraft in the future. This project resulted in the development of CARPAT™ (Computational Appliance for Rapid Prediction of Aircraft Trajectories)…Rapid prediction of aircraft trajectories is critical for decision making in future Trajectory Based Operations…GPU computing…allows us to achieve real-time performance…and opens up the possibility of utilizing algorithms and approaches that were earlier deemed impractical due to the computational complexity…Using CUDA and GPU computing we were able to achieve a 250X speedup over NASA’s baseline software called Future ATM Concepts Evaluation Tool (FACET). While FACET takes around 10 minutes to perform a typical 24-hour trajectory prediction for 35,000 aircraft in the NAS, the CARPAT prototype performs the same prediction in under 2.5 seconds…”

51.     New supercomputer for Bielefeld's high-energy physicists  http://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/blog/uninews/entry/new_supercomputer_for_bielefeld_s  “…Bielefeld's physicists will be using this new high-performance computer to calculate properties of so-called 'quarks' and 'gluons'. Quarks are considered to be the elementary constituents of all known matter. They interact through the exchange of force particles, the gluons…With their previous computer, apeNEXT, they have already been able to determine very precisely that the behaviour of quarks changes dramatically at a temperature of 1.78 billion degrees…this temperature is approximately 100,000 times higher than that at the core of our sun…the new Bielefeld computer will be used to study the quark–gluon plasma in detail through computer simulations…The new computer is equipped with 400 modern graphics boards…These graphic processors, which can also are used in PCs or games computers, are being connected with a network of computer processors to form a GPU cluster. A total of 400 GPUs are being installed…to reach a cumulative peak performance of about 500 Teraflops…equivalent to about 10,000 normal PCs. One particular feature of the new computer is its comparatively low power consumption. It is 50 times smaller than a system with the same computing capability composed of PCs…”

52.    Sony Vegas Pro 11 Now Has GPU Acceleration  http://www.pcworld.com/article/247239/sony_vegas_pro_11_review_now_with_graphics_acceleration.html  “If there's one thing that stifles creative energy with deadly effectiveness, it's having to wait. That's why the new GPU-accelerated features in Sony's Vegas Pro 11 video-editing application ($600 as of January 3, 2012) are more welcome than pretty much anything else Sony could have done for this application. Vegas Pro 11 can use your system's graphics card instead of its CPU to accelerate certain playback and rendering functions. Altogether, 36 video effects and 10 transitions, as well as output rendering, are GPU-accelerated; in contrast, Vegas Pro 10 accelerated a single function. Sony claims that Vegas's GPU acceleration can speed output rendering by as much as a factor of four, depending on the type of project involved…”

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