Below is the final list of technology news and issues for the Tuesday, 19 February 2013, 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.
Microsoft's Outlook.com
Gains 60M Users, Exits Preview http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415566,00.asp “Microsoft…Outlook.com, the company's new
free Internet email service, has grown to 60 million users since launching…Over
the weekend, Microsoft also removed the beta tags from Outlook.com and made it
open to the public…All users of the company's vintage Hotmail service will be
automatically moved over to Outlook this summer, though users can switch sooner
if they want…When making the transition from Hotmail to Outlook.com, users
won't need to notify their contacts of a new email address…Users can keep the
same @hotmail email address, and their password, messages, folders, contacts,
rules, vacation replies, and other settings will all stay the same with no
disruption, Microsoft promised…”
2.
Why Microsoft’s new
Office 2013 license may send users to Google Docs http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/why-microsofts-new-office-2013-license-may-send-users-to-google-docs/ “If you buy a perpetual retail license for
Office 2013, it will be locked to the computer you first install it on,
forever. Buy a new PC and you won't be allowed to install your existing copy of
Office on it, even if you wipe the disk of the old PC. You'll have to splurge
for a new one. This is a change in policy from Office 2010. Office 2010
permitted a transition from one PC to a new one…The company's 2012 annual
report…says that in its 2012 financial year, 80 percent of its sales were to
businesses, 20 percent to consumers…It's spectacularly unlikely that this licensing
change is going to increase that revenue in any meaningful way…But that is
arguably missing the point. The software giant is penalizing a small, typically
vocal group of users…It makes Microsoft appear petty and small-minded,
determined to wring every last dollar from its customer base…The underlying
reason for the change is…another incentive to buy an Office 365 Home Premium
subscription. The $99 a year subscription lets you use Office 2013 on up to
five PCs, and…you can…move licenses to new ones as necessary…The problem is
that there are plenty of customers who reject the subscription model out of
hand…So they probably won't flock to Office 365. What they might well do
instead is download LibreOffice 4 or switch to Google Docs…Those enthusiasts could
take the mass market with them. It's happened before, with Firefox and Chrome.
It can happen again to Office…”
3.
The Pros And Cons Of A
WebKit Monoculture http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/17/the-pros-and-cons-of-a-webkit-monoculture/ “…Opera is shutting down the development of
its own browser rendering engine and moving to the open source WebKit engine…With
WebKit powering the built-in browsers of Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, it’s
already the de-facto standard engine for mobile and it has the potential to do
the same on the desktop. Worldwide, Chrome now holds a considerable lead over
Microsoft’s Trident-powered Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Gecko for Firefox
already. The question is: are we better off because we have competing engines
trying to outdo each other, or would we be better off if all the browser
vendors just standardized on WebKit? As an open source project, WebKit allows
all the vendors to contribute and the combined efforts of Google, Apple,
Mozilla, Microsoft, Opera and everybody else in the browser ecosystem who may
want to contribute could quickly push the web forward…as long as we can trust
those in charge of WebKit development to work together to innovate, an
all-WebKit web would be a boon for developers and users…Mozilla engineer Steve
Fink argued that an all-WebKit web – both on mobile and desktop – would prevent
innovation and lead to a small number of companies controlling the web as a
platform…The interesting twist in Opera’s argument, however, is that the real
competition isn’t between browsers and rendering engines. Instead, it’s about
the web competing with native apps. Opera’s move, the company argues, is more
about the fully open web competing with “the closed world of ‘apps’” and
switching to WebKit allows it to counter this more effectively…”
4.
Tumblr Is Not What You
Think http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/18/tumblr-is-not-what-you-think/ “…what is the favorite social networking site
of Americans under age 25? If you guessed Facebook you are way behind the
eight-ball, because Tumblr now enjoys more regular visits from the youth of America…What
are the young and restless doing on Tumblr all day?...For a long time, I
thought of Tumblr as topic-based image blogging: In other words,
self-expression through collecting pictures of a particular type of thing…Tumblr
actually became huge because it is the anti-blog. What is the No. 1 reason that
people quit blogging? Because they can’t find and develop an audience. This has
been true of every blogging platform ever made. Conversely, blogs that do find
an audience tend to keep adding that type of content…But Tumblr does not
conform to this calculus, and the reason is that a large percentage of Tumblr
users actually don’t WANT an audience. They do not want to be found, except by
a few close friends who they explicitly share one of their tumblogs with.
Therefore Tumblr’s notoriously weak search functionality is A-OK with most of
its user base. Tumblr provides its users with the oldest privacy-control
strategy on the Internet: security through obscurity and multiple pseudonymity…”
Security,
Privacy & Digital Controls
5.
SlimCleaner 4.0: Slick
system cleaning utilities http://www.pcworld.com/article/2011379/slimcleaner-4-0-slick-system-cleaning-utilities-with-crowdsourced-information.html “SlimCleaner is by far one of the more useful
multi-utility tools I've run across. Aimed primarily at cleaning the junk out
of your system, it has the capabilities of several popular programs, including
Piriform's CCleaner and Trend Micro's HijackThis…SlimCleaner neatly divides its
functionality over seven main tabs/tools: Cleaner, which removes detritus from
the registry, temporary files, and so on; Optimize, which lets you to edit
startup items and services; Software, which lists and uninstalls programs;
Browsers, which does the same for browser plugins; Hijack Log, which lists
software that might be cantankerous; Disk tools, which lets you optimize or
wipe disks; and Windows, where you'll find all the native Windows utilities in
one place and in an arguably better arrangement…New features for version 4
include a duplicate file finder, intelligent hard disk optimization, a software
updater to compliment the driver updater, and…SSD optimization…”
6.
Fascinating video tracks
a real Chinese hacker in action http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/19/fascinating-video-tracks-a-real-chinese-hacker-in-action/ “…American cyber security firm Mandiant,
which worked with the New York Times to expose and counter a China-based
hacking campaign, has released an extensive report that it says ties years of
cyber attacks on U.S. corporations back to the Chinese military…Mandiant
released a video that purports to show one of the Chinese hackers in the act of
attacking real, unsuspecting “English language” targets…conducted by one
specific Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group, which Mandiant has named APT1…We
leave you with Mandiant’s “highlights” from its report…APT1 is believed to be
the 2nd Bureau of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Staff Department’s
(GSD) 3rd Department, which is most commonly known by its Military Unit Cover
Designator (MUCD) as Unit 61398…APT1 has systematically stolen hundreds of
terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations…APT1 maintains an extensive
infrastructure of computer systems around the world…”
7.
Targeted Hacking Forces a
New Reality on Antivirus Companies http://www.technologyreview.com/news/510826/targeted-hacking-forces-a-new-reality-on-antivirus-companies/ “When the New York Times revealed this month
that hackers had recently breached its networks, what turned the heads of
security experts wasn’t that the attacks had occurred. It was a top antivirus
company’s unusually candid admission about the limits of its own technology. Symantec
was put on the defensive because its software only once detected and
quarantined any of the 45 pieces of custom malware the hackers had used to
target the New York Times and ferret out certain reporters’ e-mails…the paper
did have the latest antivirus software on all computers on its network; but to
guard against so-called advanced persistent threats, “antivirus software alone
is not enough,” read Symantec’s statement…the blunt admission points to a
rapidly changing computer security landscape and a growing threat to Symantec’s
$6.7-billion-a-year business. A recent study…found that antivirus products from
top vendors detected less than 5 percent of more than 80 new viruses tested. As
attacks become more targeted and customized (see “The Antivirus Era Is Over”),
startups are positioning themselves as alternatives to conventional antivirus
vendors…Rather than using a blacklist to block known threats—the conventional
method employed by antivirus software—FireEye works by assuming everything is
suspect and testing programs in a safe “sandbox” before allowing them to run on
a machine. In November, the CEO of the major security vendor McAfee left to
join FireEye, which claims that nearly 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies are
its customers…”
8.
Monitor your wireless
network with Wireshark http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/tutorials/monitor-your-wireless-network-with-wireshark “Computer security is always a concern,
network security even more so. Wireless networks are a favourite target for
hackers. This is simply because there is no physical link between machines:
everything goes over the airwaves. One of the first steps to tightening
security is simply to see what the current activity is, and what machines are
involved. The tool that should be your first stop is Wireshark…One issue that
you need to be aware of is that what you can actually see is very dependent on
your wireless network card. Newer cards are probably fully capable, but older
cards (or less common cards) probably won’t support all of the possible capture
options. If you find you have problems, check the Wireshark wiki to see if
there are solutions…”
Mobile
Computing & Communicating
9.
Fujitsu Enters Europe’s
Smartphone Market With Senior-Focused Android http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/18/fujitsu-finally-enters-europes-smartphone-market-with-a-senior-focused-android-device-with-france-telecom-starting-in-june/ “…Fujitsu is launching its first device in
Europe, marking its first “extensive foray into the smartphone market outside
Japan.”…leading the charge…is the Stylistic S-01, a senior-focused, Android 4.0
device…in a world where Samsung and Apple are dominating smartphone sales,
competition is getting tight to sell to mass market, younger demographics and
some more specific targeting is needed. Smartphone penetration among seniors in
France is only around 20 percent, but some 75 percent of mobile users in the
senior age bracket plan to buy a smartphone in the next year…The Stylistic
S-01…homepage icons that appear on the four-inch screen have been simplified
and cast in a larger typeface to make them easier to see. The touchscreen…has
been made less sensitive, with users required to push extra hard, as they would
on a keypad, in order to tap through a command or number. While this might be
annoying to the average smartphone user…this reduces the amount of accidental
touches that an older person might make on the device…”
10.
The race is over: China
to pass U.S. in iOS, Android devices for good http://gigaom.com/2013/02/19/the-race-is-over-china-to-pass-u-s-in-ios-android-devices-for-good/ “In February 2012, China became the source of
the most new activations of iOS and Android devices. Now, just a year later,
the country is set to become the world’s largest market for devices running
Apple’s and Google’s operating systems, period…By the end of February, China
should have 246 million smartphones and tablets running iOS or Android; that
will put it ahead of the U.S., which should have 230 million…the U.S. will very
likely never lead again…thanks to the vast discrepancy in…population — 310
million to China’s 1.3 billion…” [it will
be interesting to see the impact on mobile computing of two factors, per capita
income and language, where China and the USA are very different; will mobile
computing innovations begin to be driven by Chinese market issues rather than
USA market issues – ed.]
11.
The PengPod tablet http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2013/02/15/what-about-the-pengpod/ “…A relatively new name in the tablet-space
is PengPod, made by Peacock Imports, a Florida, US-based outfit. The PengPod
tablet runs Linux on ARM/Allwinner SoC hardware…instead of just running a pure
Android tablet, you get the option to run your favorite Linux distribution and
Android in dual-boot fashion, provided your Linux distribution has an edition
for the hardware. There are currently three models of the PengPod – PengPod700
(7-inch screen), PengPod1000 (10-inch screen), and PengPod Stick (USB device)…common
specs for a PengPod are: Allwinner A10 processor…Support for Linux and Android
in dual-boot fashion on SD card…HDMI port…1 GB RAM and 8 GB storage…USB,
OTG-WiFi…Front Camera (1.3M for PengPod700 and 0.3M for the PengPod1000)…Compared
to high-end Android tablets, a PengPod is nothing to rave about, but a device
of this sort that makes it possible to dual-boot my favorite Linux distribution
gets on my buying list. That the price is around $120:00 USD makes it even
better…”
Apps
12.
Are We Suffering From
Mobile App Burnout? http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/digital-diary-are-we-suffering-from-mobile-app-burnout/ “At last count, I had 259 applications on my
iPhone. I probably use 16 regularly — including Google Maps, Messages, Twitter
for iPhone and Instagram. When I got my first iPhone in late 2008, I couldn’t
wait to peruse the App Store for cool new games, neat productivity tools and
quirky new social services…But now the App Store just feels daunting. Apple
recently said there were 775,000 applications for the iPhone and iPad…trendy
new games and services like Tiny Tower and Draw Something still float up and
become all the rage. But they typically fade away, at least for me…I just don’t
have the time to use more than I’m already using…I asked a few friends, and
their behavior is similar to mine. One friend…said he had 150 applications
installed on his phone. He estimates that he uses about 15 on a daily basis…a
larger study by Nielsen…found that the average number of applications per
smartphone was rising, but that the amount of time people spent using apps had
not changed much. The most heavily used apps were Facebook, YouTube, the
Android Market, Google Search and Gmail…”
13.
ComScore: Google has 5 of
the 6 most popular apps in America http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/14/comscores-state-of-the-digital-union-6-trillion-ads-google-has-5-of-the-6-most-popular-apps-and-more/ “…ComScore’s Digital Future report for 2013
just came out, and the analytics company has a lot to say about what happened
in 2012…Online advertising…was way up, with almost six trillion display ads
published in 2012…up 500 billion from 2011…AT&T accounted for a massive
1.04 billion of them, more than double the next largest online advertiser,
Microsoft, which bought almost 50 billion impressions…Facebook…is the most
popular app on phones in America…showing up on 76 percent of phones…Google…has…five
of the top six mobile apps in the U.S. Google’s apps such as Maps, Google Play,
Google Search, Gmail, and YouTube take positions two through six…Google
retained leadership in terms of unique visitors, with over 191 million. That’s
just six million more than Yahoo, which is still…strong in online services and
information, and over 20 million more than Microsoft…almost 11 percent of all
time spent online, is spent on Facebook…”
SkyNet
14.
Google’s Stock Price
Breaks $800 for 1st Time http://business.time.com/2013/02/19/googles-stock-price-breaks-800-for-1st-time/ “Google‘s stock price topped $800 for the
first time Monday amid renewed confidence in the company’s ability to reap
steadily higher profits from…Internet search and…the increasingly important
mobile device market. The milestone comes more than five years after Google’s
shares initially barreled through $700…If Google had its way, the stock
wouldn’t even be priced near these levels. The company…had hoped to split its
stock last year in a move that would have at least temporarily halved the trading
price…But the proposed stock split was put on hold until Google resolves a
shareholder lawsuit alleging that the stock split unfairly cedes too much power
to Page and fellow co-founder Sergey Brin…”
16.
Google rumored to be
opening U.S. retail stores later this year http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57569710-93/report-google-to-open-u.s-retail-stores-later-this-year/ “Google plans to open its own retail stores
across the United States, according to a new report, giving the increasingly
hardware-focused company a place to show off its growing number of physical
products. Citing "an extremely reliable source," 9to5Google says the
company "hopes to have the first flagship Google Stores open for the
holidays in major metropolitan areas." The report says Google accelerated
plans to build physical stores because customers are unlikely to buy expensive
hardware, including the upcoming Google Glass, without first having a chance to
try it for free. Google already has set up Chrome mini-stores inside U.S. Best
Buy locations and electronic retailers in the United Kingdom…”
17.
How Google Retooled
Android With Help From Your Brain http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/android-neural-network/ “When Google built the latest version of its
Android mobile operating system, the web giant made some big changes to the way
the OS interprets your voice commands. It installed a voice recognition system
based on what’s called a neural network — a computerized learning system that
behaves much like the human brain… “It kind of came as a surprise that we could
do so much better by just changing the model,” he says. Vanhoucke says that the
voice error rate with the new version of Android — known as Jelly Bean — is
about 25 percent lower than previous versions of the software, and that this is
making people more comfortable with voice commands…When you talk to Android’s
voice recognition software, the spectrogram of what you’ve said is chopped up
and sent to eight different computers housed in Google’s vast worldwide army of
servers. It’s then processed, using the neural network models…Google’s software
first tries to pick out the individual parts of speech — the different types of
vowels and consonants that make up words. That’s one layer of the neural
network. Then it uses that information to build more sophisticated guesses,
each layer of these connections drives it closer to figuring out what’s being
said…in 2006, there were two big changes. First, Hinton and his team figured
out a better way to map out deep neural networks…Second, low-cost graphical
processing units came along, giving the academics had a much cheaper and faster
way to do the billions of calculations they needed…it suddenly made things go
30 times as fast…Jeff Dean says that Google is now using neural network
algorithms in a variety of products — some experimental, some not — but nothing
is as far along as the Jelly Bean speech recognition software…”
General
Technology
18.
Best Buy Says
It Has Killed 'Showrooming' For Good
http://www.businessinsider.com/best-buy-new-price-matching-policy-2013-2 “Best Buy is confident that its latest policy
change will kill "showrooming" in its stores…Starting on March 3, the
retailer will price match all local retail competitors, along with 19
"major online competitors" in all product categories, whenever a
customer asks for it…Showrooming, the practice of looking at items in a
physical store then going online to make the actual purchase, has been a big
worry for consumer electronics stores. Customers showroom electronics items
more than any other category…”
19.
Nvidia Introduces Supercomputer-Class
Graphics Card for Gamers http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415527,00.asp “Nvidia today released its new GTX Titan
graphics card on an eager gaming market. Touted as being the most powerful
single GPU solution for gaming graphics, the Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan will slot
in as a companion to Nvidia's existing GeForce GTX 690 dual GPU graphics card
as the most powerful graphics cards that you can buy…The GTX Titan is built on
the same Kepler architecture as the GTX 680, GTX 690, and Telsa K20 GPU cards.
However…the GTX Titan is built on the GK110 core used in the Tesla K20 and
Tesla K20X. The GK110 has 2688 CUDA cores, 4500 Gigaflops of compute power, and
7.1 billion transistors…Memory utilization is better on the Titan in multiple
graphics card SLI mode than the GTX 690. The GTX Titan comes with 6GB of GDDR5,
and it can be deployed in 2-way and 3-way SLI configurations…Rather than using
voltage and power consumption as control points, the GTX Titan uses temperature
as a control, letting the GPU and its driver control performance. This process
allows the graphics card to dynamically vary clock speed and voltage…Tweakers
will still be able to change settings, but out of the box, the GTX Titan will
tailor its own performance as long as the GPU core temperature stays at or
below 80 degrees Celsius. With a high capacity fan and a heat sink that runs
the length of the card, this means that high levels of performance will be
available while keeping heat output and resulting fan noise down…”
20.
100Gbps and
beyond: the future of networking
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/100gbps-and-beyond-what-lies-ahead-in-the-world-of-networking/ “…Processors, systems, and storage are
getting better integrated, more virtualized, and more capable at making use of
greater networking and Internet bandwidth. At the heart of these changes are
major advances in networking. We're going to examine six specific trends
driving the evolution of the next-generation data center…Beyond 10Gb
networks…The rack as a data center microcosm…Beyond the simple SAN… Software-defined
networks…Backup as a Service…Application-aware firewalls…”
Leisure &
Entertainment
21.
4 payment trends that
will shape the future of game development http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/15/4-payments-trends-that-will-shape-the-future-of-game-development/ “Nearly one in 10 Americans has purchased a
digital good in the past year. Today’s gamers have an unprecedented range of
platforms, payment options and preferences to choose from, and there is little
doubt that the digital goods economy will continue to grow. If you’re an online
game developer or publisher, there are a lot of questions to answer to
determine how to best monetize game content…While there’s no single answer, the
recent growth of global and local payment options have at least made
transactions easier to facilitate…PlaySpan took a deeper look at four key
payment trends that will have a positive impact on the future of game development…1)
Gamers are using multiple channels to make payments…2) Alternative payments
offer appealing features and benefits to gamers…3) In-app purchases dominate
the growing mobile platform…4) Digital wallets gain acceptance, but there are
strong differences between genders…”
22.
New smartphone shooter
attempts to improve first-person controls on touch devices http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/14/new-smartphone-shooter-the-drowning-hopes-to-improve-first-person-controls-on-touch-devices/ “Controlling first-person shooters on a
touch-screen device always makes my hands want to explode…The Drowning is a
first-person shooter due out soon for iPhone and iPad. It features high-quality
visuals that should help you get your money’s worth out of that Retina display,
but it’s even more ambitious for its new control scheme. Most first-person
games on iPad have players using their thumbs to control virtual buttons and
directional pads…this only works for a few moments before my hands start to
cramp…In The Drowning, Scattered rethought controls from the ground up for the
touch screen. All of the basic movement commands work with one hand. Different
gestures correspond to moving, shooting, aiming, and zooming. To walk, players
just need to tap the ground with one finger like in an adventure game. A left
or right swipe will adjust where the camera is looking. Players can then fire
by tapping the screen with two fingers, and the bullet will fire to the middle
point. Finally, gamers can zoom in by pinching with two fingers…”
Economy and
Technology
23.
Innovation for the ‘one
percent’ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/innovation-for-the-one-percent/2013/02/18/7321ccb8-7780-11e2-b102-948929030e64_blog.html “…there are two parallel tracks of innovation
right now in America. One group of innovators gives us Facebook…while another
group of innovators seeks to give us Mars colonies. On one track, you have the
innovation contributions of the “99 percent” — or the “crowd.”…the crowd…has
given us…“crowdfunding” and “open source,” and…Facebook. These types of
innovations are almost impossible to create by a government agency or even by
an entrenched corporation. They can only be dreamt up in college dorm rooms or…while
tinkering in the garage…you will rarely hear politicians mention the crowd in
any type of major policy speech. On the other track, you have the innovation
contributions of the “1 percent”…such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates
who work on the big projects of the day, developing an interplanetary space
ship, conceptualizing new ideas for asteroid mining, mapping the human genome
and creating new health-care solutions…Viewed from this perspective, many of
America’s innovation priorities…in President…Obama's State of the Union address
— creating new sources of clean energy, developing new 3D printer technology,
mapping the human brain, analyzing the human genome — take on new meaning.
Instead of asking…which of these should be solved by government or by the
private sector, ask…which of them can be solved by the crowd and which of these
can be solved by the 1 percent…”
24.
How Samsung is
out-innovating Apple http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/18/tech/gaming-gadgets/samsung-apple-innovation/ “…Apple set the standard for modern mobile
devices with the iPhone and the iPad…it took another few years before Android
was good enough to go toe to toe with iOS, Apple's mobile operating system. But
it's no longer about being just as good as Apple…Competitors have built upon
the foundation Apple laid in mobile and are now leapfrogging it with bunch of
useful features you can't find on iPhones and iPads…it's most apparent in
products made by Apple's biggest mobile rival, Samsung…Samsung's Galaxy devices
have…more brand recognition than any other phone or tablet running Google's
operating system…the company has innovated a lot by creating popular new
product categories that Apple is wary to try. The best example of this is the
Galaxy Note, a smartphone-tablet hybrid with a giant screen. When that device
first hit…critics…slammed the device for being too large…It was really thick.
And it came with a stylus…None of that mattered. Samsung sold at least 10
million Galaxy Notes. The company came out with an updated version with an even
larger screen called the Galaxy Note II a few months later and sold another 5
million…Samsung created a new category of smartphone that people didn't even know
they wanted…Samsung is taking advantage of its mobile devices' processing power
to layer premium features on top of Android, such as the ability to run two
apps at once in a split screen or separate window…what's most important is how
nimble Samsung has become at improving its mobile devices through software
updates…Apple feels behind…its newest fourth-generation iPad…has a killer
processor and other great hardware features, but the operating system doesn't
take advantage of any of that. The home screen is still just a grid of static
icons that launch apps. Apple also isn't nearly as versatile at adding new
software features to its devices…it feels like Apple's software goes out of its
way to limit what you can do on the machine…”
DHMN Technology
25.
3D-Printing
Pen, The 3Doodler, Reaches Kickstarter Funding Goal In Hours http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/19/3d-printing-pen-the-3doodler-reaches-kickstarter-funding-goal-in-hours/ “…Built by a team of toy designers, the
3Doodler is a pen with a simple plastic extruder at the tip. When you press a
button, a thin string of plastic comes out and almost instantly hardens. You
can use the pen to draw plastic pictures or, with a little plastic, even build
three-dimensional objects. A pledge of $75 gets you a pen and you can use
standard-gauge ABS/PLA plastic – the same material used by Makerbot. The
plastic is self-feeding and you can get a few dozen objects out of one string
of plastic…It’s a fun toy and actually quite useful for very simple prototyping
of plastic objects. In a few minutes we were able to build a little wireframe
cube and draw a TC logo…The project is already funded and it looks like it will
be a popular product. It’s fun, clever, and introduces basic 3D-printing
concepts without the rigmarole of programming and CAD. Think of it as a LOGO
programming language for ABS extrusion fans…”
26.
15 Clever
Augmented Reality Campaigns http://www.businessinsider.com/augmented-reality-campaigns-2013-2?op=1 “In a world full of smartphones, augmented
reality (AR) campaigns are a very smart and unique way for brands to engage
with consumers…Whether consumers are test driving a new car model, learning a
new recipe, or playing a game, AR campaigns resonate with consumers in a way
that most other ad platforms fall short. The ad becomes a game, versus just
promotional material…Stella Artois' Le Bar Guide app allows consumers to find
out how close they are to a Stella-serving bar and how to get there…National
Geographic's AR app allowed people to swim with dolphins, pet a cheetah, and
see ancient dinosaurs up close…Volvo S60's AR app allows you to drive the car
(using your smartphone) through whatever room you're currently in. So if you're
at work, a Volvo S60 will plow through your office and you will have to avoid
hitting obstacles, including your co-workers' desks…”
27.
Video shows
flexibility of open-source, robotic tentacle http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/this-open-source-robotic-tentacle-will-haunt-your-dreams/ “In the underground world of robotic tentacle
makers, there are two rules: 1) don’t talk about underground tentacle-making
and 2) don’t talk about underground tentacle-making. Both of those rules have
been shattered by Matthew Borgatti, a robotics designer who has created a life-like,
3D-printed tentacle that flails around quite disturbingly using Arduino boards
and a set of mini air compressors…the robotic tentacle is almost completely
soft and is controlled by three solenoids that manage the flow of air into the
robot. Borgatti has posted the code for his robot…and he’s even built a simple
interface to control its motion…”
Open Source
28.
Can This Design Student
Build An Open-Source Alternative To GPS? http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671857/can-this-design-student-build-an-open-source-alternative-to-gps#1 “Maps are power. Those who draw them control
the public’s access to the world at a fundamental level…These days, we rely on
the Global Positioning System, developed by the Department of Defense during
the Cold War. Though it’s publicly accesible, GPS is still a closed system,
meaning the government can shut it down or edit it as they see fit…Philipp
Ronnenberg, an interaction design student…introduced his fledgling Open
Positioning System, an alternative to GPS. “At the moment, we are bound to the
Americans’ military GPS and network companies,” he says. “The technology is
closed at the moment and can be curated or shut down at any time.” The OPS, on
the other hand, seeks to establish a reliable positioning system that’s totally
independent of the government, corporations, and even satellites…Ronnenberg has
come up with a radical alternative to using signals from satellites. Instead of
measuring how long it takes a signal to move from Lower Earth Orbit to your
phone, OPS measures nearby seismic frequencies…predictable, man-made
disturbances emitted by power plants and turbines… “I came to this idea because
I was researching animal communication…Elephants and some spiders can
communicate through the ground by producing seismic activity which is then
transmitted and received.”…Ronnenberg’s system can pick up seismic frequencies
from any surface in contact with the ground…the user, obviously, needs to be
nearby a machine or power plant emitting a noise, and readings can get muddled
by city noise…similarly to GPS, the sensor needs at least three readings to
produce a reliable location…”
29.
Willow Garage ROS, the
Robot Operating System, moving to Open Source Robotics Foundation http://www.i-programmer.info/news/169-robotics/5480-ros-moving-to-open-source-robotics-foundation.html “The open source Robot Operating System
created by Willow Garage is in the process of moving to the Open Source
Robotics Foundation…Willow Garage…confirmed it was undergoing a fundamental
transformation but that the future of ROS and PR2 was not at risk…Willow Garage
has decided to enter the world of commercial opportunities with an eye to
becoming a self-sustaining company. This is an important change to our funding
model…There are close to 50 PR2 robots in the world and Willow Garage support
of the platform will not diminish…the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF),
an independent nonprofit company founded last summer with support from Willow
Garage, was chartered in-part to become the long-term home for ROS core development,
ROS wiki hosting, and ROS answers support…”
Civilian
Aerospace
30.
Private Moon
Travel Startup Launches Crowdfunding Campaign http://www.space.com/19795-private-moon-travel-crowdfunding.html “A private startup aiming to launch manned
lunar expeditions has started a crowdfunding campaign to get the public
involved…Golden Spike, aims to get its first mission off the ground by 2020. To
help achieve that goal, the startup's leaders are reaching out via the
crowdfunding site Indiegogo in hopes of raising $240,000 — "a dollar for
every mile on the way to the moon,"…Contributors during the 10-week
campaign can secure rewards ranging from printed "thank you's" and
subscriptions to Golden Spike's mailing list (for a $25 donation), to VIP trips
to see the company's first moon launch (for a contribution of $50,000)…Stern
said the money raised would be used to help Golden Spike get off the ground.
But moreover…it's a way for people excited about the idea of private moon
travel to get involved, and a way to raise awareness about the venture…”
31.
Commercial
Crew Efforts To Be Hit Hard By Sequestration http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_02_15_2013_p01-01-549222.xml
“NASA’s topline budget for fiscal 2013
will be reduced by $726.7 million…if sequestration takes effect March 1, with a
significant portion of that cut being absorbed by the agency’s efforts to
nurture commercial systems for transporting crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. “Sequestration
would reduce Commercial Space Flight funding by $441.6 million below the FY
2013 budget request,”…As a result, NASA would not be able to make
fourth-quarter milestone payments to the industry teams working on the
Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program, including for SpaceX’s
Inflight Abort Test Review, Boeing’s Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control
Engine Development Test, and the Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Integrated System Safety
Analysis Review #2…Overall availability of commercial crew transportation
services would be significantly delayed, thereby extending our reliance on
foreign providers for crew transportation to the International Space Station…”
Supercomputing
& GPUs
32.
NVIDIA Scores Green
Victory with Italian Supercomputer http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-02-05/gpu_wars.html “…Eurotech and NVIDIA announced a new HPC
system, called Eurora…using NVIDIA GPUs…With Eurora pumping out 315 gigaflops
per watt…NVIDIA executives are happy that they can now claim the most
energy-efficient HPC system uses their GPUs. The most powerful supercomputer in
the world, the Titan system at Oak Ridge National Lab, uses the same K20 GPUs
as Eurora. Eurora's efficiency was not just about GPUs, though. Everything
about the system was created with the intention of optimizing power draw…To
create Eurora, Eurotech replaced older generation NVIDIA GPUs in its previous
Aurora systems with the latest Tesla K20 processors. NVIDIA's K20 Kepler
generation GPU for the HPC market was also designed specifically to increase
FLOPS per watt…”
33.
Professor receives grant
to use super computer to test Microdrones http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/21418/tech-professor-receives-grant-to-use-super-computer-to-test-microdrones “A Virginia Tech professor is once again in
the national spotlight for his work with supercomputers. Professor Wu-Chun
Feng…has received a $3.5 million grant to research simulating micro-air
vehicles, MAVs…Wu will be using the supercomputers to simulate fluid dynamics
of the micro-air vehicles. The computations required are so detailed that the
machine being used to do them has to be capable of processing very large
amounts of information. "We have to figure out the right way to take the
application, decompose it to its fundamental algorithms, extractions and map
them appropriately onto a CPU or GPU,"…Wu compares CPUs and GPUs to sport
utility vehicles and drag racing cars, respectively. The CPUs are able to do a
multitude of actions relatively well, but don't have the greatest performance,
while GPUs are able to do single tasks with extreme efficiency and speed…"We're
trying to accelerate the simulation of the micro-air vehicles; we're not
actually putting (the computers) inside these drones, at least not yet,"
Wu said. "But certainly that could be the next frontier,"…GPU
accelerated computers are becoming more common, and more effective…The
effective use of these simulations would help to accelerate the process which
MAVs can get tested, stabilized and produced, and potentially could accelerate
modern intelligence gather capabilities…When he first started in imagery,
results came back on weekly basis. Now, said Stiles, images are coming back in
real-time, 24/7…”
Trends &
Emerging Tech
34.
Forrester’s
top 15 emerging technologies http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/07/forresters-top-15-emerging-technologies/ “Research firm Forrester understands that
everyone who’s been listening with even one ear knows that mobile, social,
cloud, and data are big freight trains of change…Analyst Bryan Hopkins gave us
a peek into what Forrester thinks is next…Next-generation devices and UIs…New
sensors…Advanced collaboration and communication…Systems of engagement…Smart
products…In-location positioning…Machine-to-machine networks…Smart process
applications and semantics…Advanced analytics…Pervasive BI…Process and data
cloud services…Big data platforms…Breakthrough storage and compute…Software-defined
infrastructure…Cloud application frameworks…New identity and trust models…”
35.
Forrester’s
top 10 trends for mobile in 2013
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/14/forresters-top-10-trends-for-mobile-in-2013/ “…Mobile phones are already well on their way
to replacing cameras, cash, maps, remote controls, handheld gaming systems,
boarding passes, tickets, cash registers, calculators, notepads, and much more.
And they’re becoming globally ubiquitous: 1.6 billion phones were shipped last
year; and by the end of this year, 1.4 billion smartphones will be in use…Forrester
shared its view of the near future of mobile…Marketers will realize that mobile
requires a total shift in marketing approach…Tablets will be the biggest
short-term disruptors…Mobile platforms will catalyze next-generation connected
experiences…Smart apps powered by big data and sophisticated analytics will
help us complete tasks…Mobile will play a leading role in engaging consumers in
emerging markets…Mobile will require more formal organization, processes, governance…Leading
marketers will take back ownership of mobile from agencies and vendors…The role
of mobile marketing manager will emerge…Finding the right strategic mix of
staff will rise in importance…Spending will increase to enable mobile services…”
*****
