bjr

Cubic Telecom Secures $5.2M To Create Devices That Roam Mobile Networks Cheaply

bjunior — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:15:45 +0000

We’re all familiar with the bill shock associated with roaming abroad with our cellphones. There are plenty of players that allow you to swap out your SIM card and use cheaper traffic, includingCubic Telecom. However, that process is tedious. So Cubic has secured new funding to enable a range of tablets and notebooks to have their technology built into partner devices. To do this they’ve raised a further $5.2 million in funding from Enterprise Ireland, Qualcomm Incorporated, ACT Venture Capital and TPS Investments.

Cubic Telecom Secures $5.2M To Create Devices That Roam Mobile Networks Cheaply
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/23/cubic-telecom/

Going global: The Guardian newspaper announces a new ‘.com’ domain for its UK, US and Australian websites

bjunior — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:13:10 +0000

British national daily newspaper The Guardianhas unveiled plans to create a new global online identity, one that will serve as a home for its various digital properties around the world.

The Guardian’s publisher, Guardian News & Media, announced it is to introduce a single portal on TheGuardian.com, which will host Guardian.co.uk, GuardianNews.com – whichlaunched for the US market back in 2011 – and its upcoming Australian edition, which isscheduled to go live later this year.

Going global: The Guardian newspaper announces a new ‘.com’ domain for its UK, US and Australian websites
http://thenextweb.com/media/2013/05/24/the-guardian-newspaper-announces-a-new-com-global-identity-for-its-uk-us-and-australian-websites/

Ernest Hemingway Creates a Reading List for a Young Writer (1934)

bjunior — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:29:55 +0000

In the spring of 1934, a young man who wanted to be a writer hitchhiked to Florida to meet his idol, Ernest Hemingway.

Arnold Samuelson was an adventurous 22-year-old. He had been born in a sod house in North Dakota to Norwegian immigrant parents. He completed his coursework in journalism at the University of Minnesota, but refused to pay the $5 diploma fee upon graduation. After college he wanted to see the country, so he packed his violin in a knapsack and thumbed rides out to California. He sold a few stories about his travels to the Sunday MinneapolisTribune.

Ernest Hemingway Creates a Reading List for a Young Writer (1934)
http://www.openculture.com/2013/05/ernest_hemingways_reading_list_for_a_young_writer_1934.html

4 Short Stories that Will Change the Way You Think

bjunior — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:08:46 +0000

“There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place.” ―J.K. Rowling

4 Short Stories that Will Change the Way You Think
http://www.marcandangel.com/2013/05/21/4-short-stories-change-the-way-you-think/

Intel Creates New Devices Division To Make Sure They Don’t Underestimate Apple’s Next Big Thing

bjunior — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:56:05 +0000

One of Intel’s biggest mistakes in the last decade was being blind-sided by the rise of mobile devices. Intel should have seen it coming: Apple asked Intel to make chips for the original iPhone, only to be turned down. Simultaneously, Cupertino was pressuring Intel to get the power-management of their chips under control. It’s not too far-fetched to say that if Intel had been paying attention to all the signals, then today they could be as dominant in mobile chips as they are in PCs and servers.

But Intel under former CEO Paul Otellini turned a blind-eye to mobile until it was too late. It’s a mistake new Intel CEO Brian Krzanich is determined not to repeat, which is why he has created a brand new “New Devices” division within Intel to focus on emerging trends, including “ultra-mobile devices.”

Intel Creates New Devices Division To Make Sure They Don’t Underestimate Apple’s Next Big Thing
http://www.cultofmac.com/228333/intel-creates-new-devices-division-to-make-sure-they-dont-underestimate-apples-next-big-thing/

Humans may soon regenerate damaged body parts like salamanders

bjunior — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:54:02 +0000

Australian researchers have isolated an immune system cell in salamanders which helps it regenerate missing limbs and damaged organs — and they suspect the same thing could work in humans, too.

Humans may soon regenerate damaged body parts like salamanders
http://io9.com/humans-may-soon-regenerate-damaged-body-parts-like-sala-509269956

Learn Anything in 20 Hours with This Four-Step Method

bjunior — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:46:01 +0000

With just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice, you can go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. That’s the message from Josh Kaufman, author of The First 20 Hours. In the video above, he reveals the four steps to learning any new skill, fast.

Learn Anything in 20 Hours with This Four-Step Method
http://lifehacker.com/learn-anything-in-20-hours-with-this-four-step-method-509281792

The singularity: merging human/machine to achieve immortality

bjunior — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:07:46 +0000

“The year is 2032. You have just celebrated your 80th birthday and you have some tough decisions ahead. You can keep repairing your current body or move into a new one. The growing of ‘blank’ bodies has become all the rage, and by using your own genetic material, body farmers can even recreate your own face at age 20.” This scenario is from a blog by Google’s top-rated futurist, Thomas Frey.

The singularity: merging human/machine to achieve immortality
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pelletier20130521

Warp Drive & Transporters: How ‘Star Trek’ Technology Works (Infographic)

bjunior — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:59:21 +0000

The original “Star Trek” television series featured technology that had first appeared decades earlier in science fiction stories. Pulp heroes had been wielding ray guns, flying faster than light and teleporting from place to place since the 1930s. But perhaps the true inspiration of Star Trek’s superscience is the revolutionary physics discoveries of the early 20th century. Relativity, discovered by Albert Einstein and quantum physics, pioneered by Max Planck revealed a universe far different than ordinary human experience might suggest.

Warp Drive & Transporters: How ‘Star Trek’ Technology Works (Infographic)
http://www.space.com/21201-star-trek-technology-explained-infographic.html?cmpid=514648

Why The New Google-NASA Partnership Marks A New Era In The History Of Computing

bjunior — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:49:46 +0000

It’s easy to become jaded about announcements in the tech world. Slick, media savvy CEO’s announce “revolutionary” new products with metronomic regularity. Version 1.0 becomes 1.1 and eventually 2.0 and on and on. It all seems like a blur.

Meanwhile, the truly groundbreaking stuff often goes unnoticed (neither the transistor nor the microchip were instant hits). Paradigm shifts come in strange guises, with little or no tangible effect on immediate life and often take decades to make an impact.

Nevertheless, we should take notice at the recent news of the Google-NASA quantum computing partnership which marks the beginning of a new digital paradigm. Although we must account for that which is beyond our present understanding, even the projects currently underway promise a future that seems almost more like science fiction than science fact.

Why The New Google-NASA Partnership Marks A New Era In The History Of Computing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/05/20/why-the-new-google-nasa-partnership-marks-a-new-era-in-the-history-of-computing/

New York Times CEO calls digital pay model “most successful” decision in years

bjunior — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:43:31 +0000

In a commencement address to business students at Columbia University, New York Times CEO Mark Thompson hailed the company’s digital subscription strategy and dismissed skeptics who say media outlets can’t reinvent themselves.

“[T]he launch of the pay model is the most important and most successful business decision made by The New York Times in many years. We have around 700,000 paid digital subscribers across the company’s products so far and a new nine-figure revenue-stream which is still growing.”

New York Times CEO calls digital pay model “most successful” decision in years
http://paidcontent.org/2013/05/20/new-york-times-ceo-calls-digital-pay-model-most-successful-decision-in-years/

end encryption? Think again

bjunior — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:40:52 +0000

If you think the private messages you send over Skype are protected by end-to-end encryption, think again. The Microsoft-owned service regularly scans message contents for signs of fraud, and company managers may log the results indefinitely, Ars has confirmed. And this can only happen if Microsoft can convert the messages into human-readable form at will.

With the help of independent privacy and security researcher Ashkan Soltani, Ars used Skype to send a four Web links that were created solely for purposes of this article. Two of them were never clicked on, but the other two—one beginning in HTTP link and the other HTTPS—were accessed, by a machine at 65.52.100.214, an IP address belonging to Microsoft. For those interested in the technical details, the log line looked like this:

Think your Skype messages get end-to-end encryption? Think again
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/think-your-skype-messages-get-end-to-end-encryption-think-again/

With push for data democratization, Intel tries to play both sides of the big data debate

bjunior — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:37:26 +0000

Intel has been taking steps in recent months to promote the democratization of consumer data — the idea that consumers should be able to check out the information that companies are collecting on them — even though it might not be immediately obvious how the chip maker could generate revenue through the initiatives, according to an article from the MIT Technology Review.

With push for data democratization, Intel tries to play both sides of the big data debate
http://gigaom.com/2013/05/20/with-push-for-data-democratization-intel-tries-to-play-both-sides-of-the-big-data-debate/

NSA Google search tips

bjunior — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:34:30 +0000

A book Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research (PDF) produced by the The National Security Agency to uncover intelligence hiding on the web has just been released by the NSA, following a FOIA request, Wired reports.

It offers advice for using search engines, the Internet Archive, and other online tools. But the most interesting is the chapter titled “Google Hacking.” For example: to find spreadsheets full of passwords in Russia? Type “filetype:xls site:ru login.” Even on websites written in non-English languages the terms “login,” “userid,” and “password” are generally written in English, the authors helpfully point out.

NSA Google search tips
http://www.kurzweilai.net/nsa-google-search-tips

Why use a database instead of just saving your data to disk?

bjunior — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:56:23 +0000

Dokkat appears to think that databases are overused. “Instead of a database, I just serialize my data to JSON, saving and loading it to disk when necessary,” he writes. “All the data management is made on the program itself, which is faster AND easier than using SQL queries.” What is missing here? Why should a developer use a database when saving data to a disk might work just as well?

Why use a database instead of just saving your data to disk?
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/05/why-use-a-database-instead-of-just-saving-your-data-to-disk/

Is computing speed set to make a quantum leap?

bjunior — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:52:45 +0000

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost,” wrote Richard Feynman, the greatest physicist of his day, “not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things that are there.” Which is another way of saying that physics is weird. And particle physics – or quantum mechanics, to give it its posh title – is weird to the power of n, where n is a very large integer.

Is computing speed set to make a quantum leap?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/18/quantum-mechanics-computing-speed

The Internet of Things: In action

bjunior — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:51:46 +0000

By 2015, six billion objects in the world will be connected to the internet. While it may seem tricky to grasp as a concept, the internet of things is nothing simpler, and more stunning, than objects being connected to the internet. At its most mind-blowing, these objects are learning and adapting to the behaviour of the user.

The Internet of Things: In action
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/05/19/the-internet-of-things-in-action/

5 Services That Will Sequence Your DNA

bjunior — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:46:20 +0000

Angelina Jolie wrote a heartfelt column, “My Medial Choice” for the New York TimesTuesday, detailing her decision to undergo a preventative double mastectomy at age 37. She explained that her choice was based on her abnormally high genetic predisposition for breast cancer; doctors estimated there was an 87% chance she would get breast cancer and a 50% chance she would get ovarian cancer. As the mother of six, Jolie says that she would hate for her children to lose her too early; her own mother died when she was just 56 years old.

5 Services That Will Sequence Your DNA
http://mashable.com/2013/05/15/personal-genetics-resources/

10 Japanese Kyosho Jutaku (Micro Homes) That Redefine Living Small

bjunior — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:02:02 +0000

If you listen to Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the craze for kyosho jutaku, that distinctly Japanese variant of the micro home, started in the thirteenth century, when the poet Kamo no Chomei penned an essay about the joys of living in a ten-square-foot shack called An Account of My Hut. Contemporaneously speaking, though, micro homes became a thing in the 1990s, when rising real estate prices and a nagging recession spurred many young Tokyo residents to reconsider suburbia.

10 Japanese Kyosho Jutaku (Micro Homes) That Redefine Living Small
http://gizmodo.com/10-japanese-kyosho-jutaku-micro-homes-that-redefine-l-504374362

Sheerwind funnel system claims to produce 6 times more energy than conventional wind and costs competitive with natural gas and hydro power

bjunior — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:40:27 +0000

SheerWind’s INVELOX wind energy system captures the breeze from an above ground portal and funnels the wind through a tapering passageway that naturally accelerates its flow.

Sheerwind funnel system claims to produce 6 times more energy than conventional wind and costs competitive with natural gas and hydro power
http://nextbigfuture.com/2013/05/sheerwind-funnel-system-claims-to.html