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This article gives the reader helpful information and the benefits to backing up your computer/hard drive. Without doing so, in the state of some kind of malfunction on your computer, you could be in a situation where all your files have been deleted and there is no way to get them back because there was no back up. This article appealed to me because I learned the hard way from a while back when my laptop had been infected with a virus which deleted every single program I had (even iTunes). 

In relation to my post on the 'Spectrum Crunch' two weeks ago, this article is about studies showing the economic benefits of mobile phone networks. Countries with higher levels of data usage per 3G connection, such as Russia, South Korea, and the UK have an seen increase in their GDP/capita growth.  Countries that have only recently adopted 3G, such as India, have shown no economic growth. Dr. Robert Pepper, vice president of global technology policy at Cisco, said, "The fact that increasing high-speed mobile broadband data usage leads to greater average per capita income underscores the need for increased investment in wireless networks as well as for government policies to foster that investment, including the allocation of additional spectrum." The high-speed sharing of information over various networks, not limited to cellphone networks, has high potential to increase economies of countries around the world. However, these benefits may not be obtained if we run out of much needed frequencies in which to share the information. Our generation has become increasingly entwined with technology and its development. Through the Internet and cellphones, we exchange extremely large amounts of information daily. This can be an important factor in the growth of countries and development of other technology in the near future.

With Google's new product, "Google Glass", the company must come up with a new way to promote the product to its customers. Since the device will be costly, most likely to be around $1500, the company has decided to expand into retail stores which will be open all around the world. This can make it easier for consumers to test out products before buying it, and Google is also promoting and expanding its market in this way. The launch of Google retails stores can create competition for other companies, like Apple or Microsoft, and is a risk to invest in such a large project. Google, however, think this idea makes sense if the company wants to expand its business, and they believe it will satisfy its customers. I think these stores can create easier access to electronic information and products, which can benefit the company's profits, and with the rapid expanding of new technology, Google stores can use this factor to benefit and change the way people buy products from the company.

This article explains how there is a lack of innovation in the world of computers particularly in the internet world. The articles describes how although several creative and interesting sites and tools have been created there are little advancements in useful tools and programs. I think the ideas suggested in this article would definitely benefit all, such as a program that will take information from emails and such and make calendar events from it. Everyone will benefit from these programs and it will make the internet and computers in general much more efficient for all.

A company's biggest asset is its 'employees'. Without them, a company cannot grow, thrive and expand in new frontiers. Employees with intelligence, confidence, drive and integrity can take a company to new heights and help garner greater business success.

Social media has exploded over the years and become a huge part of all of our lives. From facebook to twitter, from instagram to tumblr, everywhere we look there's some kind of social media being thrust in front of us. It has appeared so often that we have grown used to it. It's not unusual when someone stops to update their twitter or upload a picture of their lunch to instagram. There's that sense of excitement when your phone buzzes to tell you that you've been retweeted or your post has been liked. Social media has become part of our lifestyle and it's a great benefit to have. It allows you to keep in contact with relatives and friends and stay updated on the lives of those around you, but have we started to become too reliant on this advantage. This article had provided a look at various social media addicts, like 'the liker' and 'the constant checker' and despite the humorous aspect to it, you can still see a slightly more serious question behind it. This article brings to light an issue that we all knew existed, but never really paid much attention to. It had referred to the different types of reliance's on social media as addictions. It's a strong word to describe what most might usually think of as just small habits or pastimes, but maybe addiction is the right word to use. This post not only highlights the different types of social media addicts, but it also tells us the 'symptoms' and downfalls that can come out of each one and it raises some fair points. It draws attention to the fact that the addiction to social media can not only annoy those around us, but also hurt yourself and waste your valuable time. I mean, it becomes very hard to concentrate on the work at hand as soon as your phone or computer buzzes to tell you that someone has mentioned you in their tweet. Social media makes procrastinating so much easier, not that we wouldn't find our ways to without it. This article is just proof that the world around usis growing, especially the cyber world

Wouldn't it be great to communicate with almost anyone in the world without having to learn a new language?  Microsoft has created a software that can analyze your speech, translate it, then play a new recording of your own voice speaking in a different language.  There are some downfalls however.  To reach a stage where the software is able to copy the user's speech and translate it, it would require the software to be trained with said person's voice for hours.  As well, the software may misinterpret the word, and could translate the wrong word, throwing the entire sentence off.  This software gets around one word in eight wrong. Regardless of the flaws, this software will benefit almost everyone worldwide.  People from all over the world will be able to communicate with each other no matter what language they speak.  This will help many companies worldwide as they do business with one another, due to the fact of how easy it will be to communicate with global companies. As well, it will be easier for people to look for jobs since they communicate with almost anyone, which means they can look for a job almost anywhere.   This software seems like it could potentially change the world as we know it today.  Once this software is perfected, it would be an amazing breakthrough in technology, seeing as how many companies would want to buy it.  Many people who don't work for big companies may also want to purchase this software to communicate with people on a global scale, and just to say that they can speak a different language.  To me this software would've been useful long ago, so I would not have to worry about taking international language classes.  Nonetheless, it will be exciting to see this software in the future.

This article is about how just recently, companies Apple and HTC have signed a 10-year licensing deal meaning that every single one of Apple's and HTC's lawsuits filed against each other has now been settled. Both have been sued by each other for infringing on each other's patents. This new licencing deal means that the companies can use each other's patents to a certain extent- giving their phones an edge over the rest of the smartphone market. HTC says they signed the deal to focus on making better products instead of spending so much time dealing with court. Some analysts say that Apple settled the lawsuits quickly to deal with Samsung and their lawsuits towards them. Apple has signed agreements previously with Nokia and Microsoft allowing them to use certain patents. I chose the tag of portable computing because both Apple and HTC produce many successful smartphone portable computing. Hopefully this deal will help improve both of their smartphone operations benefiting us consumers. In my opinion I think that this whole suing fest (lack of a better word) that has been going on recently is pretty silly as many cases don't seem as if they are worthy to be being sued about. I am glad to see that Apple has settled their disputes with HTC to cut down on this smartphone lawsuit drama.

This article talks about some businesses that now only hire non-smokers. This article states that this is the new trend among North American employees. This new hiring practice has slashed in half the cost of employee health benefits compared to five or six years ago which means that businesses will save a lot of money. Smokers cost more money, miss more workdays and have more health problems which is why businesses don't like to hire them. Some people think that they shouldn't be excluded as long as they do their job and isn't going to help them end their addiction. This article relates to the tag economics because it doesn't allow non-smokers to work therefore limiting the amount of people that would apply for a job. This is a downside because if not many people apply for a job and if some of those applicants were smokers, less people would be able to take up that occupation.

This article is about a new recyclable solar cell. This new cell is made using plant-derived substrates. This is known as cellulose nanocrystal substrates (or CNC). These solar cells benefit from being truly disposable and by eliminating the waste that results from the use of alternative materials like petroleum or glass. These cells are not only transparent enough to allow light to pass into an embedded semiconductor. These cells dissolve in water which makes them recyclable. The only downside to this new cell is that it will not be available in the near future and the cells can only yield a 2.7-percent conversion efficiency rate while the normal cells can reach 10 percent. At least we now know that a clean fuel ear is well within reach. I think that this new cell is very cool because we have never seen anything like it before and will help us reduce a lot of waste when it is ready.

Facebook heads have launched a new 'search engine' for those using Facebook. Entitled 'Graph Search', this engine allows users to type in specific tags to find users that fall under a specific group. The tags include things such as age, location, relationship status, and other similar traits. The Facebook developers should have seen this as an issue from the very start of the project. Many executives and onlookers anticipated that this engine will cause issues, especially with youth. The main concern being privacy. Facebook claims that only users who opt into this feature will show up on the results, but for mindless teenagers who click accept on anything simply out of haste, this could cause an issue. Although there has been no recorded cases yet, this engine opens the door for sexual predators on Facebook, allowing them to easily search for 'Women under 18 in my area' and similar search options. CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself claimed that they are heightening privacy settings for this engine, but there are still concerns to be had. This new feature is obviously a ploy to send more information to advertising companies and other Facebook partners. Facebook is renown for sending information and demographics of it's users to paying companies, but with Graph Search, anyone can do it themselves, including said companies. Facebook is finding new ways to sell out their user base, while still looking like the 'good guy'. Although it has it's benefits for the honest users that want to use it for social purposes, Graph Search is a very bad decision. If it wasn't apparent to you before, now is the time to get off Facebook.

This article is about the capital of Peru which is the second largest capital in the world located in a desert. It rarely rains which means that many residents are forced to get their water from dirty wells. The good thing is that the humidity there is 98% so the local University designed a billboard that's able to harvest the moisture in the air and turn it into potable water. The University teamed up with with an add agency to create the billboard. A series of five tanks located at the top of the tower can store up to 96 liters of water at any given time, and the liquid reserves are accessible from a single faucet located at the base of the billboard.  The water vapor is being pulled directly from the air and further processed by a filtration system. The water is guaranteed to be clean enough for drinking all year round. I think that this is a great invention and should be used in many other places around the world with a high humidity. This article relates to the selected tag of Environment because even though it doesn't damage the environment it is a renewable resource and will only benefit us in the future.They get the water vapor from the air and change it into water from the environment. 

This article mentions the fact that Twitter now plans to update its mobile applications to introduce filters for photos allowing people to share altered images without having to use another source such as Instagram. Since most phones come with high-resolution cameras and many of the Twitter users use their phones this will be an easy way for people to edit and upload their photos. Especially with people or famous celebrities that use Instagram then share them on Twitter where more people follow them it will be easier and faster to just use Twitter for it all. This new idea has been hastened when Facebook bought Instagram. Twitter was thinking of buying a different photo service or application but when weighing out the cost they decided to just build their own filters. Twitter is also exploring the ability to upload and edit videos without using a third-party application like YouTube. This article has a lot to do with economics and the battle between two companies trying to get people to use their site and apps and not the other. In this case Twitter is really trying to become the most popular and important social networking site where people will be able to do anything on and it will be instant. They are changing what they once were to try to morph into Facebook because of the increasing popularity of Instagram and the fact that Facebook bought it.  I think personally that Twitter is making a good decision about the filter but i don't think twitter should add their own video player because it would change twitter and its purpose of being instant statements and pictures. YouTube is good at what they do and twitter should stay out of it. However with the whole idea of adding filters to Twitter you get the benefits of Instagram with the benefits of Twitter which might just keep them on top of Instagram.

Following Facebook's purchase of Instagram for almost $1 Billion in April 2012, it seems appropriate that Twitter would integrate something similar into their users' experience. 'Inside sources' say that Twitter is working on a photo-filter system that will be integrated directly in the site and mobile apps that hopes to bypass third-party services (such as Instagram.) While Instagram is a social network that focuses on social images with limited text, Twitter is renowned for its 140 character text-based updates with occasional images. An advantage of Twitter's supposed photo filtering system would be that there would most likely be a website equivalent to the mobile app, a problem that has plagued Instagram users who want a PC experience. As of now, there have been no official confirmations by Twitter, but the idea of a Twitter-exclusive photo sharing system seems interesting; although the market is currently saturated by Instagram, which can export images to other social networks, including Twitter. Legally, Facebook and Instagram may be able to take action against Twitter, depending on how similar their filtering system will be. This relates to eLifestyle and ICS20 because as social network users, we are always searching for ways to monetize our networks to one cohesive experience; another photo-sharing application seems arbitrary when there is already a capable system (Instagram.)

Texting is one of the most popular ways of communicating with other people. However, do we really benefit from it? One could argue that it is convenient, but others believe that the language people, especially the youth, use in texts affect their grammar. Some might even say that sometimes they include abbreviations and slang such as b/c, r, and u, in their English assignment without even noticing the problem, I know I have.  In 2011, an estimate of eight trillion text messages were sent, and those between the ages of 18 and 29 make up 95% of the texting population. Many are concerned about the future of the English language since so many people are fond of texting. There was even a National Texting Championship in 2012 that was won by 17-year-old Austin Wierschke who was able to text 149 words in 39 seconds. It seems that texting have become an important part of many lives. Some abbreviations have become so popular that even the Oxford English Dictionary has including them into their dictionaries making abbreviations such as LOL, OMG, FYI, TMI, and BFF, official to the English language. In my opinion, texting is not a crime. It is a convenient and effective way of communicating with other people. I believe that there is nothing wrong with using abbreviations in texts as long as it does not affect the way I write. 

This voice-controlled camera is useful for those people who have problems taking pictures, like myself. I find that it's hard to make a mistake by telling the camera to take the shot. This camera created by Apple is high-tech and a newly programmed device that will help benefit others. The simplicity of this new device is fantastic in my opinion. Also, the fact that the camera does not pick up unwanted background sounds is fortunate because you'll finally be able to hear the audio clearly.

These glasses are really good for everyone. They can be 3D and can have your prescription in them. They are good because you can watch t.v from these glasses and they are in full color. This glasses can benefit all because then you wont need to buy a T.V. These glasses will make the T.V appear farther and not right up to your eyes. As well, they can have a GPS and other things programmed into your glasses. This relates to the course because you need to program software onto the glasses and lens. The lens part of the device is the hardware.

As the title states, hacking will soon be a top threat over terrorists. Hacking is a big deal because the people who do hack are able to take data - especially important data - from their sources and use it for their own benefit. For businesses, this is highly critical because just like that, any ideas you may have stored on computers could be gone and in the hands of others. Also, hacking might not be just for stealing data but also inputting viruses into other computers. In the US, two bills are being set to beef up the security of government networks to be protected from any cyber attacks. 

scary, but true

A helpful article showing a comparison between the top 10 careers involving computing. Shows a comparison between benefits, job availability, advancement potential, salary, and more involving careers in computing. In a world where finding a job straight out of university can be difficult, and choosing where you want to go in life is an issue, a guide like this can be a god send, and very welcome in this day and age.

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Many people, especially children my age are addicted to simple games that are frustratingly amusing which makes them even more determined to play it over and over and over again. For example, Flappy Bird. I see so many people investing x amount of precious time into it, just to get a pixelated bird through the most tubes as possible. This usually results in a) anger and humiliation for not getting pass at least 1 tube b) zero attention payed during important class lectures c) less study time and failing courses. However to at least stop more people from failure, neurologists are trying to develop another addictive game for people to play which secretly builds up your brain via subliminal messaging. By knowing the foundation of the addictive power of a game and manipulating it, researchers aim to keep people interested while subconsciously giving them a stronger and healthier brain. This is something that can be really amazing because the mass majority who wastes time on silly games like Flappy Bird might actually be receivers of benefit - gaining knowledge and useful skills without even realizing it.