The Unexpected Tech

EARLIEST KNOWN HUMAN RELATIVES CAME FROM ASIA

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:32:44 -0600

EARLIEST KNOWN HUMAN RELATIVES CAME FROM ASIA:

The ancestors of humans, apes and monkeys evolved first in Asia before moving on to Africa, suggests a new fossil find from Myanmar.

Remains of a newly found primate, Afrasia djijidae, show this monkey-like animal lived 37 million years ago and was a likely ancestor of anthropoids — the group including humans, apes and monkeys.

“Many people have heard about the ‘Out of Africa’ story of human origins and human evolution,” said Christopher Beard, a Carnegie Museum of Natural History vertebrate paleontologist who co-authored a study about the fossil find in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “Our paper is the logical precursor to that, because we are showing how the anthropoid ancestors of humans made their way ‘Into Africa’ in the first place.”

He added, “We would not be here talking about this subject, or any other subject, if these early Asian anthropoids had not made that fateful voyage to Africa.”

Could data scientist be your next job?

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:15:42 -0600

Could data scientist be your next job?:

Eric Horn, education director at the Data Sciences Summer Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, agrees that there is a certain mystique to data science, even though it has a heavy computer science influence.

For instance, his students as well as those at the university’s Illinois Informatics Institute are trained in various machine learning algorithms, natural language processing and intelligent search algorithms. They also learn how to apply those algorithms in myriad domains such as healthcare.

Like Rappa, Horn has witnessed heightened interest in his program, but can’t expand enrollment at this time due to funding.

Modis’ Kelley feels educational opportunities will open up as more companies focus in on data scientist skill sets. She encourages candidates with partial talents - such as an MBA, analytics or computer science - to fill out their resume with degrees or certificates from tailored programs like Rappa’s and Horn’s.

At eBay’s transaction arm PayPal, Chief Scientist Mok Oh is creating a fantasy data scientist team and he’s hoping to unearth candidates like those being churned out by the programs at Horn’s and Rappa’s institutions.

PayPal plans to study the tens of petabytes of data its customers and partners generate to predict buying patterns. Oh wants to carefully blend spending and behavioral data to develop profiles and uncover trends that will help attract new customers to PayPal and its partner ecosystem.

Though Oh’s ideal candidate would have all three skill sets - business, analytics and computer science - he has not found enough of them. “It’s almost impossible to find those three heads in one body,” he says. So instead, he’s developing a data science team comprising all three disciplines:

*A majority - 80% - will be PhDs focused on machine learning, natural language processing and data mining.

*10% will be statisticians highly skilled in data modeling and analytics to develop key performance metrics.

*Another 10% will be MBAs who know the right questions to ask such as “Why do people stop using PayPal?”

Oh is convinced this concentrated team - vs. dispersed silos of data analysts - will propel PayPal into the next generation and better serve its customers.

Xbox SmartGlass announced, use your tablet as a second display

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:40:13 -0600

Xbox SmartGlass announced, use your tablet as a second display:

SmartGlass is several things. Firstly, it’s an app for Windows tablets, Windows Phone, iPad, iPhone and Android, which will allow you to control aspects of the Xbox interface with these devices. Secondly, as part of the aforementioned apps, SmartGlass will let the Xbox use supported phones and tablets as secondary screens.

This second feature is the most interesting. Imagine you’re playing a game ofHalo 4 and you stumble across a curious object lying in a forest — a shotgun, a computer terminal, a corpse. SmartGlass would let the game’s developers use your iPad or Windows 8 tablet to show details of this discovery, such as schematics if it was a gun, or maybe cause of death if it was a body. “You can do that with any device,” said Marc Whitten, head of Xbox Live, noting this isn’t limited to Windows tablets.

Although a demonstration of the gun scenario was shown on stage at E3, it’s important to note that such integration with games would require developers build it — it’s not likely to be something games can support automatically.

But another feature SmartGlass enables has nothing to do with games. Movies and TV shows have heaps of supplementary info associated with them (cast, crew, reviews and ratings etc) and this is all content that the Xbox could throw up on your tablet when you said a given movie to play from, for example, theconsole’s Netflix app.

There’s a third feature SmartGlass enables, too, and it’s reminiscent of Apple’s AirPlay system on the iPad and Apple TV: if you’re watching a movie on your Windows 8 tablet and half-way through you want to play it through your Xbox, SmartGlass lets you beam it across and resume playing. Details on preciselyhow are unclear, and we’re digging to find out, but in a demo it was suggested the technology uses Wi-Fi similar to AirPlay. We have asked Microsoft to confirm if this is the case.

You’ll also be able to use SmartGlass to give touch-based gesture commands to the Xbox: Swipe left on a tablet, the menu on your Xbox will swipe left. Tap to select an item on your phone, it’ll be selected on the Xbox. It’s like using your tablet as a giant trackpad for your Xbox.

David Birch: Identity without a name

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:13:57 -0600

David Birch: Identity without a name

Confirmed: US and Israel waged cyberwar on Iran

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:59:03 -0600

Confirmed: US and Israel waged cyberwar on Iran:

In an unsurprising and yet wholly unsettling twist, it has emerged that Stuxnet — the virus that sabotaged part of the Iranian uranium enrichment program — was developed by the US and Israeli governments, and sanctioned by President Obama himself.

According to numerous American, European, and Israeli officials, Stuxnet was part of Olympics Games, a secret project begun by the Bush administration. Shortly after Obama became president, he sped up Olympic Games and ordered “increasingly sophisticated [cyber] attacks” on Iranian infrastructure.

When Stuxnet was deployed in 2009 by the US and Israel, it was originally designed to stay within Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment plant, damaging Siemens industrial equipment — but a programming error resulted in the worm spreading across the internet, and the eventual discovery by security companies such as Symantec and Kaspersky. According toThe New York Times, upon hearing that the worm had escaped, Obama asked his national security team, “Should we shut this thing down?” With evidence that the worm was still damaging the Iranian nuclear program, a new version of Stuxnet was released and Olympic Games continued.

While we always assumed that a governmental agency was behind Stuxnet — the worm is one of the most complex pieces of malware ever discovered, and it only targets a very specific software and hardware (Iranian uranium enrichment machines) — it’s a little bit humbling to learn that the US president was directly responsible.

To put this into perspective, not only is this the first ever confirmed case of governmental cyberwarfare — it’s a virtual a guarantee that a bunch of nations now have a cyberwarfare department. While the Chinese government never owned up to the cyber attacks on US tech companies in January 2010, we can only assume that this was the work of the Chinese equivalent of Olympic Games. Through Israel’s involvement in Stuxnet, we can assume it has a cyberwar group as well. The NYT also sourced information from European officials, too — so we can probably infer that at least the major EU nations have similar cyber security initiatives.

Neuroscientists reach major milestone in whole-brain circuit mapping project

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:42:13 -0600

Neuroscientists reach major milestone in whole-brain circuit mapping project:

Neuroscientists at at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory(CSHL) reached an important milestone today, publicly releasing the first installment of data from the 500 terabytes so far collected in their pathbreaking project to construct the first whole-brain wiring diagram of a vertebrate brain, that of the mouse.

The data consist of gigapixel images (each close to 1 billion pixels) of whole-brain sections that can be zoomed to show individual neurons and their processes, providing a “virtual microscope.”

The images are integrated with other data sources from the web, and are being made fully accessible to neuroscientists as well as interested members of the general public. The data are being released pre-publication in the spirit of open science initiatives that have become familiar in digital astronomy (e.g., Sloan Digital Sky Survey) but are not yet as widespread in neurobiology.

Overachieving students take underwater robot to new depths

Thu, 31 May 2012 23:04:27 -0600

Overachieving students take underwater robot to new depths:

Many of the students competing in an international underwater robotics competition in Florida next month are engineering their robots to dive to a little more than 5 meters, or roughly 17 feet.

But a team from the University of Washington in Seattle is aiming much higher than that — or lower, to be more precise.

As detailed in this UW article, the student team is making a robot that can descend to at least 100 meters, and operate in saltwater, so that it can ultimately be used by researchers in the field.

The robot is about the size of a large microwave, with a pneumatic gripper, drawing power from a tether and using off-the-shelf trolling motors to maneuver.

The robot is a project of a UW club started in part by sophomore Trevor Uptain. Miles Logsdon, a senior lecturer from the UW School of Oceanography, plans to use the robot this summer to start mapping part of the Puget Sound seafloor.

Uptain and Rick Rupan, a research engineer in the School of Oceanography, hope to start an accredited course that will produce a new robot every two years.

The underwater robotics competition, run by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center, will be in Seattle next year.

Open-Source Mini Sub Can be Made on the Cheap

Thu, 31 May 2012 21:22:52 -0600

Open-Source Mini Sub Can be Made on the Cheap:

Eric Stackpole is a NASA engineer and avid outdoorsman. Normally his passions don’t intersect, but this is one of those rare times.

He is the chief designer of a cheap, portable underwater ROV that could change the way we explore our oceans. And he wants to make it so cheap and easy to build that anyone can do it.

The device in question is the OpenROV, a small, lasercut contraption powered by several C-cells, a small, cheap computer and a webcam. Right now the price per vehicle is hovering around $500-$600, depending on how good a deal you get on the parts, but as with all open source hardware projects, further development will likely drastically reduce the price. Or you can buy a kit for $750 and support the project, once the Kickstarter gets going. That will also net you lasercut parts for your vehicle.

The ROV will be controlled by a laptop through a web browser. Theoretically, it can be steered from anywhere in the world, as long as there is a computer tethered to it on-site.

Most ROV’s cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to buy. The vehicle that took James Cameron down to Challenger Deep cost $55,000 in daily operating costs alone. That makes underwater ROV something that very few interested amateurs can break into, which is likely holding oceanography back.

Stackpole wants to change this.

Cisco software defined-networking products on tap in June

Thu, 31 May 2012 21:14:43 -0600

Cisco software defined-networking products on tap in June:

Cisco will make software defined-networking (SDN) product announcements at its CiscoLive conference in June that will show initial steps in how it plans to roll out the fledgling technology.

The products are expected to adhere to Cisco’s new Open Programmable Environment for Networking, or Cisco OPEN, SDN architecture. Though product details are unavailable, one of the products may include Cisco Connect, which is designed to improve cloud computing connectivity for branch offices.

Cisco will be making significant product announcements at CiscoLive,” said Shashi Kiran, senior director of Data Center/Virtualization and Enterprise Switching at Cisco, in a wrap-up of prepared remarks during a conference call this week conducted by investment firm Morgan Stanley. “This is a good transition point for the industry.”

Cisco has also promised to add OpenFlow to its Nexus data center switches. And start-up/Cisco spin-in Insieme Networks is developing what many believe is the next generation of Cisco’s Nexus switching line, with programmability hooks.

“Insieme fits into our strategy; it does not define it,” said David Ward, chief architect and CTO of Cisco’s Service Provider division.

Cisco’s multipronged SDN strategy was reiterated by Kiran and Ward during the conference call. The officials stressed that SDNs will augment current network and Internet functionality — not replace it - and that customers will adopt various flavors of SDNs based on their particular needs or requirements.

“I’m not sure there is a killer application for SDNs that can’t be achieved in architectures today,” said Kiran “Its promise is simplification.”

All-electric aircraft to emulate Lindbergh's historic transatlantic flight

Thu, 31 May 2012 20:57:21 -0600

All-electric aircraft to emulate Lindbergh's historic transatlantic flight:

Eighty five years ago, Charles Lindbergh became the first pilot to successfully fly from New York to Paris non-stop, claiming a substantial cash prize and securing a place in history in the process. Now another world record holder, Chip Yates, has announced plans to take on the same aviation challenge … but this time the aircraft making the 3,600 mile non-stop flight will be all-electric. The ambitious project is still in its early stages but the Flight of the Century team has already developed a patent-pending battery deployment solution to replenish depleted batteries while the aircraft is in flight.

Electric aircraft design is currently at that exciting, edgy early development stage and long-haul flight is viewed as something for a time way off in the future. Current FIM record holder for the world’s fastest electric motorcycle, William “Chip” Yatesbelieves that such a future is within our reach right now and has set his sights on proving it.

His newly-formed company Flight of the Century (FOTC) has filed a notice of intent and concept paper with the U.S. Department of Energy detailing plans to design, build and fly an electric aircraft non-stop for 24 hours utilizing the company’s Infinite Range Electric Flight technology. This involves creating a mothership capable of docking with unmanned flying battery pods to keep the juice flowing, while also ejecting depleted battery packs for guided descent and recovery for recharge and reuse.

2 New Elements Named on Periodic Table

Thu, 31 May 2012 20:02:10 -0600

2 New Elements Named on Periodic Table:

You can now greet by name two new residents of the period table of elements: Flerovium and Livermorium.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially approved names for the elements – which sit at slot 114 and 116, respectively — on May 31. They have until now gone by the temporary monikers ununquadium and ununhexium.

Both elements are man-made, having first been synthesized at the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, in 1998 and 2000. The discoveries were confirmed with further work at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Suggested names for the two elements have been pending since they were submitted to the IUPAC last year.

The elements were created by smashing calcium ions (with 20 protons) into curium targets (which have 96 protons), combining to form element 116, Livermorium. This element decayed almost immediately into Flerovium, with 114 protons.

SpaceX Dragon Successfully Splashes Down in Pacific

Thu, 31 May 2012 19:55:15 -0600

SpaceX Dragon Successfully Splashes Down in Pacific:

The first private space flight to the International Space Station has ended with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

“Welcome home, baby,” SpaceX founder and chief designer Elon Musk said in a post-flight briefing, “it’s like seeing your kid come home.”

Musk was clearly elated by the successful reentry and splashdown, saying that when you know how complex the spacecraft is inside and out, you know everything that can go wrong. When the mission ends in success, there’s the one simple thought going through your head: “Wow, OK, it didn’t fail.”

The former internet entrepreneur said he wasn’t pessimistic or expecting failure, but he knew how much potential there was for things to go wrong. Instead, the demonstration mission for NASA went very well with a few hiccups, but nothing that wasn’t fixed by the SpaceX team. NASA’s Alan Lindenmoyer shared Musk’s approval, saying the mission appears to be a “100 percent success,” but did add there are still a few more things to check. “We’re going to have to see the cargo.”

The charred Dragon – bobbing gently in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles off of the coast of Baja California – began its return to Earth early this morning after being released from the station’s robotic arm at 2:29 a.m. PDT. Moments later small pulses of thrust could be seen from two of the spacecraft’s Draco thrusters as Dragon began to move away from the ISS, ending its historic trip in orbit.

Paralyzed Rats Walk Again

Thu, 31 May 2012 19:49:04 -0600

Paralyzed Rats Walk Again:

Rats paralyzed by spinal-cord injury can learn to control their hind limbs again if they are trained to walk in a rehabilitative device while their lower spine is electrically and chemically stimulated. A clinical trial using a similar system built for humans could begin in the next few years.

Researchers in Switzerland used electrical and chemical stimulation to excite neurons in the lower spinal cord of paralyzed rats while the rodents were suspended by a vest that forced them to walk using only their hind legs. The rehabilitative procedure led to the creation of new neuronal connections between the movement-directing motor cortex of the brain and the lower spine, the researchers report in Science.

Previous research has shown that it is possible to reverse some of the effects of spinal-cord injury by circumventing the normal connection between the brain and legs, which is broken by the injury. For example, walking can be triggered in spinal-cord-injured rats if their spine is stimulated. But until now, such movement has been involuntary. This new research shows that with a specialized training system, similar rats can regain voluntary control over their legs.

A report published last year showed the proof of principle “that this kind of approach can work in patients,” says Grégoire Courtine, senior author of the rat study.

Google wins crucial API ruling, Oracle's case decimated

Thu, 31 May 2012 19:36:47 -0600

Google wins crucial API ruling, Oracle's case decimated:

Oracle’s legal battle to break itself off a chunk of the smartphone market by attacking Android looks dead in the water today, after a federal judge who recently finished presiding over the six-week Oracle v. Googletrial ruled that the structure of the Java APIs that Oracle was trying to assert can’t be copyrighted at all.

It’s only the code itself—not the “how-to” instructions represented by APIs—that can be the subject of a copyright claim, ruled Judge William Alsup. ”So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API,” wrote the judge.

Google had copied certain elements—names, declaration and header lines—of the Java APIs. Alsup ruled that even though Google could have rearranged “the various methods under different groupings among the various classes and packages,” the overall name tree is “a utilitarian and functional set of symbols, each to carry out a pre-assigned function… Duplication of the command structure is necessary for interoperability.”

The ruling is the cornerstone of what now looks like a complete win for Google in its legal struggle with Oracle, which began more than two years ago. The order follows an inconclusive copyright trial and a patent trial that Oracle also lost.

ACTA rejected by EU Parliament committees in crucial vote

Thu, 31 May 2012 18:26:06 -0600

ACTA rejected by EU Parliament committees in crucial vote:

The European Parliament has opposed the controversial ACTA treaty, after three of its influential committees said the trade agreement should be rejected.

The Legal Affairs Committee (JURI), the Committee for Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) all voted against implementing the agreement, which caused mass protests in several European countries this year.

In ITRE, the votes were split 31 members for and 12 votes against a draft opinion which called on the Parliament to reject ACTA. One member abstained.

In JURI, 10 votes were cast for a pro-ACTA draft opinion and 12 against, while two committee members abstained. The small-margin victory still went to opponents of the treaty.

LIBE also sided with critics of the treaty, with 36 members voting for a negative report on ACTA, 1 against and 21 abstaining from the vote.

The cold shower news for the trade agreement does not seal its fate. The next vote on it by Committee on International Trade (INTA) of the European Parliament will take place on June 21. It will be the fourth and final opinion the committees are to submit before ACTA is taken to a plenary session in early July.

Earlier on Tuesday Dutch legislators voted to ax ACTA, saying the government of the Netherlands will never sign it. They said they would oppose it even if the European Parliament approves the treaty.

Netherlands rejects Acta, and forbids any similar legislation

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:43:26 -0600

Netherlands rejects Acta, and forbids any similar legislation:

The Dutch government has decided that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta) is not good for privacy or internet freedom and therefore shouldn’t be signed. In doing so, the Netherlands has opted not to wait for the EU’s vote on Acta, scheduled for June.

Not only that, however, but Dutch MPs have also ruled that the government will never sign any treaties that are similar to Acta. A motion was passed promising to reject any future treaty that might harm a “free and open” internet. Acta needs to be ratified by the European and national parliaments in order to enter into full effect.

Acta is an international agreement that aims to create international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement. The title of the treaty suggests the agreement deals with counterfeit goods, such as medicines and luxury goods. However, the treaty actually has a much broader scope and will deal with tools targeting internet distribution and information technology. It has come under heavy criticism from civil rights and privacy campaigners who are concerned about the sneaky way that the treaty was developed and the lack of clarity in the wording of the treaty.

Floating photovoltaic island concept lets you relax below the...

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:39:16 -0600

Floating photovoltaic island concept lets you relax below the waves

A designer named Michel Puzzolante has come up with a concept for a self-sustaining luxury floating island that operates entirely on renewable energy.

The “Solar Floating Resort” is, according to the embedded video, “part habitation, part yacht and part submarine”. It includes amenities for up to six guests (in two single and two double bedrooms) with both large communal areas and smaller, more private spaces. Right at the bottom of the vessel, below the waves, a spiral staircase leads down to an observation bulb where you can stare out at the ocean’s flora and fauna.

Voices in the Cloud Come to Cars Nuance, the company behind the...

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:12:00 -0600

Voices in the Cloud Come to Cars

Nuance, the company behind the popular Dragon suite of speech-to-text software, is the VR provider of choice for automotive and, in fact, dominates the market. “It’s not really a question,” Boyadjis added. “They have the majority worldwide of all automotive voice recognition systems.” As Nuance goes, so goes automotive VR.

So when Nuance announced this week that it’s moving in-car VR to the cloud with its new Dragon Drive! platform, it signaled a major shift in the technology. And that your next car may actually understand what you’re saying.

Dragon Drive! is designed to make accessing connected-car functions – from finding the cheapest fuel nearby to keeping up with your Facebook feed – safe and more convenient. And allows drivers do it through more conversational interaction, meaning you won’t have to speak like a robot when giving the car commands.

Ed Chrumka, Nuance’s senior product manager for connected car services, told Wired that Dragon Drive! is essentially an automotive-grade version of the company’s Dragon Go! smartphone application. “We’re taking that same capability and extending it to inside the vehicle,” he said. But Dragon Drive! isn’t completely off-board, and no automotive VR engine probably ever will be. And it’s not even the first off-board VR application.

There’s already a blending of on-board and off-board VR in some cars, noted Boyadjis. “Ford Sync has onboard for Bluetooth, audio and navigation, but when you access Sync Services such as Traffic Directions and Information, you‘re talking to off-board voice recognition.” Chrumka points out that there’s an important distinction. “With Sync Services, everything goes over a voice channel. Dragon Drive! will go over a data channel so we can capture higher bandwidth, which leads to better accuracy.

Everything Will Be Illuminated: Artist to Cover Bay Bridge in...

Tue, 29 May 2012 20:22:30 -0600

Everything Will Be Illuminated: Artist to Cover Bay Bridge in Programmable LEDs

If permits clear and completion funds are raised, Leo Villareal’s latest project will soon cover the west span of the Bay Bridge with 25,000 individually programmable nodes of white LED light.

Called The Bay Lights, the project will debut in late 2012 or early 2013, in time to celebrate the completion of the new east span.

Artistic renderings show the cables of the bridge covered in a frieze of moving lights that resemble effervescence or searching headlights, depending on their direction. The piece will be visible from dusk to dawn from San Francisco and points north, but will be invisible to motorists driving on the bridge.

Death To The Pixels

Tue, 29 May 2012 20:03:34 -0600

Death To The Pixels:

Mommy and Daddy: What was a pixel?

You may want to prepare an answer now because the pixel is going the way of the Dodo (andthe iPod, for that matter?). In addition to being a milestone in digital tech, this could be a very lucrative moment for some of the electronic industry’s most active companies.

LG just revealed the world’s first full-HD smartphone-sized LCD screen—with 1920 by 1080 pixels at 440 pixels per inch it blows away Apple’s “retina” display on its iPhones. Remember the iPhone 4’s screen: It had LCD IPS tech and crazily high density pixels and taught us about the “retina” display—one so good that Apple said in normal use the human eye wasn’t good enough to spot a pixel. LG’s new system uses Advanced High Performance IPS tech giving it what LG claims is clearer color reproduction, wider view angles and other benefits. It’s clearly the next-gen of the tech Apple uses, and also means that anyone using a smartphone with the display will probably never see its pixels in action.

Meanwhile, Apple’s new iPad uses so many pixels that even on its large 9.7-inch screen youusually can’t see them, and it’s said that in a coming upgrade of its Mac lineup Apple will be bringing retina resolution to more traditional computers too. You can bet that next year’s Ultrabooks and tablets will have retina screens too.

And a new decision by the international telecom standards group ITU means next-gen TVs will fit the newly-designated Ultra High Definition Television standard. These are 4K TV at 3840 by 2160 pixels (twice the resolution of current full HD TVs) and 8K TVs with 7680 by 4320 pixels. Remember that for most casual TV watching it’s already hard to spot the difference between a 720p TV and a 1080p full-HD TV. This means your next TV is effectively going to have retina resolution.

It also means that most of the screens in your life will look vastly superior to how they have historically. Due to technological constraints, LCDs, plasma screens, and even the beloved old cathode ray tube monitors—still trotted out as a cliché when showing coding on TV—have been noticeably pixelated.