Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Saturday, April 05, 2014

drag2share: This is Earth's malware threat, visualized

source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/05/this-is-earths-malware-threat-visualized/?utm_source=Feed_Classic_Full&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Engadget&?ncid=rss_full

Ah, nothing like good old fashioned scare tactics to get you to install anti-virus software. In a thinly veiled advert for its security suite, Kaspersky Labs has created a real-time cyber threat map -- painting the globe with six shades of malware. The brightly colored map lists Russia as the world's most infected country, followed closely by the United States, India and Vietnam. It's a mesmerizing visualization, but take it with a grain of salt: the data it presents is pulled exclusively from Kaspersky's own security network, which might explain why the Russian security outfit's home turf is the "most infected." More users in the motherland probably translates to more virus' detected. That said, if you're looking for a colorful view the world's malware, you won't be disappointed. Check it out at the source link below.

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drag2share: This Chart From IBM Explains Why Cloud Computing Is Such A Game-Changer

source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/7pz0U48_1Zw/this-chart-from-ibm-explains-why-cloud-computing-is-such-a-game-changer-2014-4

All of the industry's biggest tech players are going gaga chasing the cloud-computing market these days:

Cisco just vowed to spend $1 billion to build a new cloud to compete with Amazon's Web Services.
Microsoft spent about $8 billion on cloud computing R&D in 2011 and spends billions more each year on its cloud data centers in 16 regions around the world.
IBM is spending $7 billion to beef up its cloud.
Oracle is in the process of building a cloud, too, with parts of it already being used by beta testers, CEO Larry Ellison recently said.

What is it that has all of the biggest tech players drooling? This chart that IBM sent to its investors explains it all. To summarize, IBM says ...

85% of new software today is being built for the cloud.
One-quarter of the world's apps will be available on the cloud by 2016.
Almost three-quarters of developers say that they are using the cloud in apps they are developing now.

IBM cloud future

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Friday, April 04, 2014

Article: BitTorrent's cloud solution? Bypass it altogether

Last year's revelations of the National Security Agency's sweeping data collection programs were not particularly good for U.S. technology companies. Following the Edward Snowden leak, the D.C.-based think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation predicted that U.S. cloud computing c...

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/04/04/bittorrents-cloud-solution-bypass-it-altogether/

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Article: Pixelstick: Light painting evolved to span video and photos

Follow Duncan Frazier has made impressive stunning timelapse footage, but when he and his business partner Stephen McGuigan (working together as Bitbanger Labs) sent us a link to Pixelstick, we experienced the kind of awe that was formerly reserved for Apple product launches. Pixelstick is a tool...

http://thenextweb.com/creativity/2014/04/04/pixelstick-light-painting-evolved/

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Article: Apple v Samsung Case Highlights The New Innovator's Dilemma

Among the unedifying terminology revealed in the Apple v Samsung patent war was Steve Jobs’ belief that his company should go thermonuclear in its dispute with Google , and regard it as a Holy War. How inappropriate! Yet Jobs hit a point of real contention, rather than hyperbole, in the same ‘hol...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2014/04/03/apple-v-samsung-and-the-new-innovators-dilemma/

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Article: 'Unbreakable' security codes inspired by nature

A revolutionary new method of encrypting confidential information has been patented by scientists inspired by their discoveries from human biology, which model how the heart and lungs coordinate their rhythms by passing information between each other.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140403132111.htm

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Article: Why Random is developing an irrational browsing experience

Sometimes a company is interesting not because of the utility of what it can provide now, but because of the slightly hard-to-pin-down possibilities it opens up — particularly if those possibilities may help us navigate a new age of user interfaces and experiences. Random is such a company, and h...

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/04/why-random-is-developing-an-irrational-browsing-experience/

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Article: Fruit flies fitted with tiny backpacks to save farms

(Credit: CSIRO) The CSIRO is putting RFID sensors on Queensland fruit flies to study their behaviour in the hopes of saving Queensland's crops. What do Tasmanian bees and Queensland fruit flies (AKA Q-flies) have in common (aside from six legs, two wings and segmented eyes)? They both wear little...

http://www.cnet.com.au/fruit-flies-fitted-with-tiny-backpacks-to-save-farms-339346996.htm?feed=rss

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Article: Intel Releases $99 "Minnowboard Max," An Open-Source Single-Board Computer

Not to be outflanked by rivals, Intel has released the $99 Minnowboard Max, a tiny single-board computer that runs Linux and Android. It is completely open source – you can check out the firmware and software here – and runs a 1.91GHz Atom E3845 processor. The board’s schematics are also availabl...

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/03/intel-releases-99-minnowboard-max-an-open-source-single-board-computer/?ncid=rss

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drag2share: Surreal reversed footage of a man walking backwards in Tokyo

Source: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/surreal-reversed-footage-of-a-man-walking-backwards-in-1557838387/+jesusdiaz

Surreal reversed footage of a man walking backwards in Tokyo

Enjoy this reversed footage of a man walking backwards across Tokyo, proof that a simple, seemingly silly idea can result in something strangely confusing and attractive.

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: The Most Elegant iPhone Speaker Is Just A Single Piece Of Blown Glass

Source: http://gizmodo.com/the-most-elegant-iphone-speaker-is-just-a-single-piece-1557674716

The Most Elegant iPhone Speaker Is Just A Single Piece Of Blown Glass

Here is a sleek way to showcase your iPhone's looks and sounds. There are no wires or buttons or even plastic in this passive amp—just a single piece of glass, handcrafted to exacting proportions, that can wrap a room in sound.

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Glowing Sticks and Long Exposures Turn Drumming Into a Visual Feast

Source: http://gizmodo.com/glowing-sticks-and-long-exposures-turn-drumming-into-a-1557736797

Glowing Sticks and Long Exposures Turn Drumming Into a Visual Feast

It can be mesmerizing watching a talented drummer beat away on a set of skins, but even more so when they're sitting in the middle of a long-exposure camera rig with a pair of glowing drumsticks in hand. What's usually a blur of arms and sticks suddenly becomes an intricate web of mid-air streaks and squiggles that only add to a drummer's performance.

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drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)

drag2share: Here's another peek at Google's build-your-own-smartphone project

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/03/project-ara-video-update/

Project Ara has only exploded in prominence since Google unloaded Motorola earlier this year, and now we're getting yet another peek at the work in progress. The Phonebloks team just released a video showing off the progress Google and its partners have made on those modular smartphones, and things are coming along just as quick as you'd expect.

While this is ostensibly a video meet-and-greet with some of the folks working for the cause, there are still some tantalizing parts to gaze upon. We're given a quick look at how component modules like processors and cameras are held in place by electropermanent magnets -- they slide into place easily, and are locked and unlocked with a quick burst of voltage that'll ultimately be controlled with an app. For a few brief moments, we also get a look at the three different endoskeletons that those parts pop into side by side... if only in render form. The mainstream medium model is the one that's been getting all the attention lately, but the phablet-sized endo looks like it'll support 9 modules on its rear and the mini model that could sell for about $50 can handle at least 6. Not enough Ara meat for you? Never fear: the first Ara Developer Conference will take place on April 15, so expect most of the project's secrets to be spilled very shortly.

Filed under: Mobile

Source: YouTube

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drag2share: Google's Project Loon balloon goes around the world in just 22 days

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/04/google-project-loon-world-journey/

One of Project Loon's hot air balloons just completed a journey 'round the world, but unlike Vernes' Phileas Fogg who took 80 days to do so, Google's creation took but a mere 22 days. That far exceeds Mountain View's expectations (the team thought it would take around 33 days), all thanks to data collected by previous test flights. You see, the folks behind the project make sure to assess and use those findings to continue improving their balloons. In fact, this model (called Ibis-167), which had to brave particularly strong winds, might not have made it if not for the changes the team made.

The team writes on the project's Google+ page:

Since last June, we've been using the wind data we've collected during flights to refine our prediction models and are now able to forecast balloon trajectories twice as far in advance. In addition, the pump that moves air in or out of the balloon has become three times more efficient, making it possible to change altitudes more rapidly to quickly catch winds going in different directions. There were times, for example, when this balloon could have been pulled into the polar vortex - large, powerful wind currents that whip around in a circle near the stratosphere in the polar region - but these improvements enabled us to maneuver around it and stay on course.

Project Loon is one of Google X Lab's (the company's more adventurous outfit also responsible for Glass) brainchild, which hopes to offer hot air balloon-powered internet connection someday. Until then, the team will continue doing more test flights -- the Ibis-167 is already on its second journey, clocking the project's 311,000th mile -- to ensure the hardiness of their balloons.

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Google

Via: CNET

Source: Project Loon

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drag2share: This Sustainable Home In Silicon Valley Is The Perfect Alternative To A McMansion [PHOTOS]

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/sustainable-silicon-valley-home-2014-4

low rise house

To many observers, Silicon Valley is the land of cookie-cutter developments and massive McMansions. But a recently completed home in the area could provide a useful model to change that.

Situated on a half-acre lot in Menlo Park, the "Low/Rise house" is an impressive example of sustainable living. The house uses a number of energy-efficient techniques, including radiant floor heating and hidden solar panels that generate 90% of the home's energy.

"Given the great advances of technology emerging from Silicon Valley, architectural innovation surprisingly lags behind. The house is intended as a counter proposal to the suburban McMansion, the sprawling suburban developments that represent costly wasted space, resources, and energy," Dan Spiegel, founding partner of San Francisco-based Spiegel Aihara Workshop, said to Business Insider. "The Low/Rise House proposes a more responsive, flexible approach to the single family home."

Spiegel designed the home for his parents, two professors at Stanford. It has some pretty amazing green features.

The house is made up of two low structures that meet in the center.

A three-story guest tower rises on one end of the property. The owners can use an app to shut off the utilities in the separated structure so that it doesn't use too much power when unoccupied.

Solar panels on the roof generate 90% of the house's energy, but they're purposely hidden from view.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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