The battery of the future : 10 times more autonomous.

SiNode Systems announced earlier that they won the grand prize of Rice Business Plan Competition, which recognizes start-ups and promote the most innovative projects. In addition to the main prize, the young company has obtained various other rewards for a total of 911,400 dollars.
  

The company founded by six students from Northwestern University under the guidance of their teacher is developing technology that could significantly extend the life of our batteries by adding a layer of Graphene(a substance composed of pure carbon).

 

Simply put, they use a Graphene layer pierced instead of graphite found on the anodes of the current lithium-ion batteries. According to initial tests, this "simple" change multiplies by ten the life of the battery and allows to significantly accelerate the cool down process while being suitable for traditional batteries.

The results are already conclusive: all that's left is to industrialize the process for the market by carrying themselves to manufacturing, selling the license of this technology. It may therefore happen sooner than we think.

Glass: The Future of Google Gadgets (Infographic)

Guest post by: Gerri L Elder 

No one knows for sure how Google’s latest project, Glass, is going to do in the consumer marketplace. Hardly anyone who isn’t a Google developer has one, as purchases were limited to those initiated into Google’s Explorer program, where a select few were allowed to pay $1,500 for the product so long as they agreed to provide user feedback. Combined with a high price tag, the fact that Glass can’t access the Internet without a supplemental cell phone data plan or Wi-Fi connection is putting off critics.
The device does have its high points, of course. When users wear the brow band, a small screen sits above their right eye, giving them access to handy info like driving directions or flight information and allowing them to take photos or video. Its functions are controlled by voice command, head movement or a tap on the brow.
On the flip side, Glass isn’t the most attractive headgear. One would be hard pressed to find a fashionista strolling down Fifth Avenue in such a strange-looking device. It also creates an opportunity for privacy violations, as those around the wearer may not be aware that they are being videotaped or photographed. Also, anyone who can’t see without corrective eyeglasses won’t be able to use the device.
Even without knowing what the future holds, rival companies are working on their own questionable futuristic devices to compete. Apple has hinted at a mysterious watch rumored to be capable of making phone calls, pulling up maps and offering health tips. Another company is performing tests on LED-based contact lens that would project images in front of the wearer’s eyes. Perhaps most interestingly, Fabrican hopes to release a spray-on fabric that allows users to create clothing from out of nowhere, spraying clothes onto their skin from a spray bottle. The formula dries on the body, creating a thin layer of fabric that can be removed, washed and worn again.

Guest post by: Gerri L Elder
Source: Great Business Schools

The Free Web Vs DRM in HTML5

 "The W3C has a duty to send the DRM-peddlers packing, just as the US courts did in the case of digital TV. There is no market for DRM, no public purpose served by granting a veto to unaccountable, shortsighted media giants who dream of a world where your mouse rings a cash-register with every click and disruption is something that happens to other people, not them." -Cory Doctrow.

With the death of the owners plugins like Flash and Silverlight, media groups have a problem controlling their streaming flow. For example, they wont be able to restrict a video to certain countries, or to ensure that a film is not viewed simultaneously by two friends sharing a unique Netflix account.
To address their concerns, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides an integrated control system (digital rights management or DRM) directly in HTML5, this update of the language through which the Web is built.  
While the measure has not yet been adopted, 27 organizations, including the April and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote a letter to the consortium. Their request: "Keep the digital handcuffs off web standards."

The arguments for
Rather surprisingly, the father of the World Wide Web and W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee, who usually defends a free and open network, supports this measure. According to him, DRM is not directly integrated into HTML5. In essence, he said that HTML5 would contain hooks, and that everyone would be free to lock or not to lock.
More generally, he argues that such a system is the only solution for media groups to adopt HTML5 and  not to return to Flash.  
Netflix, the streaming giant, recently said it was ready to move to HTML5 if the W3C incorporated the famous extensions for encrypted media (EME, the barbarous name of opening the door to DRM plugin). Microsoft and Google are also in this camp.
The arguments against
"This catastrophic proposal would change the HTML so it promotes the digital handcuffs (DRM). EME is sponsored by a handful of powerful companies that are members of the W3C, such as Microsoft and Netflix. These companies are promoting DRM, both for reasons of their own and for the close relationship they have with the most important media companies", the coalition wrote.
The founder of the website BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow, is comparing it to the DVD, wanting to control the media chronology with geographical areas, media conglomerates have indirectly led users to hack. According to him, DRM is not only against-productive, they also limit innovation because they restrict the changes that can be made to content or services. While the industry has moved away DRM on physical media, including music from the iTunes store, she sees the transition to paperless cloud the opportunity to return to the charge. A story that repeats itself, in fact.

Learn more about DRM and join: Voices Against EME

How to treat your visitors with respect?

Everyone of us work hard to make his website or blog appealing for the audience, whether by delivering the proper content, design or services. And to be able to always satisfy your visitors, you should gather some basic information about them(page views, country, browser, OS, traffic source).

Such information in my hands or any other website's, is most probably harmless and it is to serve a specific purpose.
These information become harmful when you hand them to big corporations with huge databases containing a tremendous amount of information, that eventually, by matching them, they could end up possessing some very intimate and personal information about your visitors.
And by big corporations I mean Google, Facebook, .... or in some countries, government.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying by any means to generalize that big corporation are evil (Although it's not totally wrong) and other independent website are good. But there is a factor we can't ignore, these corporations have the power. Power that neither I nor any website have.

How is information gathered?
Well, simply put, an information is gathered whenever you Like something on Facebook, you +1 something on Google, you connect to iTunes or the scariest, when you send an email(check this post: Audacity).

Some other times, it is handed out to them by bloggers and website owners like us.

How? Well, in the process of working on our blogs and websites and making them more appealing, we need tools to help us, and some of these big corporations, as kind as they are, offer it to us for free (Check out this hostile post If you're not paying for it, you're the product). And it is needless to say, that the most powerful and popular tool is Google's web analytic.

How to treat your visitors with respect?
Whether you are a care free person who thinks that all this is delusional and worthless or whether you are some paranoid person who believes in conspiracy and spray over their webcams because you think you're under surveillance, whether you like this digital world or not, it is a fact that it is controlled in a way Hitler could've only dreamed of.

And once you have a website, you have a responsibility and whether you believe in privacy or not, it isn't up to you anymore. You have visitors, that have their own beliefs and you have to respect them. And in order to do that, you must not hand the information they trusted you with to anyone because by this you would be sabotaging your relationship and showing no respect to their privacy and freedom.

So, a first step would be keeping these information to yourself. And to do that, you must use tools developed by people who believe in freedom and personal privacy unlike Google. So what I am suggesting, is for us to stop using Google Analytic and start respecting our visitors. And by us, I mean myself too. So, join me!

What's the alternative?
If you've been coming to my blog (powered by Blogger-Google) for a long time, you would know that I won't leave you without an alternative, an excellent one:

http://piwik.org/ :a free software and by that I mean that it respects the freedom of computer users by putting the users first and granting them freedom and control. And it also happens that it costs 0$.

One in 10 people is ready to sleep with a robot

A very serious study by the Huffington Post in partnership with You Gov showed that 9% of 1000 respondents would be willing to have sex with a robot, 11% are undecided. Asked about the role of robots in our society in 2030, the panel estimated in 18% of cases that the technology will have this type of relationship.
 

                                             This might be the porn star of the future. 
                                         Until then, this blog is still safe for your children.
                                                                                  


The study also tells us that in 31% of cases, sex with a robot would not be considered adultery, while 42% of people say they are "uncertain". This is to reassure fans and robotic marriage.

On another note, the study shows that more than one in two (58%) expect the robot to take care of household chores. Military applications are mentioned in 48% of cases.


So, while waiting for the next generation of robots, I do advise all women to start working harder to attract men.Because, you have some serious competition on the way...

Another fracture in Google's Glasses!

Sorry, but when you have your Google Glasses on, you will not be able to, to enter to a local cinema or to your favorite strip club.

Already tested by some lucky picked users, the Google Glasses are not  welcome in cinemas or in striptease clubs. A spokesman for the Sapphire Gentlemen's Club in Las Vegas has made ​​it clear that due to the confidential nature of the activities taking place in his club and such clubs in general, and the hunt for  photos and videos leaked by smartphones for many years, Google Glasses will be banned.
  
And in case customers refuse to take off their glasses, "They will be escorted to their hotel in a limousine," he adds.

And concerning the ban from cinemas, I don't think that it needs much explanation. It is only rational, no?

But Google Glasses could lead to other security issues, privacy related issues. Not to mention the abusive use that may be made by sexual predators. Moreover, in this regard, Drew Donofrio, a private detective working since 12 years for the Bergen County, confessed to worry about this problem on NBC News.


Source: NBC news.

My Dear old MSN..

Today, April 8, 2013, Microsoft puts an end to its instant messaging software: Windows Live Messenger as announced earlier this year. 
The MSN network will remain accessible until the beginning of 2014, and it is therefore possible to connect with another clients like Trillian or Pigdin but the Messenger software will become obsolete in a few hours.

Microsoft recommends at the same time to use the other instant messaging software, Skype. Recall that if two applications were not the basis for the same purpose, they are now identical in many aspects. Like Messenger, Skype makes it possible to chat live with friends and family via text, audio or video, share files, etc.. And fortunately it is possible to import the list of MSN contacts within the Skype application.

For fans of the application, there is no doubt that today, by the end of Windows Live Messenger, a page turns. Launched in 1999 by Microsoft, the application has seen many variations on all media. Will be most remembered for all it emoticons and the silly teenage conversations we used to make...

And finally, with no words left to say, I dedicate my tears and this song to you :

 

Facebook Home, is it really an innovation?

Facebook presented Thursday night, its innovations related to Android. As planned, a new smartphone, HTC First, with the default application, Facebook Home, were announced.
Which was anticipated in a previous post on the platform : Facebook mobile, how real is it?

The surprise has not been a great one, since expectations were much higher, but it was an opportunity to finally lift the suspense.  
At the premises of Facebook in Menlo Park, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the newest social network in mobility: Facebook Home, an Android application with the same principle of Nova Launcher, Go Launcher or Smart. In other words, it is an application that can replace the Home screen and application menu of android smartphone.

As we see the Facebook Home integration is between the OS and the apps menu.

 

The new home screen, Coverflow, can only have access to Facebook friends publications.You can easily comment or like one of these publications using the buttons provided. Moreover, thanks to Facebook Home, Facebook Messenger application and received SMS messages will now appear superimposed on the screen with the profile picture of the contact that we wrote. Finally, notifications are displayed directly superimposed over Coverflow.

However, these innovations will not bypass the classic features of Android. Other applications remain accessible by sliding your finger from the screen bottom to the top. It will only be possible to add widgets or shortcuts on the home screen reserved for publications.  

Facebook Home will be available as an application on 12 April, downloadable directly from the Google Play Store. Not all smartphones are compatible yet, but as promised Facebook application will be updated each month, particularly to support more devices. For the tablet version of the application, it will need to wait "a few months".

HTC First, the first smartphone integrating Facebook Facebook Home by default works simpler by choosing to use the default Home rather than the typical desktop by pressing the home button, Facebook is also working with manufacturers to integrate Home by default in smartphones. If Samsung and Sony already have projects, the Taiwanese HTC which will launch on April 12 with the First HTC which will be marketed in the U.S. operator AT & T. It will be compatible with AT & T's 4G LTE and is available in cyan, red, black or white, will sport a 4.3-inch screen, run on Android 4.1 and is equipped with a Snapdragon processor double heart 400.

Finally, all I can say that the Facebook Home is nothing but another disappointment, for it's leak of creativity and innovation. And sadly, confirms the fact that big companies are so comfortable, they have no more interest into presenting more creative gadgets to the brainwashed mass. And after so many disappointments this year, I think we should all be less excited about the Motorola X phone.

Software that tracks people on social media created by defence firm

I just read an article published in The Guardian on Sunday 10 February 2013, by Ryan Gallagher about a new video revealing a new data mining software created by a defence firm that could be transformed into a Google for spies.

Here's some highlights:

A video obtained by the Guardian reveals how an "extreme-scale analytics" system created by Raytheon, the world's fifth largest defence contractor, can gather vast amounts of information about people from websites including Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

Raytheon says it has not sold the software – named Riot, or Rapid Information Overlay Technology – to any clients.

The power of Riot to harness popular websites for surveillance offers a rare insight into controversial techniques that have attracted interest from intelligence and national security agencies, at the same time prompting civil liberties and online privacy concerns.

The sophisticated technology demonstrates how the same social networks that helped propel the Arab Spring revolutions can be transformed into a "Google for spies" and tapped as a means of monitoring and control.

Read the full article here.

Twitter unveils new interactions within your tweets

An event took place yesterday in the Twitter HQ in San Francisco, where the press was simply not invited. Twitter seeking to hold a "head to head" with developers had unveiled their new interactions with which they were able to stay up to the game.  

The first announcement will interest mobile application developers. In fact, you may have heard of Twitter Cards (or extended tweets), which is the feature that will show an image, a photo, a video or an article summary directly from the Twitter.com interface. Its use could become widespread in the near future with names like Flickr, Path, Foursquare and Etsy who had the privilege to incorporate a little early. Simply put, if a person shares a Flickr photo on Twitter, you will be able to view the photo directly following the updates on your mobile application.  
If you have Flickr app on your phone, a link at the bottom offers you to see the photo in the application, and if you don't, you will be prompted to go and download it.  
Twitter could so quickly become a new download source for application developers. 

New Cards Twitter adds some new options for cards with the full list here:
Summary Card: information for sites that wish to put the title of an article, the lead-in, a small image and logo of the media.Photo Card: to include one photograph in a tweet.
Card Gallery:  to include up to 4 photos in one tweetApp Card: to transform iTunes links and Google Play in descriptive card applicationCard Player: to include a video in a tweetProduct Card: To add a product to an online e-commerce site(as with the example Etsy)
The Twitter Cards are good news for Twitter, which will make it more complete flow and therefore more interesting AND good news for developers who are going to benefit from it to increase their traffic, download applications, or sell products.

Firefox 20 available in final version

While Netscape freed, 15 years ago, the source code of its Web browser, resulting in the birth of the Mozilla project, Firefox is celebrating today its twentieth release. While the version numbers do not mean much anymore, but each Firefox version has brought a lot of new yet important updates so far. 
In addition to traditional invisible but important improvements, Firefox 20 has two new special updates to the user: 
First and the most visible, the new download manager and button at the top right of the toolbar. No need to start the download window, a single click will display the latest downloads and progression of downloads appears below the button. It is still possible to display a specific window, called "Library" which allows you to organize the downloaded files.
 

 
Another innovation will address the fans of  porn (private) mode that is particularly useful. Firefox offered previously the choice to reboot in private mode when it was selected, then closing the session where you were and preventing juggle between as it is possible such as Chrome.  
This twentieth release now offers navigation window that no longer requires the user to have to close the session to enjoy the incognito mode.

Note that this latest development is also valid for the Android smartphones version of Firefox. 
Finally, for developers, we note the integration of WebRTC's getUserMedia API, a toolbox allowing faster access to development tools. Firefox is available for: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android.

Two more iPhones signed by Steve Jobs

Fans of Steve Jobs can start saving for the next iPhone. Apple still has in its cardboard two devices with the signature of the brand founder. A new one learns from the lips of the liaison between Apple and  the U.S. authorities within a an investigation by a San Francisco attorney, George Gascon in an attempt to limit smartphones theft.

 
During his testimony, he explained that the next two generations of iPhone will still have the signature of Steve Jobs. Information which, if it was not confirmed by a prosecutor, sound like the ultimate sign to the market's attention and fans to extend the aura of the founder.

Still, the Californian brand has to look after its products to take them out of the current batch, in which innovation is not really an engagement. Six years after the launch of the first iPhone, the market could use a new revolution.