#Unprecedented Details on Precipitation Revealed by Satellites Techniques of monitoring all the precipitation throughout the globe within a short span of time were not effective previously.
However, the scenario has changed with the launch of the final piece of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission by NASA and the Japan aerospace exploration agency.
#China Blocks Google's Gmail According to Google, their Gmail service is virtually inaccessible in Mainland china.
After months of disruptions to its service, Google Gmail seems to have finally been blocked by the country reat firewall Large number of Chinese Gmail users said that they haven been able to access their emails for the past four days.
According to Greatfire. org, a China-based freedom of speech advocacy group, e think the government is just trying to further eliminate Google presence in China
Imagine if Gmail users might not get through to Chinese clients. Many people outside China might be forced to switch away from Gmail.
Google Transparency Report, which shows real-time traffic to Google services, displayed a sharp decline in the traffic to Gmail from China.
The company stated that there is nothing wrong on their end. The communist government of China maintains a tight control over the nation internet.
It is always quick to act against any signs of dissent or criticism of its party leadership.
The country also has the world most sophisticated internet censorship mechanism. Tech experts call it reat Firewall of China.
This year, which also marked the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations,
Google has been facing problems in the country, since June this year. However, its users could still access email downloads via protocols like Imap, SMTP and Pop3,
which let people communicate using Gmail on apps like the Apple iphone Mail and Microsoft Outlook.
Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, said, e do not know anything about Google being blocked.
China has had consistently a welcoming and supportive attitude towards foreign investors doing legitimate business here. We will,
Tech experts have said that using VPN (Virtual Private Network) seems to be the only answer against Chinese internet censorship.
The VPN allows unhindered access to blocked sites and services
#Google's Algorithm Masters Video games Google has stated that they have developed the first computer program capable of learning a wide variety of tasks independently, in
what has been hailed as a significant step towards true artificial intelligence. According to the engineers at Google, the program (or agent as its developers call it) learnt to play 49 different retro computer games,
and came up with its own strategies for winning. They added that in the future, the same approach could be used to power self-driving cars, personal assistants in smartphones or conduct scientific research in fields from climate change to cosmology.
The research was carried out by Deepmind which is a British company that was bought by Google last year for $500 million,
whose stated aim is to build mart machines The team of engineers stated that a total of 49 classic Atari arcade games from the 1980 were utilized as part of the experiment.
These games were used because they are simple enough for an AI system to learn quickly,
such as Space Invaders, Pong and Breakout, the algorithm significantly outperformed humans, while on others it fared far worse.
because the algorithm has no real memory. It is, therefore, unable to commit to long-term strategies that require planning.
and apply it to more realistic 3d computer games. Demis Hassabis founder of Deepmind, said, his is the first significant rung of the ladder towards proving a general learning system can work.
an expert in photonics at Stanford university who led the development of the mirror. n some situations the computations say you can completely offset the air conditioning.
#Google Presents Steady Spoon for Shaky Hands Using advanced technology, Google has engineering a spoon that promises to make the daily lives of people suffering from tremors easier.
The spoon uses a number of algorithms and helps in steadying the tremors so that the patients can eat without spilling the food.
The shaking pattern of a hand is sensed by the spoon which then instantly adjusts itself to remain in balance.
However, according to the experts, Google has utilized the technology in a unique way. Dr. Jill Ostrem, a neurologist at the University of California San francisco Medical center, commented t totally novel.
when Google indulged into no-shake utensil business and acquired a small startup called Lift Labs funded by National of Institutes of Health.
Over 10 million people across the globe, including Google cofounder Sergey Brin mother, suffer from tremors and Parkinson disease.
Anupam Pathak, the founder of Lift Lab, appreciated the shift of a four-person startup in San francisco to the colossal Google campus in Mountain view which has encouraged them to enhance their creativity.
Google (x) Life sciences is the department where his team works. It is involved also in developing a contact lens for measuring glucose levels in tears for diabetics
The catalysts which have been used in the system are adapted highly well as well as compatible with the conditions required for the bacterial growth.
One scenario being bandied about is using these CICADAS to monitor extreme weather situations, such as tornadoes. Within a few years,
Researchers claimed that the tiny man-made catalysts can purify drinking water and waterways by getting rid of oestrogenic hormones and pharmaceuticals,
Upgrades for the facilities with ozone or carbon-activated treatment technology will not only involve tens of billions of Euros,
For the Internet backbone which is built largely on fiber optic cables, this has significant ramifications. Before this breakthrough fiber optic signals ran into a limit.
For the Internet this means an infrastructure of supercomputers strategically located at network nodes regenerating
The implications on Internet infrastructure will be significant. Eliminating repeaters will make the Internet cheaper to operate
while increasing the amount of information transmitted through the pipe. So what did these University of California engineers discover to achieve their success?
and entitled,"Overcoming Kerr-induced capacity limit in optical fiber transmission.""For the telecommunications industry this is a very big deal.
The engineers have filed a patent covering their method and application to transmission of data. Essays and comments posted in World Future Society
and THE FUTURIST magazine blog portion of this site are the intellectual property of the authors,
2015-In his latest email blast Peter Diamandis talks about four revolutions in transportation that he expects will take place within this decade.
#Scratch Wireless Unveils New i-Fi Firstsmartphone for $99 Scratch Wireless is trying to make bills from wireless companies a relic of the past.
It an ambitious dream, and the Cambridge, MA, startup has taken a step forward by partnering with a Chinese manufacturer to release an inexpensive smartphone that could move it a little closer to its goal.
The new Coolpad Arise is powered an Android smartphone that can use Scratch software to make voice, text,
and data services free whenever smartphone users have access to a Wi-fi network. The device sells for $99
and can be bought from the Scratch Wireless website as of today. Users won have to pay Scratch anything more for service
as long as they use Wi-fi It the first time Scratch Wireless is opening up its service to the general public.
Scratch is betting that customers, especially those on tight budgets, will go for low-cost smartphones even if the devices are dependent on Wi-fi. Most of the time, that not a problem,
as users are in range of their home or office network. Plus, public Wi-fi hotspots are getting better,
cable companies including Comcast are offering subscribers access to their networks when theye away from home,
and Google is testing out Wi-fi-based mobile wireless services with its Project Fi. Wireless provider T-Mobile also is selling handsets that can make calls
and send texts over Wi-fi . But everyone is out of range sometimes, especially when commuting.
Scratch has a contract with Sprint that allows Scratch phones to use Sprint network for voice, texts,
and data on a pay-as-you-go model. Scratch users pay an extra fee that as low as $1. 99 per month for a limited amount of time on Sprint national 3g network.
In an interview last year with Xconomy, Scratch cofounder and CEO Alan Berrey said the startup approach is disruptive, both from a technical (the shift to Wi-fi) and economic perspective.
Scratch is going after consumers who want smartphones and data packages but with low-cost plans. ur biggest competitors are not AT&T and Verizon.
It actually more the entry-level folks, for people who want a low-cost service, Berrey said.
Typically those customers have relied on prepaid services instead of using major carriers. Scratch would not say how many customers it has said,
but it it has operated on an nvitation onlybasis since launching in 2014. nder the invitation only wall,
Scratch has had hundreds of thousands of consumers express interest in purchasing a Scratch phone, a representative said. ith the introduction of this new Coolpad device,
Scratch will be removing the invitation only wall and make phones generally available to consumers. ith the new product,
theyl have access to a capable Android smartphone with a 4-inch display, rear camera,
and ability to run apps from the Google Play Store. Scratch also says Wi-fi call quality, multimedia messaging,
and call handoffs across networks are improved. The phone is made by Coolpad, a Chinese company that makes low-cost handsets.
Coolpad is a virtual unknown in the U s. he company only entered the market in 2012ut it expects to sell about 100 million smartphones
and is one of the five largest sellers in the Chinese market. The Coolpad Arise is the second model that works with Scratch.
The previous phone was the Motorola Photon Q, an Android phone that sold for $269.
Scratch Wireless has raised $5 million from investors including Commonangels and has the equivalent of 20 full-time employees.
It declined to release sales and revenue information. Michael Davidson is the editor of Xconomy Boulder/Denver.
Contact him at mdavidson@xconomy. com. Follow@Michaelxb
#Surge Focusing on More Mature Energy companies, Raising Bigger Fund The change of one word can signify a lot.
Surge Accelerator has become Surge Ventures, a name change that reflects the maturing mission of the cleantech accelerator in Houston.
which acquired Mysql when it bought Sun microsystems for $7. 4bn in 2010, Mysql Cluster 7. 4 has faster in-memory processing
#Intel theory on opening software During December last year, Intel showcased a special project we worked on for renowned English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author,
Intel was able to demonstrate for the first time with Professor Hawking an Intel-created open-source communications platform to replace his decades-old system,
and the very specific relationship between this man and his machine, Intel has delivered a tailored solution--called ACAT (Assistive Context Aware Toolkit)--resulting in improved communication for Hawking with the world.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from Intel Labs has been working for three years with Hawking to replace his current communications system with modern technology.
providing ongoing feedback to help Intel improve the system with every iteration. Similar to the parts of an engine interacting smoothly to run a car,
the Intel-created software user interface enables existing and new technologies to efficiently work with each other.
managing and navigating the web, emails, and documents; opening a new document; and saving, editing,
and helps him select a character on the computer. Integrating software from British language technology company Swiftkey has improved greatly the system's ability to learn from Hawking to predict his next characters
and words so he only has to type less than 20 percent of all characters. This information is sent to his existing speech synthesizer
so he can communicate to others through his laptop. For example, to conduct a web search,
Hawking previously had to take arduous routes, such as exiting from his communication window, navigating a mouse to run the browser,
navigating the mouse again to the search bar, and finally typing the search text. The new system automates all of these steps for a seamless and swift process.
The value Intel sees in using open software extends to the cloud. This is why it has been proactive in making sure open-source solutions for the cloud,
ie Openstack, aren't seen as lacking based on misconceptions of poor technical support, longer implementations, or lack of regulations to control the quality of code.
Intel has a long history of using open-source software for its Design Grid and now it can add to that list creating open-software as well l
#Samsung begins production of next-gen embedded NAND flash Samsung has begun production of Universal Flash Storage (UFS) chips, the world's first production example of the technology with a maximum
capacity of 128 gigabytes, the South korean tech giant has announced. UFS applies international semiconductor standard setter JEDEC's latest UFS 2. 0 interface,
and is considered the next-generation NAND flash product after embedded Multi Media Cards (emmc) to be used in mobile devices.
which allows it to have a 2. 7 times faster reading time than the average emmc 5. 0. The latest chip achieved a random reading speed of 14,000 IOPS, 28 times faster than external memory cards,
and will offer the best user experience when multitasking, even while watching ultra high-quality video content.
UFS can be stacked atop processors to allow smartphones to be thinner. A Samsung spokesperson declined to comment on which client it is supplying the chips to.
However, it is expected widely that it will first be used in its upcoming Galaxy S6 smartphones, along with epop.
One of the printed engines is currently on display at the Avalon International Airshow in Victoria,
Computer giant Hewlett-packard has announced that it will put an ultra-fast 3d printer on the market by 2016.
#Apple, Google urge Obama to reject smartphone backdoor proposals Symantec Apple, Google and other technology companies are petitioning US President Obama to stop new regulations
which may threaten the personal security of mobile devices and communication. As reported by The Washington post,
which gained access to a letter due to be sent to the White house this week, over 140 technology companies,
which would allow law enforcement to view decrypted data on mobile devices. According to the publication, the signatories are appealing to government officials to protect privacy rights in light of companies adding increased security and encryption to mobile devices in a post-Snowden era.
Encryption and personal privacy hit the spotlight after former US National security agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden released a swathe of confidential files documenting the widespread, bulk data collection and spying activities
--which can place users at risk. Furthermore, the government should"fully support and not undermine efforts to create encryption standards
undermine, weaken or make vulnerable"software offered commercially. In October last year, FBI Director James Comey said unchecked encryption could lead us to a"dark, dark place,
"as law enforcement will become blind in tracing criminal suspects who are able to hide their digital communications. window. console && console. log && console. log("ADS:
queuing sharethrough-top-555b0a6bacc4e for display";"var cbsigptdivids=cbsigptdivids; cbsigptdivids. push("sharethrough-top-555b0a6bacc4e";"The FBI support encryption as a concept,
and Google have taken a different view. In order to restore public trust in mobile devices shown to be vulnerable to the NSA's spying activities,
both firms have begun offering smartphone encryption which hands the keys over to consumers --which means even by court order
and warrant the companies could not hand over user data. Apple's ios 8 is once such system
which was met not with applause from law enforcement. The operating system contains encryption which prevents the company from releasing user data,
forcing police to go after the device owners themselves in the quest for data rather than the tech giant.
Google reversed its original decision to enable encryption by default due to legacy issues with older Android operating systems,
but some devices are offered with heightened security y
#AWS plans 80 MW solar farm In virginia to power eastern US datacenters Amazon web services (AWS) has announced plans for an 80-megawatt solar farm in Accomack County, Virginia.
Once operational in October 2016, AWS says the Amazon Solar Farm US East will be the largest solar farm In virginia,
generating 170,000-megawatt hours of solar power annually that will be pumped into the electrical grids that power AWS cloud datacenters in the eastern and central US.
The Virginia solar farm is part of AWS'larger goal to power its global infrastructure footprint with 100 percent renewable energy.
In January the cloud service provider announced plans for a wind farm in Benton County Indiana, that is expected to produce 500,000-megawatt hours of wind power annually once it's operational in January 2016.
AWS also claims to operate three carbon-neutral regions--US WEST in Oregon, the US Govcloud,
and EU in Frankfurt. But even with its grand energy commitments, AWS is criticized still highly--mostly by the environmental organization Greenpeace--for its lack of transparency surrounding energy consumption and the way it sources renewable energy.
For one, Amazon's energy timeline is a lot blurrier than those outlined by Apple, Google and IBM.
Beyond the dates set for the solar and wind farms Amazon has committed not publically to a renewable energy deadline.
AWS does say it expects to run its infrastructure on 40 percent renewable power for by the end of 2016.
So far approximately 25 percent of the power consumed within its global datacenters comes from renewable energy sources, according to a recent blog post by AWS cloud chief Jeff Barr.
In the lengthy post, Barr acknowledged a recent Greenpeace energy report that blasts AWS for being stuck in the"dirty energy past
"On average, AWS customers use 77 percent fewer servers, 84 percent less power, and utilize a 28 percent cleaner power mix,
for a total reduction in carbon emissions of 88 percent from using the AWS Cloud instead of operating their own data centers
#Hardware prices could come down after WTO tariff repeal on chips, switches and touchscreens Consumers may see prices for certain tech products fall thanks to a new trade deal between 54 World trade organisation (WTO) members.
According to the WTO, the 54 members have agreed to cut tariffs on a list of 201 IT products with that account for $1. 3 trillion in trade each year.
The products have been added to the Information technology Agreement, a deal launched in 1997 to cover a range of technology products such as typewriters, word processors, hard drives, and other items,
which members agreed to eliminate tariffs on. However, in 2012, members acknowledged that the tech industry had expanded well beyond the items considered in previous decades.
which include magnetic resonance imaging machines, machine tools for manufacturing printed circuits, telecommunications satellites and touchscreens"."Announcing the trade deal,
the European commission noted members would also remove customs duties on video games and consoles, home hi-fi systems, headphones, Blu-ray and DVR players, semiconductors, TV cameras, routers, and switches.
Monitors, projectors, non-digital car radios and TVS will be excluded from the pact in the EU. The full terms of the agreement will be circulated at a WTO General council meeting on 28 july.
#Intel, Micron unveil 3d XPOINT as first new class of memory tech in decades Building off a partnership forged over the last decade,
Intel and Micron jointly debuted a new memory storage technology on Tuesday. Dubbed 3d XPOINT, the transistor-less storage and memory platform is designed to offer a nonvolatile,
and applications stored closer to the processor. The two memory producers touted this is the first introduction of a new memory category
since the debut of NAND flash in 1989. 3d XPOINT is boasted to be at least 1,
and many people gave up trying to accomplish,"reflected Rob Crooke, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Nonvolatile Memory Solutions Group, during a media presentation on Tuesday morning.
Intel and Micron executives shared a forecast that the world will generate roughly 44 zettabytes in the next five years.
Intel and Micron said they are already developing products based on 3d XPOINT with samples scheduled to start rolling out to select customers later this year.
Showing no signs of a summer slowdown, Intel has had already quite a big month--most notably a solid second quarter earnings report two weeks ago.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich credited the results to growth in three departments--memory, data centers and the Internet of things--altogether
Those units also made up for continued pitfalls surrounding the PC space. More Intel news can be expected soon as the tech giant's annual conference
Intel Developer Forum (IDF), is taking place in San francisco a bit earlier this year from August 18 to 20.
Skylake, the code name for Intel's sixth-generation Core processor aimed at PCS, is slated also to drop during the second half of 2015.
Images via Inte e
< Back - Next >
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011