2013/07/30

NEW NET location for 30 Jul 2013 Mtg = Sangria's Restaurant

The NEW NET (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Entrepreneurial and Technology issues) 30 July 2013 meeting from 7 - 9 PM will be at at Sangria's Restaurant in Appleton, 215 S. Memorial Drive, Appleton WI; backup location, Tom’s on Westhill Blvd. Come join the tech fun!

*****

NEW NET Weekly List for 30 Jul 2013

Below is the final list of technology news and issues for the Tuesday, 30 Jul 2013, NEW NET (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Entrepreneurism and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 PM weekly gathering at  Sangria's Restaurant in Appleton, 215 S. Memorial Drive, Appleton WI, USA.

The Weekly Top Ten, (pre-NEW NET, based on potential or immediate impact and/or general tech interestingness)
1.        Internet Congestion Trouble-Spots Revealed (# 11)
2.       Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks (# 15)
3.       Geeksphone Firefox Smartphone, Peak+ Preorders Kick Off At $196 (# 20)
4.       The hardware revolution is upon us (# 30)
5.        Google launches $35 Chromecast  TV dongle (# 35)
6.       Jeff Bezos Doesn't Care What You Think About Amazon's Quarterly Earnings (# 39)
7.        How Do You Design a Medical Gadget That Costs 95 Percent Less Than Before? (# 43)
8.       3D printing at home could have health risks (# 45)
9.       Google Lunar X Prize Proposing New Cash Prizes to Help Struggling Teams (# 50)
10.     Slingatron hypervelocity coil to launch ships into space (# 52)
The ‘net
11.      Internet Congestion Trouble-Spots Revealed  http://www.technologyreview.com/view/517391/internet-congestion-trouble-spots-revealed/  “Every internet user has had the frustrating experience of staring at streaming video while it buffers or waiting for a webpage to load. These problems are the result of internet congestion where packets of data cannot be rooted quickly enough to meet demand. Just as frustrating is the inability to work out what is causing this congestion. Internet users are generally left scratching their heads when it comes to working out which part of the network is responsible for the snarl up. An interesting question for most users is where the congestion actually occurs…These puzzles are not easy to answer largely because the private companies that own various parts of the network keep the details about their traffic, capacity and network topology secret… “Even the ISPs would benefit from [a better understanding of congestion] as it would allow them to target infrastructure improvements at the key points in the network where return on investment, in terms of enhanced user experience, would be greatest,”…That’s partly why in 2010 the Federal Communications Commission began a long term project to gather data about internet congestion and to find out where it really occurs.  This study…has involved over 10,000 measurement units deployed at the homes and work places of customers of 16 ISPs in the US…”
12.     Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make—and break—online video  http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/why-youtube-buffers-the-secret-deals-that-make-and-break-online-video/  “…My fellow Ars writer is a man who loves to watch YouTube videos…but he never knows when his home Internet service will let him do so. "For at least the past year, I've suffered from ridiculously awful YouTube speeds," Hutchinson tells me. "Ads load quickly—there's never anything wrong with the ads!—but during peak times, HD videos have been almost universally unwatchable. I've found myself having to reduce the quality down to 480p and sometimes even down to 240p to watch things without buffering. More recently, videos would start to play and buffer without issue, then simply stop buffering at some point between a third and two-thirds in…Why does online video have such problems? People may assume there are perfectly innocent causes related to their computers or to the mysterious workings of the Internet. Often, they're correct. But cynical types who suspect their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) intentionally degrade streaming video may be right as well…”
13.     The Internet’s Innovation Hub  http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516531/the-internets-innovation-hub/  “San Francisco startup GitHub has all the hallmarks of the next big social network. The company’s base of 3.6 million users is growing fast, and after raising $100 million last year, GitHub was worth $750 million…Yet GitHub is not a place for socializing and sharing photos. It’s a site where software developers store, share, and update their personal coding projects, in computer languages like Java and Python. “It’s a social network, but it’s different from the others because it’s built around creating valuable things,” says GitHub CEO Tom Preston-Werner…GitHub’s mix of practicality and sociability have made it into a hub for software innovation. People log on from around the globe (78 percent of its users from outside the U.S.) to test and tinker with new ideas for mobile apps or Web server software. For Ethan Mollick, an assistant professor at the Wharton School, GitHub is one of a new class of technology platforms, including the crowdfunding site Kickstarter, that allow innovation without the traditional constraints of geography or of established hierarchies…”
14.     SmugMug Launches Redesign Of Its Photo Sharing Website  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/30/smugmug-redesign-website/  “SmugMug has revealed the new design of its photo sharing site, aimed to increase web customization capabilities and photo organization. The website now features new templates and themes, customization tools, a new photo organizer and responsive design to make SmugMug fit any screen…Customers choose from over 20 different templates and can change colors and themes for each one. They can also customize the layout of how photos are displayed, and bring the picture to full-screen when clicked. All these options are accessible with the page tool kit, so users don’t need any technical HTML or CSS experience. SmugMug’s organizer allows users to view their entire library of photos, and then simply click and drag where they want their photos to go. Users can modify gallery settings all at once, and have greater control over privacy settings. The end result is a sleek and personal page to display photos and videos, with the ability to constantly edit your work without it showing until you are ready…”
Security, Privacy & Digital Controls
15.     Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks  http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/  “Stomping on the brakes of a 3,500-pound Ford Escape that refuses to stop–or even slow down–produces a unique feeling of anxiety…The more I pound the pedal, the louder the groan gets–along with the delighted cackling of the two hackers sitting behind me in the backseat… “Okay, now your brakes work again,” Miller says, tapping on a beat-up MacBook connected by a cable to an inconspicuous data port near the parking brake. I reverse out of the weeds and warily bring the car to a stop. “When you lose faith that a car will do what you tell it to do,” he adds after we jump out of the SUV, “it really changes your whole view of how the thing works.” This fact, that a car is not a simple machine of glass and steel but a hackable network of computers, is what Miller and Valasek have spent the last year trying to demonstrate…”
16.     Obama Promises Disappear from Web  http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/07/25/obama-promises-disappear-from-web/  “Change.gov, the website created by the Obama transition team in 2008, has effectively disappeared sometime over the last month. While the front splash page for Change.gov has linked to the main White House website for years, until recently, you could still continue on to see the materials and agenda laid out by the administration. This was a particularly helpful resource for those looking to compare Obama's performance in office against his vision for reform, laid out in detail on Change.gov…Why the change? Here's one possibility, from the administration's ethics agenda: Protect Whistleblowers: Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out…It may be that Obama's description of the importance of whistleblowers went from being an artifact of his campaign to a political liability. It wouldn't be the first time administration positions disappear from the internet when they become inconvenient descriptions of their assurances…”
17.     US patent office rejects claims of Apple 'pinch to zoom' patent  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045461/us-patent-office-rejects-claims-of-apple-pinch-to-zoom-patent.html  “The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected claims of an Apple patent that figures prominently in a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung Electronics…The 21 claims of the patent were rejected by the USPTO in a "final office action," as they were anticipated by previous patents or unpatentable. Known as the "pinch-to-zoom" patent, it covers the ability to distinguish between the scrolling movement of one finger and two-fingers gestures like pinch-to-zoom on a touch-screen to activate certain functions…”
18.     Moscow Subway To Use Devices To Read Data On Phones  http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-moscow-metro-phones/25059582.html  “…Moscow's subway system…stations will soon be equipped with devices that can read the data on the mobile telephones of passengers…Metro police chief Andrei Mokhov said the device would be used to help locate stolen mobile phones…the devices have a range of about 5 meters and can read the SIM card. If the card is on the list of stolen phones, the system automatically sends information to the police…the devices can be used more widely to follow all passengers without exception." Mokhov said it was illegal to track a person without permission from the authorities, but that there was no law against tracking the property of a company, such as a SIM card.”
Mobile Computing & Communicating
19.     The Withings Pulse Is A Step Closer To Activity Tracker Perfection  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/22/withings-pulse-review/  “The Withings Pulse is the latest device in the personal activity tracker category, and it isn’t a wristband…it’s a portable rectangle not unlike the original Fitbit devices designed to be carried in a pocket or attached to clothing via an included clip…pairing up with its smart scales to deliver info about steps walked, calories burned, altitude traversed and heart rate…The rubberized finish means you won’t lose it, and the way the OLED display is invisible when inactive is very cool. It’s got a single button, and touchscreen functionality to let you swipe through previous day totals, and it all works quite wel…”
20.    Geeksphone Firefox Smartphone, Peak+ Preorders Kick Off At $196  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/25/peak-plus/  “Spanish open hardware phone platform manufacturer Geeksphone, which created the first developer preview devices for Mozilla’s Firefox OS (aka Peak and Keon), has announced it’s now taking pre-orders for a new beefed up consumer version of its Peak smartphone that it’s called Peak+. Geeksphone’s original two developer-focused devices sold out a few hours after going on sale – doubtless helped by their low prices of $194 and $119 respectively. The Peak+ looks likely to garner similar levels of demand, thanks to a similarly low pre-order price, although there is now more competition for Firefox devices — with Telefonica selling the ZTE Open in Spain (and elsewhere) for as little as €69/$90…Geeksphone has created a pre-sale reservation list for consumers wanting to buy the device for a “one-time, limited promotional price” of €149/$196 (excluding taxes) — after which it will be sold at a “standard price” via the startup’s online store…”
21.     The Paradox of Wearable Technologies  http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517346/the-paradox-of-wearable-technologies/  “Ever talk to someone at a party or conference reception only to discover that the person you are talking to is constantly scanning the room, looking this way and that, perhaps finding you boring, perhaps looking for someone more important?...Welcome to the brave new world of wearable computers, which will tread within the uneasy space bounded by continual distraction, continual diversion of attention, and continual blank stares along one border; and focused attention, continual enhancement, and better interaction, understanding, and retention along the other. Google’s…Glass…is only the beginning of this challenge…It’s a great myth that people can multitask without any loss in quality. Numerous psychology experiments show that when two relatively complex tasks are done at the same time, there is measurable deterioration in performance. Some of these experiments were even done by me, back in the days when I was a practicing cognitive scientist. David Strayer, whose research group at the University of Utah has studied these issues for decades, has shown that hands-free phones are just as distracting as handheld ones, and using one while driving is just as bad as driving while drunk…If simultaneous task performance is so deleterious, why do people maintain that they can do it without any deterioration?...The impairment in mental skills makes it difficult to notice the impairment…wearable technology can enhance our abilities significantly. Thad Starner, a wearable computer champion…has worn these devices for almost a quarter-century…He…reminded me of a conversation we had on this topic in 2002. I didn’t remember the conversation, so he described the interaction, reminding me of both his comments and my responses…it will be difficult to resist the temptation of using powerful technology that guides us with useful side information, suggestions, and even commands. Sure, other people will be able to see that we are being assisted, but they won’t know by whom, just as we will be able to tell that they are being minded, and we won’t know by whom…”
22.    Nokia's new Bluetooth 'Treasure Tag' will prevent you from ever losing your keys again  http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/29/4567234/nokia-treasure-tag-bluetooth-nfc-proximity-sensor-windows-phone  “Nokia is preparing to launch a proximity sensor accessory for its range of Lumia Windows Phones. Sources familiar with Nokia's plans have revealed to The Verge that the Finnish smartphone maker will debut a "Treasure Tag" accessory that combines Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC to track items from a phone. The Treasure Tag will pair with Lumia Windows Phones via NFC…The…idea is to let Windows Phone users track items with a special application and the small square Treasure Tag accessory. Tile, a recently funded Kickstarter project, is very similar in concept to Nokia's device, and works with Apple's iPhone. Nokia has built a Treasure Tag application for Windows Phone that will let users manage the sensor and locate it when it's lost. The app will also display the location of the sensor on a map…”
23.    Gorilla Glass for your laptop  http://gigaom.com/2013/07/29/why-your-next-laptop-could-use-gorilla-glass-just-like-your-smartphone-does/  “…Gorilla Glass…now comes in a bigger size. On Monday, Corning introduced Gorilla Glass NBT, a stronger, scratch-resistant glass specifically made for touchscreen laptops…Corning says it’s a better all-around choice over traditional soda-lime glass due to these features: 8x-10x higher scratch resistance…Greater resistance to unsightly abrasions caused by cleaning, wiping or careless handling…Better ability to withstand the shock of accidental bumps…Corning is pitching the new glass as cost-effective, suggesting it would only account for one to two percent of a laptop’s price tag. Margins on those devices are pretty slim already but I suspect laptop makers will still adopt the new glass…”
Apps
24.    Free app helps residents report problems, get action  http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/north/2013/07/11/commonwealth-connect-app-become-tool-for-reporting-fixing-local-quality-life-issues-free-app-helps-residents-report-problems-get-action/ENzjIwvZSoz1m7Fd6jPBTN/story.html  “Residents of 14 area cities and towns have a new way to alert local officials to potholes, graffiti, and other irksome problems — and then monitor how quickly they get fixed. The communities are among 54 statewide that are offering a smartphone application for reporting quality-of-life issues directly to local government. When smartphone users who have downloaded the Commonwealth Connect app come upon a broken sidewalk, a dangling tree branch, or unsightly trash, they can snap a photo or write a description and submit the problem to officials for resolution…Residents can track the progress of the relevant municipal department in fixing the issue. Participants can also view requests by others and the response to them…”  http://seeclickfix.com/government   and  http://www.cityofboston.gov/doit/apps/commonwealthconnect.asp
25.    Smartphone app might help curb parking tickets  http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2013/07/smartphone-app-might-help-curb-parking-tickets  “A new smartphone application might help students reduce their likelihood of getting parking tickets. The Parking Ticket Terminator app, which was designed by the Long Island-based TimeMight Corporation and will be released in the fall, will help users become more familiar with town parking regulations, said Brian Pollack, the software developer for the app. Users will be able to search by ZIP code and view parking regulations and the hours when some lots are unregulated. The app will help drivers avoid receiving tickets and help prevent their vehicles from being booted or towed…”
SkyNet
26.    Define Google Drive based on your needs  http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/google-in-the-enterprise/define-google-drive-based-on-your-needs/  “…The multiple definitions of "Google Drive" may cause confusion. If you instruct a person to "Open the file with Google Drive", should they open a browser or an app? Both actions open "Google Drive", but leave the user in different environments…The difference does matter…Opening a native Word file with Google Drive in the browser displays the file, and lets the user create an entirely new, converted file in the Google Docs format. There are now two files, instead of one. One in Google Docs format and one in Word format; this may cause more confusion and frustration…Organizations that have moved beyond Microsoft Office have it easy. Google Drive stores the organization's files, and provides access to the apps needed to create and edit documents. Without Microsoft Office installed, there's little chance for confusion. The challenge arises in organizations that use Google Apps for email and shared calendaring, yet still use the Microsoft Office suite for documents. In these settings, Google Drive functions simply to store Microsoft Office documents. That's where the multiple meanings of "Google Drive" might cause confusion…”
27.    Handwriting Feature Added to Google Translate Homepage  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422295,00.asp  “Google today rolled out its Google Translate handwriting feature for the Web, allowing users to draw the phrases or words they need translated when a keyboard can't do the trick. Handwriting…is now available via the Google Translate website on the browser. Imagine planning a trip to China, but not being able to read street signs or restaurant names. Instead of blindly choosing a direction or eatery, just draw the given characters on the Google Translate homepage to find their meaning…choose the language you wish to translate, and then select the down arrow on the bottom left of the language box. Select the "Handwrite" option with the pencil and draw away in the pop-up box that appears. "Suppose you see the Chinese expression '饺子' and want to know its meaning in English, but have no idea how to type these characters…Using the new handwriting input tool, you can simply draw these characters on your screen and instantly see the translation…”
28.    Nurses use Google Hangouts to collaborate on technology  http://www.zdnet.com/nurses-use-google-hangouts-to-collaborate-on-technology-7000018634/  “Google Hangouts are getting more and more interesting. The ability to easily start a live video conference with colleagues all over the world, share screens, and see each other -- all in real time -- is opening many doors for innovation…A good example of this is the Hangout produced by Yuri Shevchouk and involving RN Rob Fraser, clinical development nurse Ian Miller, and travel nurse Gary Cox…Fraser was in Toronto Canada while Miller was in Australia's Canberra region. Fraser discussed using technology to help nurse leaders tell their stories. Miller talked about how the web site he developed helped share information within his nursing unit. Cox talked about travel nursing and apps that help him get his job done…”
29.    Google refreshes Zagat’s mobile apps and website, removes paywall  http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/29/google-relaunches-zagat/  “…Google…relaunched Zagat’s website and mobile apps for iPhone and Android. And even better, Zagat’s annoying paywall that used to block its reviews from everyday eyes has now come down…This new version of Zagat only covers restaurants and nightlife in nine cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas. But Google says it plans to have Zagat cover “50 U.S. and international destinations” during the “coming months…”
General Technology
30.    The hardware revolution is upon us  http://www.trueventures.com/2013/07/27/the-hardware-revolution-is-upon-us-and-why-it-matters/  “…Cheap processors, cheaper memory, and even cheaper sensors means it’s a great time for people who like to tinker with hardware to tinker.  Platforms like Kickstarter and Quirky de-risk production, identify features and customers, and do so before the first tool is made…Building factories is no longer a prerequisite for building products. Add to the mix emergent technologies such as 3D printing and inexpensive laser cutters that put prototyping capabilities onto a kitchen table, and we suddenly are facing an extraordinary revolution in hardware-based innovation. This is a tectonic shift that is going to drive the next wave of industrialization — one that is more nimble, adaptable and rapidly evolving. One that is as much based in software as it is in assembly lines…The offspring of this marriage of machine and software is customizable, connected, and enables creation. This new age of hardware is the foundation for a novel breed of services and platforms that leverage software and—most importantly—data, whether to change health behavior or to revolutionize the way we farm…True Ventures has been early and big investors in the burgeoning hardware and device wave:  we funded Fitbit‘s seed round in 2008, were early investors in MakerBot starting in 2010, and have gone on to fund 3D Robotics, Airstone Labs, Ginger.io, LittleBits, Sifteo, Sano Intelligence, Streetline, Valencell…These investments has given us a unique view at the dawn of this new revolution, and we want to share what we have learned…”
31.     The One Last Thread Holding Apple and Google Together  http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/07/apple-google-llvm/all/  “…Six months after Schmidt left Apple’s board, Steve Jobs laid into Google…crying foul over Android’s challenge to the iPhone…the two companies publicly sparred over whose smartphone technology was the most “open” and whose would ultimately make life easier for humankind. Then, in 2012, Apple summarily removed Google Maps and YouTube from the iPhone, determined to reduce its dependance on the company that so quickly usurped its command of the mobile market…Until recently, the two companies shared one of the world’s most important open source software projects — WebKit, the basis for Apple’s Safari browser and Google’s Chrome — but then, in April, that marriage ended too. Once so close, Apple and Google are now as far apart as anyone…yet, there’s one thing they still have in common, one last piece of technological brilliance they freely share with each another…it’s an integral part every new Apple iPhone — and every new Android phone. It’s not an app or a web service or some sort of hardware contraption. It’s more important than that…This tool is known as LLVM, short for low level virtual machine…The thing to realize is that LLVM underpins so much of the work at both Apple and Google, helping create not only smartphone software, but operating systems and browsers and web services…Created by a team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, LLVM is a way of building software compilers — those contraptions that receive raw code from the world’s programmers and convert it into real, live software applications. But it’s more than that. It’s also a better way of executing software applications on PCs and smartphones and tablets and other hardware. It lets you run programs on machines and microprocessors they weren’t explicitly written for…”
32.    Samsung's 840 EVO SSD family: Fast, large  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045163/samsungs-840-evo-ssd-family-fast-large-and-in-charge.html  “If you're a laptop user who's skipped the SSD experience because of the breed's lack of capacity, your drive has arrived…Samsung's new 840 EVO family of drives will be available in capacities up to a whopping 1TB. And these drives are aggressively priced: $110 for 120GB version, $190 for the 250GB, $370 for the 500GB, $530 for the 750GB, and a mere $650 for the 1TB…65 cents per GB is a new low for retail SSDs. The larger part of the secret behind the 840 EVO's increased capacity is 3-bit MLC (Mulit-Level Cell) NAND which by it's very nature (it stores 3 bits of information) offers a third more capacity than the 2-bit MLC NAND used in most current generation drives. Also helping fit more stuff into less space is the 19nm manufacturing process used to produce the NAND. Samsung for some reason is calling this 10nm-class, or 1x NAND, but they assured us that it's 19nm…”
33.    Sony, Panasonic Jointly Developing 300GB Optical Disc  http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422411,00.asp  “Sony and Panasonic are teaming up to develop a standard for professional-level optical drives. Ultimately, the duo hopes to release a 300GB optical drive by the end of 2015. The durable optical disc — dust- and water-proof, resistant to changing temperatures and humidity — is ideal for a long-term storage tool. Sony and Panasonic plan to market the new disc format to businesses looking to store hefty amounts of data for long periods of time…Sony's file-based optical disc archive system from 2012 and Panasonic's series of optical disc storage devices…houses 12 100GB discs for a total storage capacity of 180TB.…”
34.    Memory bus breakthrough promises faster storage, terabytes of memory  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2045531/flash-breakthrough-promises-faster-storage-terabytes-of-memory.html  “…Diablo’s Memory Channel Storage (MCS) architecture, expected to show up…later this year, allows flash storage components to plug into the super-fast channel now used to connect CPUs with memory. That will slash data-access delays even more than current flash caching products that use the PCI Express bus…Diablo estimates that MCS can reduce latencies by more than 85 percent compared with PCI Express SSDs (solid-state disks). Alternatively, the flash components could be used as memory, making it affordable to equip servers terabytes of memory…Other than on-chip cache, the memory channel is the fastest route to a CPU…The connection is designed to be used by many DIMMs (dual in-line memory modules) in parallel, so each component doesn’t have to relinquish the bus for another one to use it. That saves time, as well as CPU cycles that would otherwise be used managing the bus…Diablo…              has figured out a way to use the standard DDR-3 interface and protocols to connect flash instead of RAM to a server’s CPU. Flash is far less expensive than RAM, but also more compact…”
Leisure & Entertainment
35.    Google launches $35 Chromecast  TV dongle  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23437476  “Google has announced a low-cost competitor to Apple TV - a "dongle" device called Chromecast. The dongle is plugged into a television's HDMI port, and allows users to stream media from smartphones, tablets and computers. Launching immediately in the US, the device will cost $35…”  http://gigaom.com/2013/07/24/why-chromecast-is-such-a-big-deal-for-google-and-a-threat-to-apple/  “…Chromecast…has been developed by the very same people who have been working on Google TV for the past few years. But it looks like they have learned from their mistakes, and radically simplified the experience…Chromecast is pure simplicity: Search and discovery of video content is happening on the mobile device or laptop, and all Chromecast does is stream media from the cloud. Add to that the ability to turn on your TV simply by starting video playback on your tablet, and you’ve got something that looks a bit like the anti-Google TV…”  http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-ends-chromecast-netflix-promotion-20130725,0,483513.story  “Citing overwhelming demand, Google on Thursday said it has ended a Netflix promotion tied to its new Chromecast TV dongle. The promotion gave users, new and existing, three free months of Netflix's video streaming service, valued at about $24, when they bought Chromecast, a $35 gadget that was announced Wednesday…”
36.    Canon Dims Sales Outlook as Smartphones Capture Snapshots  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-24/canon-dims-sales-outlook-as-rising-smartphones-take-snapshots.html  “Canon Inc. is finding it even harder to sell cameras in a global market where smartphones already command a 13-to-1 lead in shipments. The world’s biggest camera maker cut its annual profit and sales forecasts yesterday as it faces slowing demand for the compact and high-end models with interchangeable lenses that underpin its 983 billion-yen ($10 billion) business…Worldwide shipments of cameras have fallen to a 10-year low as consumers increasingly take pictures with phones from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) equipped with lenses capable of high-quality snapshots…”
37.    Activision Blizzard splits from Vivendi in $8bn buyout  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jul/26/activision-blizzard-splits-vivendi  “Video game publisher Activision Blizzard has announced a deal to buy itself back from French media giant Vivendi. The company, responsible for hits such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, will purchase 429 million shares for $5.83bn. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and co-chairman Brian Kelly have formed ASAC II LP, an investment vehicle through which they will purchase 172 million company shares for approximately $2.34bn in cash, or $13.60 per share. This will make it the largest Activision shareholder, and the arrangement includes $100m personally invested by Kotick and Kelly. Included in the same investor group is Tencent, the powerful Chinese investment company that runs social networks, internet service providers and online gaming portals in China. "Tencent's investment as part of a group which now holds around 25 per cent of the company is an interesting development…”
Entrepreneurism and Technology
38.    Facebook Is Worth $24 Billion Less Than When It Went Public  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/25/despite-gains-facebook-is-currently-worth-24-billion-less-than-when-it-first-went-public/  “The market awarded Facebook a 25 percent share price spike today, following a strong earnings report that showed off the company’s ability to retain mind share among youths…The firm pop in its shares has pushed Facebook’s valuation past the $80 billion mark, where it currently rests at $80.21 billion. Not a bad day’s work, but…Facebook has torched tens of billions of dollars of shareholder equity since it first went public…Here’s TechCrunch’s Josh Constine and Kim-Mai Cutler the day before the fateful, and botched, IPO: Facebook shares will start trading at $38 tomorrow, the company confirmed in a release, giving it a valuation of $104.12 billion…”
39.    Jeff Bezos Doesn't Care What You Think About Amazon's Quarterly Earnings  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-25/jeff-bezos-doesnt-care-what-you-think-about-amazons-quarterly-earnings  “…honestly, Jeff Bezos doesn’t care what you think. Amazon’s chief executive doesn’t concern himself with Amazon’s quarterly earnings report or with Wall Street’s visceral reaction to it…Bezos manages Amazon for the long term and regularly mucks up the bottom line with expensive, risky bets on unprofitable new businesses such as grocery deliveries and tablets…With Amazon (AMZN) stock up about 15 percent since the start of the year and well into nosebleed altitudes above $300 a share, investors were primed for a letdown with today’s report. They got one. Amazon posted $15.70 billion in revenue for the quarter…The company lost $7 million in the second quarter…Amazon actually lost money during all of last year…It also guided investors to expect a further loss in the third quarter, somewhere between $65 million and $440 million…”
40.    20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don't Get  http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonnazar/2013/07/23/20-things-20-year-olds-dont-get/  “I started Docstoc in my 20’s, made the cover of one of those cliché “20 Under 20” lists, and today I employ an amazing group of 20-somethings.  Call me a curmudgeon, but at 34, how I came up seems so different from what this millennial generation expects…here are my 20 Things 20-Year-Olds Don’t Get…Time is Not a Limitless Commodity…You’re Talented, But Talent is Overrated…We’re More Productive in the Morning …Social Media is Not a Career…Pick Up the Phone…Be the First In & Last to Leave…Don’t Wait to Be Told What to Do…Take Responsibility for Your Mistakes…You Should Be Getting Your Butt Kicked…A New Job a Year Isn’t a Good Thing…People Matter More Than Perks…Map Effort to Your Professional Gain…Speak Up, Not Out…You HAVE to Build Your Technical Chops…Both the Size and Quality of Your Network Matter…You Need At Least 3 Professional Mentors…Pick an Idol & Act “As If”…Read More Books, Fewer Tweets/Texts…Spend 25% Less Than You Make…Your Reputation is Priceless, Don’t Damage It…”
41.     As global marketplace grows, so do opportunities  http://wtnnews.com/articles/10687/  “Simple demographics should tell U.S. business owners all they need to know about the size of the opportunity: About 95 percent of the world’s population lives outside the United States and a rising percentage of those people are “middle class” consumers. Less obvious to many business owners, especially smaller firms and startups, is how to efficiently and safely break into that global marketplace …”
Design / DEMO
42.    New Course: The Design of Everyday Things  http://blog.udacity.com/2013/07/new-course-design-of-everyday-things.html  “After reading The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, I remember thinking to myself, “I probably learned more from this book than I learned from a majority of classes I took in graduate school.”…This is why I’m thrilled to announce Udacity’s production of Design 101: The Design of Everyday Things. This series of courses is taught by Don Norman, Kristian Simsarian, and myself, and I’m confident will help current and potential designers be successful in their careers. Oh, and the best part....the class is offered to students for free! An equivalent course at a university would probably cost $5,000 or more. Design 101: The Design of Everyday Things is based upon the new edition of The Design of Everyday Things (revised and expanded: to be published in Fall 2013). The material is been divided into three or four short courses (the exact number to be determined), each of which can be taken independently, offering students considerable flexibility. The components provide the knowledge and hands-on experience needed to understand the role of design in today’s world…”
43.    How Do You Design a Medical Gadget That Costs 95 Percent Less Than Before?  http://www.wired.com/design/2013/07/idsa-ideo-evotech-endoscope/  “…Food and Drug Administration classifies an endoscope as a Class II medical device, but…it’s just a long plastic tube with a light and camera at the end…they can cure problems quickly and with very little pain — if the patient has access to a clinic that can afford their $50,000 dollar price tag…EvoTech is developing an endoscope…that is substantially equivalent in terms of functionality, but costs a mere $2,500 dollars. Moshe Zilversmit…wanted to be an engineer with Doctors Without Borders, but they didn’t have a program like that,” he says. “So I went out and did it on my own.” Zilversmit recruited a team and discovered that endoscopes were relatively simple from a technical perspective. He got to work prototyping one in his garage, and a few months later, it was in use in Uganda. Traditional endoscopes cost anywhere from $30,000-70,000, but by making different design choices and cutting out extraneous “nice-to-have” features, the price can be reduced dramatically…off-the-shelf camera modules, only slightly better than the ones used in smartphones, could provide pictures crisp enough to meet clinical standards for just a couple hundred dollars. “The EvoCam is basically a webcam you put in your body.”…Most endoscopes come with dedicated computers and complex image processing hardware. The EvoCam replaces all those expensive extras with software running on a standard laptop, using solar power if necessary…”
DHMN Technology
44.    MIT looks to movie CGI to make 3D printing easy  http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240999/MIT_looks_to_movie_CGI_to_make_3D_printing_easy  “MIT this week plans to publish two papers detailing ways to simplify the 3D printing process by using open-source software that is more intuitive. Using computer graphics models and simulations, 3D printers can already produce a wide variety of 3D objects, but the software used in the printers is slow and difficult to use…"Our goal is to make 3D printing much easier and less computationally complex," said Wojciech Matusik…"Ours is the first work that unifies design, development and implementation into one seamless process, making it possible to easily translate an object from a set of specifications into a fully operational 3D print."…Matusik and his MIT team developed OpenFab, a programmable "pipeline" architecture to deal with those problems. OpenFab was inspired by RenderMan, the software used to design computer-generated imagery commonly seen in movies. OpenFab allows for the production of complex structures with varying material properties…”
45.    3D printing at home could have health risks  http://phys.org/news/2013-07-3d-printers-shown-emit-potentially.html  “A new study…shows that commercially available desktop 3D printers can have substantial emissions of potentially harmful nanosized particles in indoor air…Desktop 3D printers are now widely accessible for rapid prototyping and small-scale manufacturing in home and office settings. Many desktop 3D printers rely on a process where a thermoplastic feedstock is heated, extruded through a small nozzle, and deposited onto a surface to build 3D objects. Similar processes have been shown to have significant aerosol emissions in other studies using a range of plastic feedstocks, but mostly in industrial environments…graduate students…measured ultrafine particle concentrations resulting from the operation of a single type of popular commercially available desktop 3D printers inside an office space. Ultrafine particles (or UFPs) are small, nanosized particles less than 100 nanometers in diameter…Estimates of emission rates of total UFPs were high, ranging from about 20 billion particles per minute for a 3D printer utilizing a lower temperature polylactic acid (PLA) feedstock to about 200 billion particles per minute for the same type of 3D printer utilizing a higher temperature acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) feedstock. The emission rates were similar to those measured in previous studies of several other devices and indoor activities, including cooking on a gas or electric stove, burning scented candles, operating laser printers, or even burning a cigarette. Human inhalation of UFPs may be important from a health perspective…”
Open Source Hardware
46.    Singapore better than United States for hardware makers  http://sgentrepreneurs.com/2013/07/29/singapore-a-better-than-silicon-valley-for-hardware-makers-bunnie-huang/  “The next crop of great hardware startups could very well come from Asia. That thought hung in the air as Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, which Make Magazine calls the maker’s maker, gave a talk at Singapore’s Mini Maker Faire on why the country is a better place than the United States for hardware startups. Bunnie moved to Singapore in 2010 and later brought in the team at Chumby, a startup he was then involved with. Recently, he has been building an open-source laptop…While Silicon Valley is perceived as a mecca of sorts for technologists and tinkerers, setting up there contains many hidden costs…1) Poor locality of services…2) Unfavorable tax structure…3) High cost of living…4) Prohibitive cost of doing business…5) Raising venture capital is essential in Silicon Valley…”
47.    Home Alarm System Project for your Raspberry Pi  http://www.projects.privateeyepi.com/home/home-alarm-system-project  “…Monitor your home from your smart phone or computer using the dashboard featuring zone status (armed/disarmed/alarm), alarm dates and time as well as activity logs. You can also use the dashboard to arm and disarm zones…We will provide you with a full inventory of electronic parts and diagrams. We will show you bread board wiring schematics for you to copy…Even complete beginners with no programming, operating system or electronics experience can make this work…”
Open Source
48.    Scott Phillips of Code for Tulsa honored by White House for open-source software  http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Scott_Phillips_of_Code_for_Tulsa_honored_by_White_House/20130726_52_E1_CUTLIN653169  “Scott Phillips and other members of Code for Tulsa were planning to have an all-night hackathon, but 12 days before their June 1 target date Moore was devastated by a giant tornado…As it turns out, hacking can be valuable after natural disasters. FEMA officials offered the group resources in case its members were interested in creating software to help with disaster relief. The June 1 hackathon gained a new purpose, and Code for Tulsa set to work developing an open-source mapping tool to help officials search dwellings after disasters…that work…earned Phillips the Champion of Change award, bestowed by the White House on those who work for open government and "civic hacking,"…Code for Tulsa evolved out of a group called Tulsa Web Devs when it became the local arm of Code For America…Code for Tulsa created a dispatch tool for the Tulsa Fire Department that takes incoming dispatch information and converts it to a format that can be pushed out to text messages and Web alerts, which allows firefighters to respond faster and with more accurate information…They were also able to meet with Christopher Whittaker, a project management consultant at the Smart Chicago Collaborative, and the two groups plan to collaborate on projects that could help both communities. "Chicago is the top city in the civic hacking movement…”
49.    First Open Source Airplane Could Cost Just $15,000  http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/07/open-source-airplane-design/  “There’s an open source airplane being developed in Canada, and now its designers are looking to double down on the digital trends, turning to crowdsourced funding to finish the project. The goal of Maker Plane is to develop a small, two-seat airplane that qualifies as a light sport aircraft and is affordable, safe, and easy to fly. But unlike other home-built aircraft, where companies or individuals charge for their plans or kits, Maker Plane will give its design away for free. The group behind the project consists of pilots and engineers who are designing the airplane, allowing it to be built using the kind of personal manufacturing equipment somebody in the maker community might already have at home or can easily purchase…In the spirit of the open source and maker movements, the Maker Plane group is including components from many designers and builders outside their circle. As they focus on the design of the airplane (fuselage, wings, etc.), the Maker Plane team helps connect those interested in building their own with other open source components such as an air data computer and radios. They even show you where you can get plans to build your own traffic and collision avoidance system.…”
Civilian Aerospace
50.    Google Lunar X Prize Proposing New Cash Prizes to Help Struggling Teams  http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/07/glxp-new-prizes/  “…The Lunar X Prize, established in 2007, offers $20 million to the first private team to land a robot on the moon, have it travel 500 meters, and send pictures and video. They have until 2015 to do this, and the prize drops to $15 million if a government entity reaches the moon first, something China expects to do later this year. There also is a $5 million second-place prize…Alas, things aren’t going as well as the X-Prize folks had originally hoped, so they’re considering offering additional prizes. This could include $750,000 each for as many as four teams that present completed designs, power consumption plans, navigation, hardware, and operational details on how they’ll complete the mission. A similar prize could be awarded to as many as four teams that complete designs for a camera subsystem and create a video with realistic mockups or simulations showing their probe’s lunar mission…The new prizes could include a $7 million purse divvied up among the first teams to successfully launch. And one last suggestion is to pay $1 million to the first team to get within 500 kilometers of the lunar surface…”
51.     UK team designs human mission to Mars  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22952441  “Scientists at Imperial College London have designed a concept mission to land astronauts on Mars. The plan envisages a three-person crew journeying to Mars aboard a small two-part craft. The craft would rotate to generate artificial gravity and use a heat shield to protect itself against solar flares. The crew would then return to Martian orbit in a pre-sent craft fuelled using ice from beneath the planet's surface. The concept, developed in conjunction with the BBC, is intended to spark further debate about the technical obstacles and risks that would have to be overcome in order to put humans on Mars…”
52.    Slingatron hypervelocity coil to launch ships into space  http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57595150-1/could-this-hypervelocity-coil-launch-ships-into-space/  “…Derek Tidman…thinks a massive, gyrating coil can speed up objects fast enough to give them escape velocity and send them into orbit…he's trying to build a large prototype launcher with Kickstarter backing. It's called the Slingatron…The idea is to dramatically reduce the cost of launches and accelerate space development…The Slingatron is an electrically powered coil, up to 328 meters across, that works like an old-fashioned overhead sling weapon…It would have a spiral launch track on a modular platform that could gyrate at 40 to 60 cycles per second. That exerts a strong centripetal force on the payload, which is released at the center and accelerates to speeds of 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) per second as it travels through the coil…The forces acting on the payload would be too great for humans to bear, so the Slingatron wouldn't be for astronauts. But it could be used to launch bulk materials such as water, fuel, and building materials, as well as satellites that have been hardened to bear the g-forces…”
53.    Hillbilly Tracking of Low Earth Orbit Satellites  http://travisgoodspeed.blogspot.com/2013/07/hillbilly-tracking-of-low-earth-orbit.html  “At Black Hat DC in 2008, I watched Adam Laurie present a tool for mapping Ku-band satellite downlinks, which he has since rewritten as Satmap. His technique involves using an DVB-S card in a Linux computer as a receiver through a 90cm Ku-band dish with fixed elevation and a DiSEqC motor for azimuth motion. It was among the most inspirational talks I'd ever seen, and I had a blast recreating his setup and scanning the friendly skies. However, such a rig is limited to geostationary satellites in a small region of the sky; I wanted to see the whole sky, especially the moving targets. In this article, I'll demonstrate a method for modifying a naval telecommunications dish to track moving targets in the sky, such as those in Low Earth Orbit. My dish happily sits in Tennessee, while I direct it using my laptop or cellphone here in Europe. It can also run unattended, tracking moving targets and looking for downlink channels…”
Supercomputing & GPUs
54.    Looking Beyond Linpack: New Supercomputing Benchmark in the Works  http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/07/24/supercomputing-benchmark-set-to-evolve/  “…With so much emphasis and funding invested in the Top500 rankings, the 20-year old Linpack benchmark has come under scrutiny, with some in the community suggesting it needs to evolve…Dongarra and his colleague…are developing a new benchmark that is expected to be released in time for the next TOP500 list release in November. The new benchmark being proposed is called the High Performance Conjugate Gradient (HPCG)…The HPCG won’t replace Linpack, but both metrics will be used to evaluate contenders in the November Top500. The primary objective of the Top500 list of the top supercomputers in the world is to provide a ranked list of general purpose systems that are in common use for high end applications. The list has been released twice a year for the past twenty years, with Linpack serving as the standard yardstick of performance. The High Performance Linpack (HPL) was introduced by Dongarra and selected for the Top500 in 1993…“We have reached a point where designing a system for good Linpack performance can actually lead to design choices that are wrong for the real application mix, or add unnecessary components or complexity to the system,” said Dongarra. “The hope is that this new rating system will drive computer system design and implementation in directions that will better impact performance improvement for real applications…”
55.     Nvidia unveils Quadro K6000  http://www.zdnet.com/nvidia-unveils-quadro-k6000-the-fastest-and-most-capable-gpu-ever-built-7000018488/  “GPU and chipmaker Nvidia has unveiled a new line of professional GPUs for workstations. The Quadro K6000 GPU, built around the company's successful Kepler architecture, delivers five-times higher compute performance and nearly double the graphics capability of its predecessor, the Nvidia Quadro 6000 GPU…12GB ultra-fast GDDR5 graphics memory lets designers and animators model and render characters and scenes at unprecedented scale…2,880 streaming multiprocessor (SMX) cores deliver faster visualization and compute horsepower than previous-generation products…Supports four simultaneous displays and up to 4k resolution with DisplayPort 1.2…”
Trends & Emerging Tech
56.    Top Small Business Technology Trends for 2H 2013  http://www.pymnts.com/news/businesswire-feed/2013/july/17/spoton-predicts-top-small-business-technology-trends-for-2h-2013-20130717005323  “…SpotOn’s top predictions for 2H 2013 include: 1. Death of the cash register as we know it…2. Minimum wage hikes and Obamacare opens doors for new tech…3. Expansion of hyper-local reach through mobile…4. The multi-channel digital Rolodex…5. Customer data gets a facelift…6. Merchants become your friends online…7. …and see real ROI as a result…8. Greater focus on the Baby Boomers…9. Flash deals give way to precise marketing…10. Greater personalization of rewards…”

57.     Emerging Trends in the World of Search Engine Optimization  http://www.searchenginejournal.com/emerging-trends-in-the-world-of-search-engine-optimization/64299/  “Things have been changing…in the SEO world…Here are a few…emerging trends in the SEO world: Mobile Search…Twitter…Quality…Google +…Conversion Rate Optimization…”

*****

2013/07/23

NEW NET Weekly List for 23 Jul 2013

Below is the final list of technology news and issues for the Tuesday, 23 Jul 2013, NEW NET (NorthEast Wisconsin Network for Entrepreneurism and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 PM weekly gathering at  Sangria's Restaurant in Appleton, 215 S. Memorial Drive, Appleton WI, USA.

The Weekly Top Ten, (pre-NEW NET, based on potential or immediate impact and/or general tech interestingness)
1.        5by Wants To Be Your Web Video Concierge (# 14)
2.       The anti-virus age is over (# 17)
3.       NSA head admits the agency made “huge set of mistakes” in 2009 (#18)
4.       Smartphone Upgrades Slow as 'Wow' Factor Fades (# 19)
5.        Google tests encryption to protect users' Drive files against government demands (# 26)
6.       Google Maps out-Yelps Yelp (# 32)
7.        Apple Owns 56% Of The Streaming Devices Market, Roku Second With 21% (# 38)
8.       3D printing will explode in 2014, thanks to the expiration of key patents (# 46)
9.       Seej 3D Printed Game Update (# 49)
10.     Canonical Seeks $32 Million in Crowdfunding for Linux Phone (# 51)
The ‘net
11.      Edit Wars Reveal The 10 Most Controversial Topics on Wikipedia  http://www.technologyreview.com/view/517101/edit-wars-reveal-the-10-most-controversial-topics-on-wikipedia/  “…Wikipedia’s own estimate is that it has some 77,000 contributors working on more than 22 million articles in 285 languages…So it’s not surprising that disputes arise over the wording of these articles. Indeed, the controversy can sometimes reach war-like proportions with one editor changing the wording and another immediately changing it back again…Taha Yasseri…and a few pals have ranked the most controversial topics in 10 different languages according to the intensity of the editing wars they generate…Yasseri and co looked instead for “mutual reverts” in which one editor reverts another’s work and vice versa, so both editors are undoing each other’s changes…That gives a simple list of the most controversial articles in each language. In English, the top 10 most controversial articles are as follows: George W Bush…Anarchism…Muhammad…List of World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. employees…Global Warming…Circumcision…United States…Jesus…Race and intelligence…Christianity…”
12.     Apple Buys 2 Mapping Companies  http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/apple-buys-2-mapping-companies/?src=recg&gwh=C2F51B6C657DE2659A68C3F21604F027  “Apple is deepening its mapping skills, buying two start-ups that specialize in location technology. Apple…bought…two small companies, HopStop and Locationary…HopStop is an application that can be used to get directions within cities and shows real-time traffic delays. The other start-up, Locationary…specializes in maps and mapping data…HopStop was founded in 2005 with the idea that someone could type two addresses into a Web site and get reliable directions for public transportation…”
13.     Bitcasa Takes Infinite Storage To Version 2.0  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/23/30-petabytes-later-bitcasa-takes-infinite-storage-to-version-2-0-with-revamped-android-ios-desktop-apps/  “…Bitcasa has spent the last five months or so growing out of its beta launch…Bitcasa is launching version 2.0 of its desktop, iOS and Android apps…Bitcasa is a software service that essentially gives you infinite storage on your computer. It does this by only saving information that is unique to you, and only saving one version of all the content that is redundant. Because of this, Bitcasa actually gets faster the more people use it…”  http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/18/bitcasa-for-ios-and-android/  “…Bitcasa…promises to bring infinite storage to its users for just $10 per month…Bitcasa’s encrypted, proprietary and patent-pending “Infinite Drive”…acts as a virtual external drive that just continues to grow as you save more data to it. As an added bonus, everything is encrypted across the system and as the company’s co-founder and CEO Tony Gauda told me earlier this week, even the Bitcasa team has no way of accessing your data…”
14.     5by Wants To Be Your Web Video Concierge  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/22/5by-wants-to-be-your-web-video-concierge-and-its-taking-aim-at-phones-and-tvs-too/  “…You’re bored out of your wits and rather than try to do something productive, you just spend hour after endless hour on YouTube…that’s exactly…a Montreal-based web video startup called 5by is trying to fix. 5by takes a decidedly different approach to how it finds and plays videos for you…5by has been called the Songza of video…you’re greeted not by a smattering of videos but by a series of categories like “Blowing You Away” and “Killing Time.”…When you’re in a video, you’re presented with a series of reactions: you can hit buttons to signify that you’ve laughed at the video being shown to you, hated it, or felt it tug at your heartstrings. And if a video just isn’t your cup of tea, there’s always a skip button to take you far, far away…”
Security, Privacy & Digital Controls
15.     SIM Card Hack Allows Attackers to Remotely Control Victim's Phone  http://mashable.com/2013/07/22/sim-card-hack/  “A dangerous SIM card hack has been discovered, potentially allowing attackers to remotely send premium SMS messages or re-direct and record calls…Not all SIM cards are vulnerable — just under a quarter of the SIM cards tested were susceptible to the hack — but those that are can be hacked via sending a hidden SMS. All in all, millions of phones worldwide could be affected…an attacker could use the victim's phone to send premium SMS messages, which can skyrocket one's phone bill, collect location data, re-direct or record calls, or even carry out paymnet fraud. Nohl claims it is unlikely that cyber criminals have already found this security flaw, and he thinks it may not happen in the next six months…”
16.     Fact or Fiction: Your Smartphone and Tablet Are Vulnerable to Hackers  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=smartphone-tablet-mobile-vulnerable-to-hackers  “Personal computers have been subject to cyber attacks from the moment we began connecting them to the Internet…So why don’t we have the same security problem with our smartphones and tablets, which are essentially variations on the PC? Several factors hold back…serious effort on the part of cyber attackers to infect mobile devices with malware designed to raid apps and commandeer sensitive data. For starters, devices running Apple iOS, Google Android and other mobile operating systems still are not nearly as numerous as PCs…Smartphones and tablets are also, for the most part, better designed than PCs to minimize the potential damage caused by viruses…Of the more than 140 million smartphones in use in the U.S., less than 2 percent have been infected with mobile malware…It is possible…for attackers to break into mobile devices…But it’s much more work than it would be to do the same exact thing against Windows…cyber criminals usually want to make money from their efforts. These entrepreneurial types are more likely to design a piece of malware to attack a tried-and-true target such as Microsoft’s Windows operating system or Internet Explorer Web browser, causing maximum disruption with minimal effort…the sheer number of PCs that have accumulated in offices and homes over the past several decades still dwarfs the world’s population of active smartphones and tablets…By 2015 more Americans will access the Internet via mobile devices than with PCs or any other type of wireless device…more than 470 million Android handsets were sold in 2012. By 2017 this number is expected to grow to more than 1 billion, giving the platform a 67-percent share of the smartphone market…Apple will own about 14 percent of the market in 2017. “Android is a very secure operating system—if you keep it up to date…This is not always possible, especially if device makers don’t support the most current versions of the operating system.” As people start using their smartphones and tablets instead of their PCs to do online banking and purchasing, mobile devices become more appealing targets for attackers…Likewise if PCs become more secure, attackers are likely to direct their efforts toward mobile…”
17.     The anti-virus age is over  http://codeinsecurity.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/the-anti-virus-age-is-over/  “…anti-virus systems are as good as dead…Signature-based analysis, both static (e.g. SHA1 hash) and heuristic (e.g. pattern matching) is useless against polymorphic malware, which is becoming a big concern…By the time an identifying pattern is found in a particular morphing engine, the bad guys have already written a new one…malware behaviour is almost infinitely re-writeable, with little effort on the developer’s part…We’ve also seen a huge surge in attacks that fit the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) model in the last few years…Attacks under the APT model can involve social engineering, custom malware, custom exploits / payloads and undisclosed 0-day vulnerabilities – exactly the threats that anti-malware solutions have difficulty handling. The next problem is memory-resident malware…If malware never touches the disk, most AV software will never catch it…the economic aspect is the nail in the coffin…the bad guys have more people working for them, for less money…They can produce and update malware significantly more quickly (and cost-effectively) than the AV guys can analyse and defend against it…”
18.     NSA head admits the agency made “huge set of mistakes” in 2009  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/nsa-head-when-obama-took-office-he-narrowed-overbroad-data-collection/  “…the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) admitted that the spy agency had been overbroad in its acquisition of telephone data. NSA Director General Keith Alexander told the assembled crowd…that when President Barack Obama first took office in January 2009, he called out the agency on its blanket data collection practices…we had a huge set of mistakes that we were working through in 2009,” he told the audience…At the president’s direction, the NSA then set up a “directorate of compliance,” an internal watchdog group to make sure that it wasn’t over-collecting and stayed within the confines of the law…Alexander also emphasized the need for secrecy in its surveillance programs…"The reason we use secrecy is not to hide it from the American people, not to hide it from you, but to hide it from those who walk among you who are trying to kill you," he argued…”
Mobile Computing & Communicating
19.     Smartphone Upgrades Slow as 'Wow' Factor Fades  http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323664204578610233963082210-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwNjExNDYyWj.html  “Fewer people are upgrading their smartphones—a trend that could make it harder for companies from AT&T Inc. to Apple Inc. to keep up the pace of revenue growth. The rates at which American cellphone users have traded in their devices for more advanced models have declined over the last few years…They turned negative last year, when about 68 million people upgraded their phones in the U.S., down more than 9% from a year earlier. UBS predicts upgrades will fall again this year…There are two components to the trend: With smartphone penetration approaching 70% of contract subscribers last year in the U.S., there are fewer customers left to upgrade to the Internet-ready devices and data plans…among existing smartphone owners, fewer are seeing the need to buy the latest Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy as the pace of innovation slows…”
20.    Here’s How Qualcomm’s Leaving Intel Behind in Mobile Computing  “…Qualcomm…will soon break into the tablet market with upgraded versions of its Snapdragon processor that will be featured in 200 phones and tablets to be released this year…Intel has historically…neglected mobile technology…and is now attempting to play mobile catch-up. Both companies are behind Samsung Electronics (SSNLF.PK), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) in the tablet-chip market…Intel has also been working to change the design of its chips used in smartphones and tablets to be more energy efficient and better tailored for mobile computing. Qualcomm’s big advantage in mobile is that its chips work like laptop chips, combining several functions into a single, small chip without sacrificing battery life. Intel doesn’t yet have that capability, and neither does Samsung…”
21.     Inside the wearable computing mobile market  http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/WEARABLE-COMPUTING-Inside-The-New-Mobile-Market-4652328.php  “…wearables won't just complement smartphones. What is perhaps most intriguing about them is that they will serve new purposes too…they're ideal for monitoring our vital signs and health. They'll track how active we are, our sleep quality, how many steps we take during the day. Consumers of all sorts — fitness buffs, dieters, and the elderly — will come to rely on them…Overall consumer awareness is still low…In a recent report…we…analyze various growth forecasts for the wearable computing market, explore the products and prospects of each component market - including bracelets, smartwatches, and eyewear…Here's a brief overview of the wearable computing market: Market sizing estimates vary…We see global annual wearable device unit shipments crossing the 100 million milestone in 2014, and reaching 300 million units five years from now…Bracelets…dominate the wearables market…We believe fitness and medical wearables, taken together, will account for roughly 60% of the wearables market this year, and…a larger share in the future…Smartwatches…Promoters of smartwatches also highlight the fact that users will no longer have to constantly reach into their pockets for a smartphone…we see the advantages of a smartwatch display over a smartphone screen as minimal…Eyewear…Marketers see great potential in Google Glass. They are already familiar with augmented reality since they have experimented with print materials that are readable by smartphone applications and can create complementary ad experiences…”
22.    New Motorola Droid sports 48-hour battery life  http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/07/new-motorola-droid-sports-48-hour-battery-life/  “Verizon relaunched its Motorola Droid line…The three new Droids run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and each model focuses on maximizing one of three specs: compact design, thinness, and battery life, thanks to the a new SoC called the Motorola X8. The X8 system has eight cores, with two allocated for app processing, four for graphics processing, one for “contextual computing,” and one for natural language processing. The Droid Mini is the compact variation, with a 4.3-inch display. The Droid Ultra focuses on thinness and design, with a coated Kevlar body and 5-inch display. The Droid Maxx, the successor to the Droid Razr Maxx HD, is also thin at 8.5 millimeters with a 5-inch display, but it has a 3500 mAh battery that affords 48 hours of active use…”
Apps
23.    New smart phone app in Alameda County matches technology with civic engagement  http://www.cafwd.org/reporting/entry/new-smart-phone-app-in-alameda-county-matches-technology-with-civic-engagem  “…County residents now have a new tool for reporting issues like these to their Alameda County Public Works Agency, and it comes in the form of a smartphone application called Mobile Citizen. The app…allows citizens to take a photo of the problem and submit it along with GPS coordinates gathered by their phone…Ruiz believes this is the start of a growing movement towards local governments promoting civic engagement through tech…The primary draw of Mobile Citizen is the real-time response. Citizens receive automatic notifications throughout the process, confirming their request was received, when the work order was approved, and when it's been closed…Ruiz says counties and cities in the Bay Area have kept up a dialogue about different technological innovations they can undertake to improve the lives of their residents…Perhaps an app for citizens to submit their app ideas should be the next project for Alameda County…”
24.    Five smartphone apps for frequent flyers  http://www.mensxp.com/technology/portable-media/9244-5-must-have-smartphone-apps-for-frequent-fliers.html  “…MensXP brings you a list of 5 must-have apps that will make your flying hassle-free…1. Routehappy…2. SeatGuru…3. GateGuru…4. Next Flight…5. TripIt…”
25.    Pflugerville smartphone app connects residents  http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/pflugerville-smartphone-app-connects-residents/nYmHP/  “…The city of Pflugerville launched two smart phone apps, available for free on Apple and Android devices, on July 2…The three city festivals – Deutschen Pfest, Pfirecracker Pfestival and Chili Pfest – have their own links within the city app, with schedules, maps, general information and a vendor list…While the app has entertainment-based functions, there are also sub apps for residents’ everyday life. A city calendar sub app shows upcoming events in the city. There is also a library sub app where residents can search for books and research databases…Residents can also pay their utility bills and municipal court citations through the app…The Pfix-It app, which was created by City Sourced, is a work order system for the city. Residents can take a picture of anything that needs city attention, including utility issues or graffiti…Waggoner has high hopes for the apps in the coming years. She said the city will track who is clicking on what areas of the app and what parts of the app are most popular, to better serve the community…”
SkyNet
26.    Google tests encryption to protect users' Drive files against government demands  http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57594171-38/google-tests-encryption-to-protect-users-drive-files-against-government-demands/  “Google has begun experimenting with encrypting Google Drive files, a privacy-protective move that could curb attempts by the U.S. and other governments to gain access to users' stored files…the…company is actively testing encryption to armor files on its cloud-based file storage and synchronization service…The move could differentiate Google from other Silicon Valley companies that have been the subject of ongoing scrutiny after classified National Security Agency slides revealed the existence of government computer software named PRISM…Major Web companies routinely use encryption, such as HTTPS, to protect the confidentiality of users' communications while they're being transmitted. But it's less common to see files encrypted while stored in the cloud, in part because of the additional computing expense and complexity and the difficulties in indexing and searching encrypted data…”
27.    Google to fund Taiwanese chipmaker to push Google Glass  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/22/himax-google-idUSL4N0FS25T20130722  “Google Inc will take a 6.3 percent stake in the unit of Taiwanese chipmaker Himax Technologies Inc that develops display technology for devices such as Google Glass…The investment will help fund the production of liquid crystal on silicon chips and modules used in head-mounted devices such as Google Glass, head-up displays and pico-projectors…Google…is pushing forward with Google Glass, a product which CEO Larry Page has described as vital to the company's future success. The agreement also allows Google to raise its stake in the unit, Himax Display Inc, to 14.8 percent within a year…”
28.    Motorola Mobility Is Starting To Focus On Wearable Tech In Earnest  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/19/job-listing-suggests-motorola-mobility-is-starting-to-focus-on-wearable-tech-in-earnest/  “…Motorola Mobility is looking to produce some new wearable gadgets…The…company quietly posted a job listing…for someone to fill the role of senior director of industrial design for wearables…that person will “provide strategic leadership, champion innovation and institute best practices to create a new world-class wearable’s [sic] design group within Motorola.”…There are repeated references to the importance of consumer appeal: the person who lands the gig must “define design strategies that synthesize technology innovation and consumer desires” and “ensure creative direction for design is consumer focused”, which make it look like Motorola eventually wants to release a wearable device that’s meant for the masses…”
29.    Google launches Cloud Printer driver and service for Windows  http://thenextweb.com/google/2013/07/22/google-launches-cloud-printer-driver-and-service-for-windows-lets-you-print-documents-outside-of-chrome/  “Google…is bringing its Cloud Print project to Windows. The company has launched both a driver and a service, both of which are available for download now from Google Tools…Google Cloud Print connects Cloud Print-aware applications (across the Web, desktop, and mobile) to any printer. It integrates with the mobile versions of Gmail and Google Docs, and is also listed as a printer option in the Print Preview page of Chrome…the new Google Cloud Printer driver makes it possible to print to any of your cloud printers from Windows applications. Chrome is no longer required…”
30.    How to enable or disable Gmail's new tabs  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2044770/how-to-enable-or-disable-gmails-new-tabs.html  “Gmail just rolled out one of its best features in years: Inbox tabs…Gmail can now automatically organize certain kinds of messages into tabs, greatly reducing inbox clutter in the process. For example, all your notifications from social-media services (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) will now be sorted into the Social tab, while offers from Groupon, LivingSocial, and other advertisers will land under Promos. If…you want to make changes to the settings, do this…”
31.     Google accounts for 25 percent of all Internet traffic  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2044938/google-accounts-for-25-percent-of-all-internet-traffic-study-finds.html  “…new products being built and provided by Google now make the company accountable for nearly 25 percent of all Internet traffic, up from a mere 6 percent just three years ago, according to a new study…The analysis includes computers and mobile devices as well as hundreds of varieties of game consoles, home media appliances and other embedded devices like Apple TV, Roku, Xbox 360 and mobile apps. The data focus primarily on North America…Deepfield co-founder Craig Labovitz attributed the meteoric rise in traffic patterns to server growth at Google as well as the success of a range of products such as YouTube (which the company bought for $1.65 billion in 2006), Android-based mobile devices and various Google cloud services like Google Drive…The rise in Google’s presence online is strongly linked with the…Google Global Cache (GGC) dedicated server program in the U.S…Google’s GGC program is designed to let network operators and Internet service providers deploy a small number of Google servers inside their network to serve popular Google content, like YouTube…”
32.    Google Maps out-Yelps Yelp  http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/23/technology/mobile/google-maps-app/?source=cnn_bin  “The best part of the new Google Maps app has nothing to do with a map. The new secret weapon of Google Maps for smartphones and tablets is a new feature called Explore, a Yelp-like tool that allows users to find, rate and see reviews of local establishments…Explore is a highly visual part of Google Maps that gives you a quick survey of the best options around you across five categories: Eat, Drink, Shop, Play, Sleep. The tool incorporates all the reviews Google…acquired when it bought Zagat, and it combines those with Google's own user-generated ratings….it's perfectly suited for tablets. The iPad and other tablets offer just enough physical screen space to deliver the loads of information about various locations that Explore cooks up…Going back to Yelp after using Explore is a little painful. Explore is Google's next big move towards conquering its rival, and this is only the first of many Google Maps innovations that should give the recommendation site pause…”
33.    Gmail Offers Full-Screen Compose Again  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/19/gmail-offers-full-screen-compose-again/  “…Google has just launched a brand new, but ultimately ineffectual, feature for Gmail users: a full-screen compose option. Enabling this option will push the compose window to the center of your inbox, expanded across the majority of the screen for a better viewing experience. Google launched a brand new compose a few months ago, which gave users a bevy of new tools to build out their emails, as well as a new design to let you open a compose window without ever leaving the inbox. However, it appears that some users enjoy a more full-screen compose experience…”
General Technology
34.    Ars Technica System Guide: July 2013  http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/07/ars-technica-system-guide-july-2013/  “…this iteration of the System Guide looks pretty straightforward. The new System Guide accounts for a significant jump in graphics performance and the continuing evolution of faster CPUs, but the effects are limited…Intel's new 4th generation Core i-series processors, codenamed Haswell, bring nice improvements in performance and platform power consumption, but the Haswell processors available at launch are really only suitable for the Hot Rod…cheaper dual-core Haswell parts in the Budget Box price range won't hit until the second wave of Haswell processors later this year. Overclockers have not been terribly happy overclocking Intel's 22nm processors (Ivy Bridge and Haswell), but in general, the IPC (instructions per clock) improvement and reduced power consumption have made Haswell a nice update all around…to AMD's credit, the very modest tweaks in its latest codenamed Richland APUs keep them very relevant in cheaper systems such as the Budget Box…”
35.    Smooth out your business’s voice and video streaming with QoS  http://www.pcworld.com/article/2044778/break-the-bottleneck-smooth-out-your-business-s-voice-and-video-streaming-with-qos.html  “If you’ve ever engaged in a voice over IP (VoIP) phone call or conducted a video conference over the Web, you’ve probably experienced choppy audio, pixelated video, and other “hiccups” that make these technologies frustrating to use at best and and an impediment to doing business at worst. Those annoying interruptions are the result of data struggling to get across your network. It’s important for all of the data to get from Point A to Point B, but some types—like streaming voice and video—simply won’t work if the data can’t travel smoothly. You can solve the problem by spending a lot of money for a bigger, faster Internet connection, but the smart way to address the issue is with QoS: Quality of Service…QoS is like designating certain data as the emergency vehicles of your network: It gives higher priority to specified data to ensure it arrives at the destination in order as quickly as possible. You can use QoS to create “express lanes” on your network for designated applications or computers, but QoS is not simply about getting the data there faster. It employs different techniques and algorithms for streaming media to make sure it arrives smoothly in the proper order to avoid interruptions, or the dreaded “buffering” message…”
36.    New way to prevent garbage software patents  http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html  “There are a lot of people complaining about lousy software patents these days. I say, stop complaining, and start killing them. It took me about fifteen minutes to stop a crappy Microsoft patent from being approved…Software developers don’t actually invent very much. The number of actually novel, non-obvious inventions in the software industry that maybe…is, perhaps, two. The other 40,000-odd software patents issued every year are mostly garbage that any working programmer could “invent” three times before breakfast…companies large and small have figured out that patents are worth money, so they try to file as many as they possibly can…The first technique is…to make the language of the patent as confusing and obfuscated as possible…The second technique…is to use a thesaurus. Often, software patent applicants make up new terms to describe things with perfectly good, existing names…Since patent examiners rely so much on keyword searches…if you can change some of the keywords in your patent to be different than the words used everywhere else, you might get your patent through…when there’s blatant prior art…the third technique…is, striving to get the broadest possible patent…The America Invents Act changed the law to allow the public to submit examples of prior art…the USPTO asked us to set up Ask Patents, a Stack Exchange site where software developers…can submit examples of prior art to stop crappy software patents…Take patent application US 20130063492 A1, submitted by Microsoft…This patent…used terms like “pixel density” for something that every other programmer in the world would call “resolution,”…So I spent about a minute with Google and…found this…document entitled Writing DPI-Aware Win32 Applications…written by Ryan Haveson and Ken Sykes at…Microsoft…And it was written in 2008, while Microsoft’s new patent application was trying to claim that this “invention” was “invented” in 2011. Boom…Total time elapsed, maybe 10 minutes…The USPTO rejected Microsoft's Resizing Imaging Patent!...Micah showed me a document from the USPTO confirming that they had rejected the patent application, and the rejection relied very heavily on the document I found…It’s a pleasure to read him demolish the patent in question, all twenty claims…Software patent applications are of uniformly poor quality. They are remarkably easy to find prior art for…My dream is that when big companies hear about how friggin’ easy it is to block a patent application, they’ll use Ask Patents to start messing with their competitors. How cool would it be if Apple, Samsung, Oracle and Google got into a Mexican Standoff on Ask Patents? If each of those companies had three or four engineers dedicating a few hours every day to picking off their competitors’ applications, the number of granted patents to those companies would grind to a halt…”
37.    SanDisk's new flash drive wirelessly beams files to your tablet or phone  http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/22/4544560/sandisk-connect-wireless-flash-drive-USB-wi-fi-hands-on  “When you run out of room on your Apple iPad, your HTC One, or other mobile device without an SD card slot, where do you turn? Do you painstakingly delete one batch of vacation photos to make room to show off the next?...the SanDisk Connect…wireless flash drive…can hold additional files and beam them to your device at will, no internet connection required…the SanDisk Connect crams a Wi-Fi radio, a microSD slot, a four-hour battery, and all its circuitry into a device that's really no bigger than a fancy USB thumbdrive. And, at $49.99 for the 16GB model (or $59.99 for 32GB) it's comparatively cheap, too…You can…transfer files from stick to device, or vice versa…”
Leisure & Entertainment
38.    Apple Owns 56% Of The Streaming Devices Market, Roku Second With 21%  http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2013/07/apple-owns-56-of-the-streaming-devices-market-roku-second-with-21.html  “…Apple owned 56% of the streaming devices market in 2012, with Roku coming in second at 21% of the market. Apple accounts for the majority of sales by far, despite offering relatively narrow content access – this is not (yet) a market being driven by the value proposition of a streaming TV experience. AppleTV’s AirPlay feature was strategically crafted to simplify the process of transferring laptop and tablet displays to a TV screen, and it is AirPlaying – not OTT streaming – that is the primary reason for purchase of AppleTV devices. Roku is the second largest vendor in this space and is driving growth through a strong lineup of content as well as through a series of agreements with Pay TV vendors such as Time Warner Cable. The long-term potential for this segment does remain uncertain…while current growth rates are high, the total installed base of $99 streaming boxes is quite low…”
39.    How To Self-Publish A Bestseller: Publishing 3.0  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/20/how-to-self-publish-a-bestseller-publishing-3-0/  “…This post is about what I did differently, why I did it differently, and how I think anyone can do this to self-publish a bestseller…Every entrepreneur should self-publish a book, because self-publishing is the new business card. If you want to stand out in a world of content, you need to underline your expertise. Publishing a book is not just putting your thoughts on a blog post…It shows your best curated thoughts and it shows customers, clients, investors…what the most important things on your mind are right now…The distinction now is no longer between “traditional publishing” versus “self-publishing.” The distinction now is between professional versus unprofessional publishing…The benefits are enormous: More money…Control over design…Speed…Content control…Avoiding bad things in life…Here’s what I did step-by-step with my latest book for the first month since publication…1) BUILD YOUR PLATFORM…2) HOW DO YOU BUILD YOUR PLATFORM?...3) WRITE…4) KNOW WHAT YOU WANT…5) EDITING…6) DESIGN…7) AUDIOBOOK…8) TITLE…9) MARKETING…10) FOREIGN RIGHTS…11) OTHER MERCHANDISE…”
40.    Goodreads Has 20M Members, Doubling In Less Than A Year  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/23/goodreads-20-million-members/  “Goodreads, the social reading service…has reached 20 million members…It took Goodreads only 11 months to double its membership after hitting 10 million members in August 2012. Chandler identified three main factors behind the accelerating growth. First, he said, Goodreads has now built up “a critical mass of book reviews.”…with more than 25 million reviews, Goodreads now covers enough titles that you can find lots of useful content. Second…Goodreads has seen “explosive” mobile growth…users…want to look up titles before they purchase them in bookstores, and the easiest way to do that is from their phones. Plus, he said it reflects…the fact that “more people are reading on mobile devices than ever before.” The third factor has been Goodreads’ international growth…”
Entrepreneurism and Technology
41.     Why you should pre-launch your startup idea  http://www.bogdannedelcu.com/why-you-should-pre-launch-your-startup-idea.html  “…I made a simple presentation page for the product with the desire of validating certain ideas and for attracting people willing to test the application shortly after its launch. Results are good: I validated some initial assumptions about the market potential, and up to 200 visitors were willing to test the product…promoting a landing page before the official release also brings more solid and directly measurable results.  Below I have compiled a list of  benefits, which can be achieved through a landing page prelaunch…1. You can test your idea…2. You can test the value proposition…3. You can test the necessity of some features…4. Market and traffic potential…5. Determine the Customer Acquisition Cost…6. Get valuable feedback…7. Get a psychological boost..8. Launch Big…”
42.    Bay Area Tech Wages Are The Nation’s Highest At $123K  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/20/bay-area-tech-wages-are-nations-highest/  “The San Francisco Bay Area pays the highest median tech wage, at $123,497…Despite the significant gap in wages and costs between the Bay Area and other tech hubs, it doesn’t look like it’s causing a significant talent exodus yet. The median wage for tech workers in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties is nearly 21 percent higher than the second highest, Boston, at $102,230. However, while this wage is good for top-flight engineers, it leads to significantly higher costs for entrepreneurs…salaries for a 10-person team, on average, would total $1,234,970 in San Francisco, but only $932,490 in Austin, Texas. The difference in how much equity a founder has to give up can be substantial…”
43.    MBank And The Future Of Responsive Banking  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/20/mbank-and-the-future-of-responsive-banking/  “…How could a banking spin-off of BRE Bank and founded in 2000 create one of the coolest, most high-tech banking experiences I’ve seen? The more important question…was how could a Polish bank beat the big guys — the Chases, the Citibanks, and the Credit Suisses of the world — to the punch in terms of improved user experience and unique features?...While they still get some funding from their parent organization, mBank was designed to be a greenfield operation and work independently from the staid old banks…it’s a snappy…web-only service that lets customers view their transactions using user-experience rules that are more familiar to Steam users than bank customers…While other bank websites show a list of transactions and little else, mBank can show you where those purchases appear in your overall account balance and how and where they fit into your budget. This is done with some clever animations and dynamic objects that are as modern and sleek as an app…”
Design / DEMO
44.    Design Is Catching Up to 3D Printing  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/arts/design/Catching-Up-to-3D-Printing.html?src=recg&_r=0  “If all goes well, Space, a charity that provides studio space for about 700 designers and artists in east London, will hit its target of £10,000 in a crowdfunding campaign that ends Saturday and can then buy the equipment it needs to open a digital manufacturing facility named Fab Lab. Like designers and artists all over the world, the occupants of Space’s studios are eager to experiment with the latest advances in 3D printing and other digital production technologies…Fab Lab is intended to give them the physical resources to do so, while Space plans to organize debates where they can discuss the possibilities of these new forms of manufacturing. Translating scientific innovations into things that may make our lives more efficient, enlightened or enjoyable has been an important role of design throughout history…Experimenting with the rapidly evolving technology of digital manufacturing forms part of that tradition, which is why it has proved so contentious within design circles…Some of the companies that apply it on an industrial scale, including CRP Group in Italy and Materialise in Belgium, have collaborated with designers to experiment with ways of using their systems to make furniture and other small objects in far larger quantities…”
45.    Why 3D Printing Will Work In Fashion  http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/20/why-3d-printing-will-work-in-fashion/  “…3D printing has entered the mainstream, and it will disrupt every industry’s manufacturing processes slightly differently. Let’s talk about why it will work in fashion. 3D printing is not entirely new to the fashion industry, as jewelry designers have for years outsourced quick modeling jobs to printing companies…Catherine Wales, a designer trained in classic garment cutting at Yves Saint Laurent and Emanuel Ungaro, is currently exhibiting a collection of masks, corsets and helmets…Designers Francis Bitonti and Michael Schmidt collaborated with Shapeways to produce a 3D-printed gown…The results are beautiful. Comprising 3,000 articulated joints and dotted with 12,000 Swarovski crystals, Dita’s gown fits her curves like a glittering Chinese finger trap. Wales’s feathered shoulder piece fluffs and falls like the real thing. This is art. It isn’t wearable, but it suggests that 3D printing has the finesse necessary to break into an industry known for its attention to quality craft. It is becoming more and more wearable…Printers are getting closer to producing good fabric-like materials, using interlocking structures to create weaves and stitches…”
DHMN Technology
46.    3D printing will explode in 2014, thanks to the expiration of key patents  http://qz.com/106483/3d-printing-will-explode-in-2014-thanks-to-the-expiration-of-key-patents/  “…In February 2014, key patents that currently prevent competition in the market for the most advanced and functional 3D printers will expire…These patents cover a technology known as “laser sintering,” the lowest-cost 3D printing technology. Because of its high resolution in all three dimensions, laser sintering can produce goods that can be sold as finished products…Once the key patents on 3D printing via laser sintering expire, we could see huge drop in the price of these devices…when the key patents expired on a more primitive form of 3D printing, known as fused deposition modeling, the result was an explosion of open-source FDM printers that eventually led to iconic home and hobbyist 3D printer manufacturer Makerbot…Within just a few years of the patents on FDM expiring, the price of the cheapest FDM printers fell from many thousands of dollars to as little as $300. This led to a massive democratization of hobbyist-level 3D printers and injected a huge amount of excitement into the nascent movement of “Makers,” who manufacture at home on the scale of one object at a time. A similar sequence involving the lifting of intellectual property barriers, a rise in competition, and a huge drop in price is likely to play out again in laser deposition 3D printers…”
47.    Water-cooled Raspberry Pi looks hot, runs cool  http://www.techhive.com/article/2044913/water-cooled-raspberry-pi-looks-hot-runs-cool.html  “People have done some pretty insane things with their Raspberry Pi—such as building a system cluster—but nothing looks quite as [cool]…as attaching a water cooling system to the popular computer on a stick…the build comes complete with a raspberry-colored cooling fluid that keeps the processors on the board chilled…You can check out the full hardcore build instructions on the Bit-Tech forums…”
48.    Austin Startup re:3D Creates Gigabot 3D Printer  http://www.siliconhillsnews.com/2013/07/18/8229/  “Gigabot is Austin startup re:3D’s printer that builds objects thirty times larger than most consumer 3D printers, and costs less than $6,000. For comparison: The Makerbot Replicator 2 printer that can build objects of 410 cubic inches (roughly the size of a human head) costs around $2,000…Gigabot prints objects of 14,000 cubic inches (about the size of your dorm refrigerator) for under $6,000…Objet 1000, built by Stratasys, has roughly a 24,000 cubic inch volume (the size of your real refrigerator) for about $40,000…there are other differences. Gigabot has a resolution of 100 micron layers whereas Objet 1000 can get an accuracy within 16 micron layers…”
Open Source Hardware
49.    Seej 3D Printed Game Update  http://3dprintingindustry.com/2013/07/19/seej-3d-printed-game-update/  “Seej, to quote it’s brief, ‘is an Open Source tabletop war game designed to advance the state of 3D printing through competition and player-directed evolution. Players print their own armaments and fortifications for use in battle. If you can print it, it’s legal to use in the game.’…Seej is a game that takes the principles of open-source to their logical conclusion: that the games components are flexible is one thing, that the rules are open-source is another. The basic tenant is that one player has to knock over the others flags using the various devices and arsenal concocted by their own imagination (or love of historical warfare knowledge, Games Workshop addiction, etc.). The base kit comes with Trebuchet, staple of all Hollywood historical battles, with coins as arms, and logo-brick-esque walls to knock over. These are all available, open-source and for free of course, over at The Forge…”  [one of the cool aspects of this game is that it appears he’s from the Appleton area! – ed.]
50.    Open source hardware searching for business model  http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1263197  “There's no doubt that engineers like the idea of open-source hardware. There are an increasing number of open-source hardware board designs – Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beagleboard and many others – that enable hobbyist projects and the reuse of board designs in commercial products. And many engineers are putting a lot of time into enabling these movements via collaborative work online and through the creation of vibrant online communities. What is less clear is whether such movements will scale into the commercial world. There is a lack of clear business model…Over its short life the Raspberry Pi low-cost single-board computer, based on an ARM11-based system-chip from Broadcom, has been a phenomenal success in terms of shipments. But what remains unclear is how widely the board is fulfilling its original brief of teaching young people how to program or is being adopted as a building block in commercial embedded equipment designs. Gert Van Loo…architect of the prototype of the Raspberry-Pi computer board, said that commercial uptake has been gated by considerations of whether the Raspberry Pi Foundation can guarantee to be able to supply boards in five or ten years time. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is doing its best to make those assurances…”
Open Source
51.     Canonical Seeks $32 Million in Crowdfunding for Linux Phone  http://www.datamation.com/mobile-wireless/canonical-seeks-32-million-in-crowdfunding-for-linux-phone.html  “Ubuntu Linux vendor Canonical is taking a novel approach to getting a new type of superphone to market. Instead of bankrolling production on its own, Canonical is reaching out to its community via crowdfunding site Indiegogo, to raise $32 million in order to build 40,000 Ubuntu Edge devices…Ubuntu Edge will be a dual-boot device with both Android and Ubuntu on it. The device will also be loaded with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of RAM. The device will also include a pure Saphire Crystal screen that will provide more resilience than what most phones provide today…Shuttleworth explained that his company will be underwriting the design validation and if the Indiegogo campaign is greenlit, Canonical will break even on the cost of building the phone…”
52.    OpenIncubate launches to supercharge infrastructure startups with open-source cred  http://gigaom.com/2013/07/18/openincubate-launches-to-supercharge-infrastructure-startups-with-open-source-cred/  “All systems are go for OpenIncubate, a new accelerator seeking startups focused on open IT infrastructure…We’ve already seen enterprise-focused accelerators and hardware accelerators cropping up. OpenIncubate takes from each of those categories, targeting open-source IT. Its doors will be open to any companies or teams that are working on software, Software as a Service (SaaS) and/or hardware and want to address the software-defined data-center vision through open-source technology…Participants will need to be in Austin, Texas; Menlo Park, Calif.; or Boston in order to get working space and access to advisors. What sorts of companies might be ripe for participation? Think of NoviFlow, a young OpenFlow-enabled switch maker, or Cumulus Networks, an ambitious startup with an operating system for commodity switches…”
53.    LittleBox DIY Kit: Make Your Own Raspberry Pi-based All-in-One PC  http://ostatic.com/blog/littlebox-diy-kit-make-your-own-raspberry-pi-based-all-in-one-pc  “…LittleBox…is a DIY kit that allows you to transform your Raspberry Pi into a full-fledged all-in-one desktop computer. It…looks a little like an iMac merged with an iPad…The Littlebox kit comes with 60 laser-cut wood parts, many components, an LCD screen, connectors…The project is currently in Kickstarter mode, and will be seeking funding there through August 8. You can either pledge $205 and get a LittleBox in October 2014, or pledge about $227 and get one in October of this year. Sounds like the second pledge saves a lot of wait time. However, LittleBox is open source in that you can get directions for building one here…”
Civilian Aerospace
54.    Kickstarter Campaign Wants to Send Tiny Satellites out of Earth Orbit  http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517186/kickstarter-campaign-wants-to-send-tiny-satellites-out-of-earth-orbit/  “A mini-satellite, no bigger than a loaf of bread, could push itself out of Earth’s orbit as soon as next year if a crowdfunding campaign to support development of a diminutive propulsion system succeeds. If such small spacecraft can be made to operate far from Earth, they could one day make inexpensive expeditions to asteroids, Mars, and beyond. Interplanetary spacecraft are typically bigger than a car, cost hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, and take many years to develop and launch…Researchers at the University of Michigan have a design for a propulsion system they believe is ready to send a CubeSat on an expedition into deep space. Their campaign on the fundraising site Kickstarter asks for $200,000 to pay for development needed to make a test launch next year…”
55.     Mars needs workers! Space startups desperate for talent  http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/07/18/the-next-stem-talent-crunch-space-tech.html  “Hardware, software, mobile apps, product development. The list of potential jobs for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) talent goes on…bagging that talent is no small feat for employers, in particular small companies and startups…Elon Musk's space transportation startup Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is currently looking for about 200 employees, including highly technical roles in engineering and manufacturing…And it's not just SpaceX…“We’re hiring,” said Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer of asteroid mining company Planetary Resources. “We take software developers of all disciplines…We’re not necessarily looking for people who have done the type of work we’re asking from them,” Lewicki said. “We're looking to add a few young and enthusiastic software developers who…want to follow their passion in space…”
56.    Two Tucson researchers get NASA awards to turn sci-fi into real thing  http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/college/two-tucson-researchers-get-nasa-awards-to-turn-sci-fi/article_f4a40627-3df7-5cc3-b8dc-d3abe35cce7c.html  “Tucson-based researchers have won two of the 12 awards NASA gives annually to turn science-fiction concepts into reality…Christopher Walker wants to build a 10-meter suborbital telescope that is essentially an aluminized mylar balloon, while Thomas Prettyman…wants to build instruments for spacecraft that would take full-body scans of asteroids and comets…Walker…proposes to build a balloon whose aluminized half would form a 10-meter mirror that could either be aimed at targets in space or turned toward Earth from its suborbital position for remote sensing and communications…It would have the advantage of being above most of the distorting effects of water vapor in the atmosphere. The telescope would be surrounded by a larger balloon, the size of a football field. It would carry the telescope up to 120,000 feet above sea level and then serve as a stabilizing mount and protective radome…”
Supercomputing & GPUs
57.     Nvidia Debuts GPU-Based Surveillance Platform For Threat Detection  http://www.crn.com/news/storage/240158428/nvidia-debuts-gpu-based-surveillance-platform-for-threat-detection.htm  “Big data can only be smart data with the right tools. That's becoming increasingly hard for military and crime investigators that slice, dice and parse terabytes of image and video data to detect threats…Nvidia announced…a GPU-accelerated geospatial intelligence platform that allows security analysts to zip through raw data, images and video to detect threats fast and accurately…GeoInt Accelerator, consists of the Nvidia Tesla GPU, software applications for geospatial intelligence analysis, and supports custom-advanced application development libraries. Nvidia claims its platform can help companies analyze high-resolution satellite imagery, facial recognition in surveillance video and video collected by drones 10 times faster than systems with CPUs alone. Nvidia is targeting the fast-growing business-intelligence market…projected to be worth $17.1 billion by 2016…”
58.    Khronos Releases OpenCL 2.0 Provisional Specification  http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2013/07/22/khronos-releases-opencl-20-provisional-specification-public-review  “The Khronos Group…announced the…public release of the OpenCL 2.0 provisional specification. OpenCL 2.0 is a significant evolution of the open, royalty-free standard that is designed to further simplify cross-platform, parallel programming…“The OpenCL working group has combined developer feedback with emerging hardware capabilities to create a state-of–the-art parallel programming platform - OpenCL 2.0,” said Neil Trevett…“OpenCL continues to gather momentum on both desktop and mobile devices. In addition to enabling application developers it is providing foundational, portable acceleration for middleware libraries, engines and higher-level programming languages that need to take advantage of heterogeneous compute resources including CPUs, GPUs, DSPs and FPGAs…”
Trends & Emerging Tech
59.    Top Mobile Computing Trends For Trucking  http://www.truckinginfo.com/channel/fleet-management/article/story/2013/07/top-mobile-computing-trends.aspx  “…Adam Kahn, director of product marketing at Omnitracs, took a deeper look at emerging fleet management and mobile computing trends, and provided insight on how fleets can best use this technology to stay on top of the changing industry…1. Compliance…2: Data…3: Vehicle Safety…4. Optimizing Resources…5. Managing Driver Behavior…”

60.    Consumer Reports reveals eight big tech trends and gotta-have gadgets for summer  http://www.chathamjournal.com/weekly/living/technology/consumer-reports-tech-trends-gadgets-130621.shtml  “…America is on track in 2013 to acquire a new gadget for roughly every man, woman, and child over the age of 12. A special “Gear to Go” section in the August issue of Consumer Reports outlines some key trends that cut across multiple categories of mobile devices…Following are six of the eight tech trends that can be found in the report: Phones, meet cameras. Cameras, meet phones…Displays get sharp and wide…Don’t be afraid to mix or switch platforms…E-book readers are down – but not out…Battery life lengthens…Sound options multiply…”

*****