NEW NET Weekly List for 05 Mar 2013

Below is the final list of technology news and issues for the Tuesday, 05 March 2013, NEW NET (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Entrepreneurism and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 PM weekly gathering at Cambria Suites Hotel, 3940 N. Gateway Drive, Appleton Wisconsin, USA near Ballard Road and Highway 41. Cambria Suites has free wifi and has an delicious assortment of food and beverages. This week's list is a departure from the norm. I had delusions of creating the longest list of NEW NET items ever this week since I've been deficient in recent weeks regarding robust lists. However, I ran out of steam on Sunday afternoon and accomplished very little on completing the list on Monday and Tuesday. Do with it as you will...

The ‘net

1.        You Don’t Want Super-High-Speed Internet, Says Time Warner Cable  http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/time-warner-cable/  “Time Warner Cable chief technology officer Irene Esteves says you don’t really want the gigabit speeds offered by Google Fiber and other high speed providers…Esteves downplayed the importance of offering a service to compete with Google…We just don’t see the need of delivering that to consumers,” she said, referring to gigabit-speed internet connections…Google rolled out its gigabit speed fiber optic service in Kansas City earlier this year. But big telcos like Verizon and Time Warner have been slow to match it…Experts believe that this reluctance has less to do with a lack of customer demand and more to do with protecting high margin broadband businesses. Companies like Time Warner Cable make around a 97 percent profit on existing services, Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffet told the MIT Technology Review…Verizon is more interested in wireless broadband, on which it can make an “absolute killing,” by charging per gigabyte for usage, broadband industry watcher and DSL Reports editor Karl Bode told Wired…”

2.       Zoom Launches Version 1.0 Of Radically Different Virtual Conferencing Tool  http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/28/zoom-raises-6m-series-a-launches-version-1-0-of-its-radically-different-virtual-conferencing-tool/  “Zoom, a startup founded by WebEx and Cisco veterans that wanted to make high quality video conferencing and virtual meetings accessible to everyone, instead of just those with…expensive hardware and even more expensive software…The new Zoom offers the same high quality multi-person video conferencing that’s easy to get set up and runs on all platforms, including desktop and mobile via its iOS and Android apps, but it bumps up the total number of participants to an industry-leading 40, provides high quality screen sharing, meeting recording…That’s all included free on the basic plan…The service has had over 400,000 participants, played hot to 140,000 meetings, and had 1,000 businesses using it so far…“We see two markets, education market being one really key focus because of how full-featured it is and the price point,” Chong said. “The second one is…SMBs in the range of 100 to 500 people, they can’t afford this kind of quality tool, so they either don’t have one or they use lower-quality tools like Skype…”

3.       StackExchange Founder Vows to Reinvent Online Discussion Forum  http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/discourse/  “…Jeff Atwood wants to improve the entire internet. That’s always been his goal. He started by co-founding StackOverflow, a question-and-answer site for software developers that revolutionized the way they learn online, and eventually this evolved into StackExchange, a network of Q&A sites spanning myriad topics…Atwood has renewed his crusade with Discourse, an open source application for building online message boards that he hopes will become as ubiquitous as WordPress. Complaining that forum software hasn’t changed in the past 10 years, Atwood and his co-founders Robin Ward and Sam Saffron set out to re-imagine what forum software should look like. With social networks, blogs, microblogs and Q&A sites like StackExchange and Quora, do forums still matter? Atwood certainly thinks so. “Forums are the dark matter of the web, the B-movies of the Internet. But they matter,” he wrote on his blog. “To this day I regularly get excellent search results on forum pages for stuff I’m interested in. Rarely a day goes by that I don’t end up on some forum, somewhere, looking for some obscure bit of information. And more often than not, I find it there.” At first glance, the Discourse demo site doesn’t appear to be a radical departure from existing forum software. But there are several tools that set it apart…”  http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2013/02/civilized-discourse-construction-kit.html

4.       Framebench Is A Google Docs For Creative Collaboration  http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/22/framebench-is-a-google-docs-for-creative-collaboration/  “……”

5.        Khan Academy State-Wide Pilot In Idaho  http://www.informationweek.com/education/online-learning/khan-academy-launches-first-state-wide-p/240149801  “……”

6.       Any Two Pages on the Web Are Connected By 19 Clicks or Less  http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/02/any-two-pages-on-the-web-are-connected-by-19-clicks-or-less/  “……”

7.        Are Microsoft's free Office Web Apps good enough for you?  http://www.zdnet.com/are-microsofts-free-office-web-apps-good-enough-for-you-7000011997/  “……”

8.       HitBliss, The Pandora Of Ads, Will Pay You To Watch Commercials  http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/01/hitbliss-the-pandora-of-ads-will-pay-you-to-watch-commercials/  “……”

9.       Why Facebook might be losing teens  http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/1/4049592/the-age-of-the-brag-is-over-why-facebook-might-be-losing-teens  “……”

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

10.     Inside the prosecution of Aaron Swartz  http://boingboing.net/2013/03/04/inside-the-prosecution-of-aaro.html  “Quinn Norton…has written a brutal, honest, infuriating, and brave account of her dealings with Steve Heymann, the prosecutor who hounded Aaron over his downloading of scientific journal articles. Heymann is a terror among Aaron's friends. Everyone I know who has met him has described him as a vicious, vindictive, authoritarian thug who destroys lives for giggles and notches on his bed-post. Quinn's piece sheds light on the awful cruelty of the system, for which Aaron's case was a microcosm…97% of those indicted by federal prosecutors are intimidated into pleading guilty…if a prosecutor like Heymann decides you should go to jail, 97% of the time, you will be coerced into prison without even getting a chance to make a defense (the coercion relies on threats of decade upon decade of prison and bankruptcy for you and all you love should you try to fight)…”  http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/13/03/life-inside-the-aaron-swartz-investigation/273654/

11.      Kindle iOS App Update Erasing Book Libraries  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415983,00.asp  “Amazon's latest update to its iOS Kindle app is deleting users' book libraries, so the company is urging people to avoid the update until it releases a fix. "Note: There is a known issue with this update. If you are an existing Kindle for iOS user, we recommend you do not install this update at this time," Amazon said in the "What's new" section of the Kindle app…"I updated the app and cannot access my books anymore - it always gives me an internal application error - reinstall didn't help?!" Fjan wrote on the same day. Unfortunately, many people on iOS opt for the "Update All" option or don't look at the "What's new" section of an app before updating, so many users saw Amazon's alert too late. "This has to be the dumbest way to give an update yet," wrote PDC101. "Who reads the fine print? We just hit update…”

12.     As Pirates Run Rampant, TV Studios Dial Up Pursuit  http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887324906004578292232028509990-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwMzEwNDMyWj.html  “…three content cops from NBCUniversal watch as pirated versions of the cable-TV drama "Suits" begin popping up on the Internet within minutes of the show's closing credits. At first, they come in ones and twos, but in an hour there are 444 unauthorized links to that Thursday night's episode…In two hours more, that number more than doubles, opening up the show to millions of Web viewers around the world as translations into languages as varied as Bulgarian and Chinese begin to roll out. As the pirates click away, the three on the digital beat fire off menacing notices to the website operators hosting the illegal episode, demanding they pull it down…"We're up against a whole ocean" of piracy, Mr. Skinner says. This ocean could eventually reduce the television industry's profit, much of which now comes from subscription fees on cable channels like USA and Time Warner Inc.'s HBO…HBO's Game of Thrones spotlights the issue. More than 11 million HBO subscribers watched each episode of the show's second season in the U.S. last year. From peer-to-peer sites…another 3.7 to 4.2 million people around the world watched pirated versions…Some TV executives worry that they may follow in the steps of the music industry…The explosion in pirated TV shows and movies is more recent because of improved Web technology. Faster Internet speeds have eliminated the hourslong process of downloading longer videos from peer-to-peer networks and online storage sites called cyberlockers. Much illegal content has also become available through instant streams, including live sports. "It has taken the arrival of high-speed broadband to make that attractive…”

13.     How Should The U.S. Respond To Chinese Hacking?  http://www.npr.org/2013/02/20/172485828/how-should-the-u-s-respond-to-chinese-hacking  “……”

14.     New Avast features roll out  http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-3667_7-57571726/new-avast-features-roll-out-to-fan-legions/  “……”

15.     Google Reveals Details About Its Plan To Fix Password Security  http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2013/03/01/google-reveals-details-about-its-plan-to-fix-password-security/  “……”

16.     HP SVP suggests learning from cyber criminals  http://www.zdnet.com/hp-svp-suggests-learning-from-cyber-criminals-and-their-methods-7000011974/  “……”

17.     Online note service Evernote requires all 50 million users to reset passwords  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57572212-83/online-note-service-evernote-latest-firm-to-get-hacked/  “……”

Mobile Computing & Communicating

18.     Ford opposed to embedded wireless, Chevy endorses it  http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/ford-reiterates-opposition-embedded-wireless/2013-02-27  “Just days after General Motors inked a major agreement with AT&T Mobility to install LTE modems into all its cars starting in 2014, rival automaker Ford restated its general opposition to embedded wireless modems in its cars. Ford instead believes users should connect their cars to the network through their existing smartphone. "The last thing we want to do is take this [smartphone] thing that updates every 12-18 months and bolt it into a car with a lifecycle of at least 10 years," said Doug VanDagens, global director of Connected Services Solutions at Ford Motor Company. He said users are already paying for the data connection on their phone, and so they shouldn't be assessed another fee for their car to access a network…”

19.     Why you should wait for the Samsung Galaxy S4  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57571469-94/why-you-should-wait-for-the-samsung-galaxy-s4/  “…It's hard to say how the new Galaxy S4 will stack up against the Galaxy S3 since specifications haven't been released. But…there is no question that the Galaxy S4 will be an improvement over the S3. For example, the Galaxy S4 is rumored to have an eight-core Exynos processor, a separate eight-core graphics processing unit, a 4.99-inch SuperAmoled display, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video capability, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and the latest version of Android, known as 4.2.2 Jelly Bean…”

20.    Understanding Camera Optics & Smartphone Camera Trends  http://www.anandtech.com/show/6777/understanding-camera-optics-smartphone-camera-trends  “……”

21.     Transparent smartphone prototype is clearly cool  http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57570168-1/transparent-smartphone-prototype-is-clearly-cool/  “……”

Apps

22.    SwiftKey 4: Best keyboard for Android  http://www.zdnet.com/swiftkey-4-released-for-android-hands-on-best-keyboard-for-android-7000011525/  “…SwiftKey learns how a user writes over time to provide predictive text entry that is uncanny in its accuracy. SwiftKey 4 has just been released that adds Swipe-like entry called SwiftKey Flow that can be intermingled with regular touch typing…The most notable additions are: SwiftKey Flow: Write by gliding your finger on the keyboard…Multimodal - SwiftKey Flow can be mixed with tap input, with switching mid-word…Mid-word completion: when you see the word you want just lift your finger off and the word will be inserted…Flow Through Space: Gesture multiple words without lifting a finger, just by sliding your finger down to the space bar between words..Flow with next-word prediction: when you finish flowing a word, SwiftKey immediately shows you its best guesses for your next word…”

23.    Samsung Wallet App  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415992,00.asp?google_editors_picks=true  “Samsung this week showed off an API for its new Wallet mobile payment system, an offering that sounds much like Apple's Passbook feature…"The Samsung Wallet service ... allows users to collect coupons, membership cards, tickets, and boarding passes from partners' applications and store them in one place,"…Launch partners include Walgreens, Belly, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Lufthansa. Those who use Samsung Wallet will get push alerts about coupons and tickets based on time and location, Samsung said in an overview of the API, which is still in beta. There will also be real-time updates about membership card points or changes to boarding passes…”

24.    The Evolving Economics of the App  http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323511804578300183961009070-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwMzEwNDMyWj.html  “…SoundHound is a bargain on Microsoft…Windows Phone store: It is free…for iPhone users, one version of SoundHound costs $6.99. And on…Android devices, a version of the mobile app costs $5.99…SoundHound isn't the only app with uneven prices…developers of apps ranging from children's games to fitness trackers are increasingly testing an array of price points and business models…Free remains king, though users on iPhones and iPads generally have a greater tolerance to pay the price to download apps and shut off advertising than those on Android devices. Users of apps in Amazon's app store, meanwhile, tend to make more purchases within the apps…The variable pricing trend may soon extend to in-app purchases as well…one app user could be prompted to upgrade or buy virtual goods at different points than another, helping developers determine when customers are most likely to open their wallets and how much they are willing to pay…Mr. Lahman, whose app offers discounted texting and calling rates, said he lowered the premium app's price every few weeks to as low as 99 cents, before settling on $1.99 after finding margins were about the same on those two versions…Advertising plays a role in how developers price their apps…SoundHound…has devoted more resources to developing its free versions because advertising "is infinitely monetizable." For Toronto-based Game Hive Corp., which developed the "Kick the Boss" revenge fantasy game…advertising associated with free versions of its apps account for about half the company's revenue…"The pay[ing] user is more valuable, but that turns off advertising forever," said Mr. Wang…”

25.    Google Settings Gives You Convenient Access to Other Google Apps’ Settings on Android  http://lifehacker.com/5987333/google-settings-gives-you-convenient-access-to-other-google-apps-settings-on-android  “……”

26.    10 mobile apps for coupons and deals  http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=4d9e00b7-308e-4b9b-b636-5a23bd998b65  “……”

27.    Apponomics: 7 ways to make money from apps without ads  http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/18/apponomics/  “……”

28.    Kleverbeast: The WordPress of Mobile Apps?  http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/2013/02/14/kleverbeast-aims-to-be-the-wordpress-of-mobile-apps/  “……”

29.    iTunes refund after Bristol boy's £1,700 spending spree  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-21629210  “……”

SkyNet

30.    Google Glass: the future, with monthly updates  http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4013406/i-used-google-glass-its-the-future-with-monthly-updates  “…a woman steps forward to greet me…She leans in to shake my hand and at that moment I become acutely aware of the device she’s wearing in the place you would expect eyeglasses: a thin strip of aluminum and plastic with a strange, prismatic lens just below her brow. Google Glass. What was a total oddity a year ago, and little more than an experiment just 18 months ago is now starting to look like a real product…A completely new kind of computing device; wearable, designed to reduce distraction, created to allow you to capture and communicate in a way that is supposed to feel completely natural to the wearer…But as I release from that handshake and study the bizarre device resting on my greeter’s brow, my mind begins to fixate on a single question: who would want to wear this thing in public?...But I walked away convinced that this wasn’t just one of Google’s weird flights of fancy. The more I used Glass the more it made sense to me; the more I wanted it. If the team had told me I could sign up to have my current glasses augmented with Glass technology, I would have put pen to paper (and money in their hands) right then and there. And it’s that kind of stuff that will make the difference between this being a niche device for geeks and a product that everyone wants to experience…”  http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/4017634/google-glass-for-consumers-planned-to-ship-in-2013-and-cost-less-than-1500

31.     Google Debuts Pixel, a Premium Touchscreen Chromebook  http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/02/chromebook-pixel/  “The Pixel, a new Chromebook built and designed by Google…is real…it’s a Chromebook unlike any other — premium hardware, high performance and a high-resolution touchscreen display...Pricing starts at $1,300 for a Wi-Fi-only version, which will be available in the United States and United Kingdom, and $1,450 for a Verizon LTE-capable version to be sold in the United States. Google is making the Pixel available for pre-order Thursday, and it will ship the first week in April…the devices will be sold both through Google Play and at Best Buy stores. Unlike other Chromebooks, however, which are available for as little as $200, it’s not a budget device for students or something for people who want a second or third computer…It’s a top-shelf laptop crafted from premium materials and components intended for power users. “We really wanted to step back and say, ‘For a user who lives in the cloud, what is the best computer we can design,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president of Chrome…Pichai says his team started working on the Pixel two years ago…”  http://www.wired.com/reviews/2013/02/google-chromebook-pixel/

32.    Google Glass Explorers contest gives non-devs a chance to buy  $1,500 specs  http://www.zdnet.com/google-glass-contest-gives-non-devs-a-chance-to-grab-1500-specs-7000011561/  “……”

33.    Google Glass isn’t just Pebble on your face  http://www.slashgear.com/good-news-google-glass-isnt-just-pebble-on-your-face-20270260/  “……”  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57570220-94/googles-electronic-eyewear-gets-ok-glass-voice-commands/  “……”

34.    The Glass Bicycle  http://dcurt.is/the-glass-bicycle  “……”

35.    Preeminent Cyborg Afraid Google’s Glass Design Might Be Bad For Users’ Vision  http://gizmodo.com/5988047/canadian-cyborg-afraid-googles-glass-design-might-be-wack  “……”

36.    Why Google built the pricey, powerful Chromebook Pixel  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57571963-93/why-google-built-the-pricey-powerful-chromebook-pixel/  “……”  http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/chromebook-pixel-can-boot-into-ubuntu-mint-20130226/  “……”

37.    $1,300 Google Chromebook Pixel vs. $200 Acer C7 Chromebook  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416063,00.asp  “……”

38.    Google ports Office-substitute app to Chrome OS, Chrome browser  http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9237167/Google_ports_Office_substitute_app_to_Chrome_OS_Chrome_browser  “……”

39.    3 major misconceptions about Google's Chrome OS  http://blogs.computerworld.com/cloud-computing/21822/google-chrome-os-misconceptions  “……”

40.    Giving up the file system with web apps like Google Docs  http://www.zdnet.com/giving-up-the-file-system-with-google-docs-or-office-web-apps-7000011769/  “……”

41.     Google Drive Adds File Previews for Photos, Videos, and Documents  http://lifehacker.com/5985758/google-drive-adds-file-previews-for-photos-videos-and-documents  “……”

42.    Google, Digital Mailboxes and the long tail of eBilling and payment tracking  http://www.finextra.com/community/FullBlog.aspx?blogid=7420  “……”

43.    Google Expands Universal Search to Include Your Calendar  http://www.webmonkey.com/2013/02/google-expands-universal-search-to-include-your-calendar/  “……”

44.    Google Hangouts receive sign language interpreter support, keyboard shortcuts  http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/02/google-hangouts-receive-sign-language-interpreter-support/  “……”

45.    Google mulls spicing up Google Maps Engine with Google Earth Engine imaging  http://gigaom.com/2013/03/01/google-mulls-spicing-up-google-maps-engine-with-google-earth-engine-imaging/  “……”

General Technology

46.    Solar Impulse: Solar Powered Airplane to Fly from California to NY this Spring  http://energy.aol.com/2013/03/04/solar-powered-airplane-to-fly-from-california-to-ny-this-spring/  “…The solar-powered plane called the Solar Impulse will travel from San Francisco to New York using 11,628 photovoltaic cells, several lithium polymer batteries and four 10 horsepower electric engines. The plane's wingspan is the size of a Boeing 747, it weighs about as much as a car and has as much power as an average scooter…the multimillion dollar plane has zero direct commercial applications, carrying neither cargo nor passengers, so what's the point? The technology being developed and utilized for the project can be applied anywhere, Bertrand told AOL Energy. "If the technologies were all used on a massive scale globally, energy use could be cut by a factor of 2," he said…They also stressed the investment is profitable…"mechanical and electrical engineers, physicists, IT experts and composite material specialists" working on the project have developed patented materials like carbon nanotubes and aluminium powders that are being used in the construction and refrigeration industries…The total budget for the project over 12 years is $140 million, according to Borschberg, and the funding is sourced from private companies…The "Main Partners" are Solvay, Omega, Deutsche Bank and Schindler and the "Official International Partners" are Bayer MaterialScience and Altran. Sun Power developed the solar cells and South Korea's Kokam the batteries. The funding has been raised in stages that coincide with each development phase, said Borschberg, and they have brought in $110 million thus far…”

47.    Seagate to Discontinue 7200rpm 2.5" Drives Later This Year  http://www.anandtech.com/show/6810/seagate-to-discontinue-7200rpm-25-drives-later-this-year  “…Seagate will stop the production of their 7200RPM 2.5" drives by the end of this year…Seagate currently offers four 7200RPM 2.5" lineups: Momentus 7200.4, 7200.2, Momentus Thin 7200, and Momentus XT. The latter is Seagate's hybrid drive, which couples the spinning platters with 8GB of SLC NAND for caching purposes…7200RPM mobile hard drives have always been a premium product and are mostly found in high-end laptops or built-to-order configurations. Due to the decline in SSD prices over the last few years, the market for faster hard drives has quickly faded away because users seeking for performance have opted for SSDs instead of 7200RPM hard drives. While 7200RPM 2.5" hard drives are still significantly cheaper per GB than SSDs, even a small (32-128GB) SSD will provide better overall performance when used as an OS and applications drive…”

48.    First WiGig dock eliminates cord clutter on your desk  http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/02/first-wigig-dock-eliminates-cord-clutter-on-your-desk/  “……”

49.    When You Should Upgrade Your Graphics Card (and When It’s a Waste of Money)  http://lifehacker.com/5988365/how-bottlenecks-work-and-how-they-can-waste-money-spent-on-your-pc  “……”

50.    New technology could stoke clean coal-powered cars  http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/02/27/could-clean-coal-power-cars/  “……”

51.     Amazing 3-D Desktop Born at Microsoft  http://www.wired.com/business/2013/02/amazing-3d-desktop/  “……”

Leisure & Entertainment

52.    Pandora Limits Hours For Mobile Usage  http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/27/pandora-mobile-cap/  “As it struggles to deal with rising royalty costs, streaming radio service Pandora is bringing back an old idea by capping free mobile usage at 40 hours per month. The company previously limited free monthly desktop usage to 40 hours, but it lifted the cap in September 2011…Pandora’s mobile business is in a similar position to its desktop business a few years ago — it needs to make more money…“When you have a per-track royalty structure … there’s an inherent conflict between what radio has always been [namely, free] and what’s pragmatically reasonable…As mobile monetization improves over time, we’ll lift this.”…there’s a big difference between mobile and desktop usage patterns — there are desktop users who basically listen to Pandora all day while they’re at work, so a larger percentage of them that exceeded the monthly limit. On mobile, however, the cap should only affect 4 percent of users. That may not be much consolation if you’re in that 4 percent…”

53.    Facebook, Google tech gurus to design cancer research mobile phone game  http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/news/archive/pressrelease/2013-02-28-cruk-phone-game-to-speed-up-cancer-cures  “Cancer Research UK is bringing together the charity’s world-leading scientists alongside technology gurus – such as Amazon Web Services, Facebook and Google – to design and develop a mobile game to accelerate cures for cancer…anyone with a smart phone and five minutes to spare on a bus journey will be able to play an enjoyable game that will simultaneously investigate vital scientific data. The first step will be for forty ‘hackers’ – computer programmers, gamers, graphic designers and other specialists – to take part in a weekend ‘GameJam’, or hackathon, to turn Cancer Research UK’s raw gene data into a game format, with a working title of GeneRun, for citizen scientists to play…The charity is investing heavily in studies to discover the genetic faults driving cancer to find new ways to diagnose and treat patients in a more targeted way based on their genetic fingerprint…”

54.    Use your smartphone as a controller in Super Sync Sports, Google’s new browser-based game  http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/02/use-your-smartphone-as-a-controller-in-googles-new-browser-based-game/  “……”

Entrepreneurism and Technology

55.     Breakthrough Prize announced by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs  http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/20/breakthrough-prize-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs  “The Silicon Valley aristocrats Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and Yuri Milner have jointly established the most lucrative annual prize in the history of science to reward research into curing diseases and extending human life. The newly created Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation on Wednesday announces the first 11 winners of an award intended to inject excitement into the sometimes lonely, underfunded quests to understand and combat cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and other maladies. Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook; Brin, who co-founded Google; and Milner, a venture capitalist, have dipped into their fortunes to sponsor awards worth $3m each, compared with a Nobel prize's monetary value of $1.1m…”

56.    Coworking Spaces From GRid70 To Grind Help Employees Work Beyond The Cube  http://www.fastcompany.com/3004915/coworking-nextspace  “…coworking…is, toiling alongside someone who isn't a colleague. In the past few years, the population of these spaces has moved beyond assorted freelancers and the newly unemployed to something far less marginal…AT&T…is placing dozens of…company's best researchers, product developers, and technologists in coworking hubs across the country…he has invited startups and partners such as Ericsson to work alongside them. The goals: spot talent, inspire creativity, and get products to market faster. There are now an estimated 90,000 coworkers worldwide, nearly half of whom are in the United States. The number of dedicated spaces for them has doubled every year since 2005, to more than 1,800 locations, reported Deskmag, as of last summer. NextSpace plans to open 25 offices across the United States over the next five years. A startup named Serendipity Labs in Rye, New York, will offer corporate memberships in more than 200 U.S. locations. WeWork, with 3,000 members in nine buildings across three cities, tags itself as "The Physical Social Network."…Coworking generally falls into one of three categories. The most typical is the NextSpace model--a big, well-appointed office where the employed and self-employed go to make contacts, stare at a laptop, and sip coffee. A second, newer iteration is sometimes called company-to-company sharing, in which a group of companies pool space, employees, and ideas. The third and arguably most radical type might be described as private-to-public sharing--in effect inviting outsiders to work inside your company building or campus…the world's largest experiment in company-to-company coworking sits at the end of a row of handsome brick warehouses in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. The teams stationed in the lofty offices of GRid70…have been charged with plotting their employers' futures. The fourth floor houses the growth initiatives team of Steelcase, the world's largest office furniture manufacturer, and Amway, the $10 billion multilevel marketer. The test kitchens of Meijer, the Midwest grocery chain, dominate the ground floor, while the third floor belongs to the footwear designers of Wolverine Worldwide, owner of such brands as Hush Puppies, Keds, and Sperry Top-Sider…The hope is that these disparate residents will use their expertise to help one another in their struggles. To that end, an open-door policy reigns. Amway's Post-it-Note-strewn space has no doors at all. Steelcase eschewed cubicles for a long, double-wide table and a few videoconferencing pods. Downstairs, accessible through an atrium staircase, Wolverine's 50 or so designers wade through shoe samples in their open-plan office, while Meijer's food scientists spend their days sampling vendors' baby-back ribs, candy, and macaroni and cheese in a spotlessly clean kitchen the size of a nightclub…”

57.     Hacker Fair: science fair meets job fair  http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/02/26/coming-up-hacker-fair.html  “……”  http://www.hackerdojo.com/HackerFair3

58.    Office Depot in $1.2 billion deal to buy rival OfficeMax  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/20/us-officedepot-officemax-idUSBRE91J0O220130220  “……”

59.    Square’s ‘Business in a Box’ gets your point-of-sale system running for $300  http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/20/square-debuts-business-in-a-box-a-turnkey-point-of-sale-experience-for-299/  “……”

60.    Apple Stock Just Crashed To A New Low  http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-stock-new-low-2013-3  “……”

61.     Apple execs have to hold "triple their salary in stock"  http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/03/01/apple-execs-have-to-hold-triple-their.html  “……”

Design / DEMO

62.    So You’ve Discovered the Importance of Good Design. Don’t Make These Mistakes  http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/03/what-google-harvard-and-other-organizations-discovering-design-will-miss/  “…famously engineering-centric cultures like Google are trying to integrate design thinking into their way of doing things. Even the traditionally conservative Harvard Business School…recently hosted an inaugural design conference. The federal government too is undertaking initiatives to add design to its toolkit. However, as a veteran of this space — who has both long observed and participated in such moves — I’ve been disappointed to see the same ole, same ole thinking about design…My concern is that while these organizations move on, others who are just discovering the need for design in their worlds will start from the place so many of us passed long ago. For example, by engaging in endless debates about design thinking or what design really is (and isn’t)…We need to move away from the outdated relics of design and towards creative competence, beginning with the following…Not Failing Fast and Often…Beyond Brainstorming and Sticky Notes…Teamwork That Actually Works…”

63.    12 design patterns for 2013  http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671910/the-12-trends-that-will-rule-products-in-2013  “…we designers spend a lot of time observing people as they interact with technology, services, and experiences…In the process, certain patterns emerge so forcefully that they’re practically unavoidable. Meeting over three sessions spread out over a week, 23 Zibites (designers, researchers, and creative directors) discussed the patterns we’d seen, and distilled them down to the 12 insights we thought were most current and useful…1. THE MIND IS A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT…2. CUSTOMER-FACING EMPLOYEES ARE YOUR BRAIN AND YOUR BACKBONE…3. ANALOG WILL NEVER GO AWAY…4. WORTH IS DETERMINED BY PHILOSOPHY, NOT PRICE…5. NARRATIVE IS A DELIVERY VEHICLE TO MAKE INFORMATION STICK…6. REPAIR AND REPURPOSE ARE THE NEW KILLER APPS…7. TECHNOLOGY MOVES TOO FAST TO CARE ABOUT…8. FLAWLESS FUNCTION IS TOMORROW’S GREAT USER EXPERIENCE…9. BRAND LOYALTY IS HOW WE ESCAPE DECISION FATIGUE…10. HUMAN INTERACTION HAS NEVER BEEN MORE PRECIOUS…11. GEN Y IS CREATING ITS OWN SERVICE ECONOMY…12. EVERYONE IS A SPECIALIST…”

DHMN Technology

64.    Libraries and Makerspaces: a match made in heaven  http://www.raincoast.com/blog/details/guest-post-cory-doctorow-for-freedom-to-read-week/  “Every discussion of libraries in the age of austerity always includes at least one blowhard who opines, "What do we need libraries for? We've got the Internet now!"…The problem is that Mr. Blowhard has confused a library with a book depository. Now, those are useful, too, but a library isn't just (or even necessarily) a place where you go to get books for free. Public libraries have always been places where skilled information professionals assisted the general public with the eternal quest to understand the world. Historically, librarians have sat at the coalface between the entire universe of published material and patrons, choosing books with at least a colorable claim to credibility, carefully cataloging and shelving them, and then assisting patrons in understanding how to synthesize the material contained therein. Libraries have also served as community hubs, places where the curious, the scholarly, and the intellectually excitable could gather in the company of one another, surrounded by untold information-wealth, presided over by skilled information professionals who could lend technical assistance where needed…But there's another gang of information-literate people out there, a gang who are a natural ally of libraries and librarians: the maker movement. Clustered in co-operative workshops called "makerspaces" or "hack(er)spaces," makers build physical stuff. They make robots, flying drones, 3D printers (and 3D printed stuff), jewelry, tools, printing presses, clothes, medieval armor... Whatever takes their fancy. Making in the 21st century has moved out of the individual workshop and gone networked. Today's tinkerer work in vast, distributed communities where information sharing is the norm, where the ethics and practices of the free/open source software movement has gone physical…At first blush, the connection between makers and libraries might be hard to see. But one of the impacts of building your own computing devices (a drone, a 3D printer, and a robot are just specialized computers in fancy cases) is that it forces you to confront the architecture and systems that underlie your own information consumption…What if, instead of shipping our communities' "dead" computers to China to be dipped in acid by unprotected children, we brought them to our libraries. What if we enlisted our makers to run workshops at the libraries, workshops where the patrons who come to the library to use the limited computers there were taught to build their own PCs, install GNU/Linux on them, and *bring them home*? People who say that it's dumb to turn libraries into book-lined Internet cafes are right…”

65.    Moedls brings 3D scanning to your phone  http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/22/insert-coin-semifinalist-moedls/  “3D scanners are kinda old hat at this point. But, while we've seen more than our fair share of Kinect hacks, we haven't come across too many phone-based systems. Moedls actually puts the power to create models like the one above in the palm of your hand... sort of. The heart of the system is either an iOS or Android app (sorry MeeGo fans), but there are actual lasers with a custom enclosure as part of the platform. Clearly, that does somewhat restrict portability, but it should all fit into a 10-inch x 10-inch x 4-inch box for storage or transportation…John Fehr started the project as a way to save some of his daughter's sculptures in digital form. After trying many different component options, Fehr settled on a combination of parts that totaled around $300. That included a custom enclosure and variable speed rotating platform have been sourced. Right now the iOS app is awaiting approval from Apple and the Google-fied equivalent is currently in development…”

66.    3-D Printed Car Is as Strong as Steel, Half the Weight, and Nearing Production  http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/02/3d-printed-car/  “……”

67.    How an Obsolete Tech Guy Rebuilt Himself for the Future  http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/quantified-work/all/  “……”  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18y_phqN304  [long video, but well worth watching if you’re interested in this topic – ed.]

68.    Hack old smartphones to make something useful or interesting  http://lifehacker.com/5987430/breathe-new-life-into-an-old-smartphone-this-weekend  “……”

69.    Book of the Day: Effective Javascript  http://blog.mediumequalsmessage.com/book-of-the-day-effective-javascript  “……”

70.    Raspberry Pi: One year since launch, one million sold  http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/the-raspberry-pi-one-year-since-launch-one-million-sold/  “……”

Open Source Hardware

71.     RecycleBot: 3D Printing With Recycled Material  http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112796887/trash-recycled-used-3d-printing-030513/  “…Michigan Technological University’s (MTU) Joshua Pearce and colleagues are working on a tool for 3D printing called a RecycleBot that turns trash like empty milk cartons into 3D printing material. The tools are open-source, and the mechanical and electrical designs are currently available for free online (here and here), so any 3D printing enthusiasts out there who have a mechanical background can go ahead and start turning their trash into 3D printing treasure…RecycleBot melts down milk jugs, after they have been shredded, and turn them into a spaghetti-like string of plastic…The recycling unit only uses about a tenth of the energy needed to acquire commercial 3D filament, and also uses less energy than it would take to recycle the milk jugs…20 to 30 milk jugs are able to make about $30 to $50 in plastic you might buy online for your 3D printer. However, the plastic being created isn’t quite as strong as some available for 3D printers like those by MakerBot. Milk jugs are made of high-density polyethylene, or HDPE, which is not considered to be ideal for 3D printing. “We currently are in the middle of a massive study of 3-D printed material strengths,” Pearce told redOrbit…”

72.    How an 83-Year-Old Inventor Beat the High Cost of 3D Printing  http://techland.time.com/2013/03/04/how-an-83-year-old-inventor-beat-the-high-cost-of-3d-printing/  “…Just as most of the cost of conventional ink-jet printing comes in the form of those pricey ink cartridges, the spools of plastic filament which a 3D printer layers into an object have a huge impact on the long-term economics of 3D printing. The filament is far more costly than pellets made of exactly the same plastic: “It’s like a 10x difference,” says Zach Kaplan, the CEO of Inventables…Why not challenge the community to create a low-cost, open-source machine which could convert pellets into filament?...In May of 2012, the contest, dubbed the Desktop Factory Competition, debuted on iStart.org, a Kauffman-owned platform for entrepreneurial competitions…it offered $40,000 from Kauffman and hardware prizes such as a 3D printer from Inventables to the first person or team who submitted plans for an open-source device capable of turning plastic pellets into filament. The rules also mandated that the parts involved could cost no more than $250, priced at a 400-unit quantity…its winner…is 83-year-old Hugh Lyman…he learned about kits for building low-cost desktop 3D printers. He built one, and then another and then another…he returned to his drawing board and came up with the Lyman Filament Extruder II…Buy one spool of mass-produced filament, and that will cost you about $50. Buy a kilogram of pellets and make your own filament, and the cost goes down to $10. Buy 25 kilograms of pellets in bulk, and you can print the chess pieces for just $5…Almost 12,000 people around the world have downloaded the plans for his two extruders…At least one 3D printer company, Lulzbot, hopes to sell a pre-assembled version…”

Open Source

73.    Steve Keen nears Kickstarter goal for open source economic software  http://www.itnews.com.au/News/333682,steve-keen-nears-kickstarter-goal-for-open-source-economic-software.aspx  “Economist Steve Keen is closing in on his goal to raise $50,000 on Kickstarter to help build “the best economic modelling software ever produced”…The “Minsky” web application, named after American economist Hyman Minsky, has already had 1000 hours of programming time… “Economic models almost completely ignore the existence of banks, debt and money, which is completely ridiculous,” Keen said. “I’ve worked out an incredibly simple way of doing it. “It’s a relative of the software packages that engineers have been using now for decades to build dynamic systems.”…finishing the software, which would remain open source, required at least another 5000 hours of programming. He’s hoping that once available, the software will be used by central banks and treasuries…”

74.    9 Best Tools for LINUX Admin  http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2013/02/9-best-tools-for-linux-admin.html  “…the following…are by far some of the best Linus tools that can help administrators in a variety of ways…Webmin is an exceptional web based platform that is not just for Linux…Tcpdump…analyzes network traffic to help fix problems within the system…Tight VNC, Ultra VNC, and Real VNC…remote access…popular among Linux users…Gnome Partition Editor…is a powerful tool to…erase, edit, and resize the partitions without letting any damage come to the existing data…Deny Host…allows users to monitor logins that are not authorized…Nagios…monitors protocols, hosts, and services…Linux Rescue CD…can be used for just about anything that you can imagine…Drop box…should be a part of any system administrator’s pile of tools…Darik’s Boot and Nuke…completely erases hard drives from computers…data that is deleted using this tool is one hundred percent unrecoverable…”

Civilian Aerospace

75.     SpaceX Dragon rockets to space station with fresh fruit, supplies  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2287548/SpaceX-makes-delivery-supplies-International-Space-Station-losing-control-Dragon-capsule.html  “After nearly losing control of their space capsule, private outer space shipping firm SpaceX overcame mechanical difficulties and delivered over a ton of supplies to the eager inhabitants of the International Space Station…Moments after the Dragon reached orbit Friday, a clogged pressure line or stuck valve prevented the release of the solar panels and the crucial firing of small maneuvering rockets…SpaceX flight controllers struggled for several hours before gaining control of the capsule and salvaging the mission…Among the items on board: 640 seeds of a flowering weed used for research, mouse stem cells, food and clothes for the six men on board the space station, trash bags, computer equipment, air purifiers, spacewalking tools and batteries. The company also tucked away apples and other fresh treats from an employee's family orchard, a much appreciated infusion of fresh food for the six-person crew unable to drop by their local green market. The Dragon will remain at the space station for most of March before returning to Earth with science samples, empty food containers and old equipment…This is the third time a Dragon has visited the space station…”

76.    Dennis Tito proposes 2018 Mars fly-by trip for astronaut couple  http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57571693-76/man-and-woman-mars-trip-by-2018-can-you-say-couples-counseling/  “A wealthy space tourist announced plans today to launch a high-risk manned flight to Mars in 2018, sending a man and a woman on a bare-bones 501-day round-trip flyby, passing just 100 miles above the Red Planet before heading back to Earth. Dennis Tito, the first private citizen to fly aboard the International Space Station, said he will provide two years of funding to support the Inspiration Mars Foundation…Tito said his organization is "engaging the best minds in industry, government, and academia to develop and integrate the space flight systems and to design innovative research, education, and outreach programs for the mission."…building a reliable, affordable spacecraft in five years is just one issue facing mission planners. Spending nearly one-and-a-half years in the weightless environment of space poses a variety of health risks for the two-person crew, along with an increased risk of cancer due to the effects of space radiation. And then there's the psychological stress associated with extended confinement in a vehicle the size of a motor home…”

Trends & Emerging Tech

77.     5 potentially disruptive energy innovations  http://gigaom.com/2013/03/01/5-potentially-disruptive-but-out-there-energy-innovations/  “…at the ARPA-E Summit this week there were thousands of researchers, inventors, entrepreneurs and investors who are working on “out there” answers to our energy problems…That’s the whole idea of the ARPA-E program — the small grants are given to high-risk early-stage projects that have the potential to make a big impact, but are likely too early for private investors to support…Here are 5 projects I checked out this week:  1). A breakthrough ultracapacitor…2). A natural gas tank that works like an intestine…3). The waste annihilating molten salt nuclear reactor…4). Tweaking E.Coli to solve our problems…5). Magnetic algae…”

78.    Why The Human Body Will Be The Next Computer Interface  http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671960/why-the-human-body-will-be-the-next-computer-interface  “…you’ve probably heard a lot about wearables, living services, the Internet of Things, and smart materials. As designers working in these realms, we’ve begun to think about even weirder and wilder things, envisioning a future where evolved technology is embedded inside our digestive tracts, sense organs, blood vessels, and even our cells…by looking at the long timeline of computer design we can see waves of change and future ripples…We are yet to devise interfaces that can effortlessly give us what we want and need. We still must learn some kind of rules and deal with an interpretation layer that is never wholly natural…The sensor world that makes these kinds of predictive systems possible will only become richer and more precise…However, there are still three more phases of this evolution that we see as being necessary before the machine really becomes domesticated. The first evolutionary leap is almost upon us, embedding technology in our bodies…Beyond mechanical hips and electric hearts, we will put intelligences inside us that can monitor, inform, aid, and heal. The new language will be ultra subtle and totally intuitive, building not on crude body movements but on subtle expressions and micro-gestures…What could be more natural than staring at something to select it, nodding to approve something? This is the world that will be possible when we have hundreds of tiny sensors mapping every movement, outside and within our bodies…”

*****