One day, you’ll gather the grandchildren around you and tell them wondrous tales of life before cloud computing: how you used to put information, photos and music on a floppy disk, a memory card or a USB fob to carry it from one device to another. You’ll tell them how it was called sneakernet because you had to physically move the data.
They will look at you funny, pat your hand and continue to take personal cloud storage for granted.
Now, however, you can be forgiven for thinking it is a bit of a marvel. A number of companies store your data free and make it accessible to whatever device you are using, wherever you are, as long as you have Internet connection.
via New York Times
May 18, 2012
Microsoft will give students a free Xbox 360 if they buy a Windows PC
posted by Laura Domela
No one will like you if in college if you don't have a laptop. Kidding! But seriously, in college, a laptop is your life. Microsoft wants to help you kiddies out: Just like last year, if you buy a Windows PC, it'll throw in a free Xbox 360.
via Gizmodo
May 18, 2012
This amazing camera can capture both the sun and the stars in broad daylight
posted by Laura Domela
The world's most amazing digital photography company isn't Canon or Nikon. It's a tiny company in Tucson, Arizona:Spectral Instruments. They make the craziest digital cameras on the planet. This one has a dynamic range so incredibly big that it can photograph both the sun and the stars in broad daylight.
It's their 1110 series, a device with a 112 megapixel CCD, black and white, with no Bayer mask or filter of any type, "nothing to detract from the overall image sharpness." Their sensors are extremely light sensitive and can take exposures that last for hours without any noise at all. That's why you can do something like taking a picture of a starry sky in the middle of the day.
via Gizmodo
May 18, 2012
Ruchi Sanghvi: Facebook's pioneer woman
posted by Laura Domela
Ruchi Sanghvi was 23 years old when she became the first female engineer at Facebook.
She developed the news feed and saw the company grow from a small start-up into the world's biggest social network.
Despite her successful career in Silicon Valley, she says when she decided to pursue engineering, she was confronted with old-fashioned views.
"People asked me whether I was going to roll up my sleeves, wear overalls and work on the factory floor," she told World Update on BBC World Service Radio.
via BBC
May 18, 2012
“Inexact” computer chip is 15 times more efficient than perfect counterparts
posted by Laura Domela
If you’ve ever done any programming, you know that one of the best things about computers, and also one of the most annoying things about them, is that they don’t make mistakes. A computer will always do exactly what you tell it to, and if you don’t get the right result, it is 100% your fault. At least, this is usually the case. Researchers at Rice University have made an interesting discovery, however. If you build your computer chips so that they can make mistakes, you can boost your efficiency by crazy amounts, to the point where more accident-prone chips can be 15 times more efficient than their always-perfect counterparts.
via Geekosystem
May 17, 2012
Fiat photo bombs Volkswagen with elaborate street view prank
posted by Laura Domela
Well played, Fiat. By paying attention to when Google's fleet of camera cars were snooping around Södertälje, where Volkswagen's Swedish operations are headquartered, Fiat zinged their rival good. How? By parking a Fiat 500 right in front of the front door when Google's Street View cars were out.
via Jalopnik
May 17, 2012
Q&A: Former SpaceX executive on historic launch
posted by Laura Domela
We may be at the dawn of a new, private era in space.
On May 19, if all goes well, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will liftoff the launchpad, bringing the Dragon spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Until now, only the U.S., Russia, Japan, and the European Union have accomplished such a goal. If SpaceX succeeds, it will become the first private company to do so.
Wired is interviewing experts in the spaceflight community to discuss the ways this historic launch will impact NASA and mankind’s presence in space. Is it a giant leap, or just a baby step?
via Wired
May 17, 2012
How to stop sleeping with your smartphone
posted by Laura Domela
In her new book, Sleeping with Your Smartphone, Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow details her years-long research project with The Boston Consulting Group, an attempt to improve the work-life balance at the hard-driving firm with incremental but meaningful changes in attitude and behavior. It was a worthy goal, given that by most measures over-connectedness is a real problem in the workplace.
By all accounts—Perlow’s, the firm’s, even clients’—the experiment was a success. And not just because the professor scored a book deal from it: Perlow outlines a plan that any organization can implement, which has the advantage of both simplicity and acronymability. She calls it PTO—Predictable Time Off—and it’s almost sure to pop up soon at a staff-building meeting or HR conference near you!
via Time/Techland
May 17, 2012
Forget the helicopter, drones make aerial videos attainable
posted by Laura Domela
The average episode of Top Gear runs around $1 million to produce. But those high-style, high-flying – and incredibly expensive – aerial shots just got slightly more affordable with the introduction of a new quadrocopter specifically developed for shooting automotive action.
Christopher Kippenberger and his Berlin, Germany-based production company, Kippenberger Racing, have been hard at work over the last few months putting the finishing touches on a customized drone capable of shooting high-resolution video. And unlike a helicopter rental, which can easily run tens of thousands of dollars after insurance, fuel, pilot costs and airspace approval, Kippenberger’s quadrocopter will only set you back around $5,000 after the two-man operation builds you a made-to-order drone.
via Wired
May 17, 2012
A user’s guide to finding storage space in the cloud
posted by Laura Domela
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