Group items tagged

This article is about the advancement of 3D printers recently. A 3D printer is a device that creates 3 dimensional objects from digital models. A 3D printer accomplishes this by spraying on layers of plastics or metals to eventually create an object. This article focuses mostly on new software which pinpoints weak spots in a 3D print digital model and adds thickness or struts where needed. There is also an option to reduce the thickness in some areas where it is already structurally sound enough, reducing the amount of material needed, weight and cost. 3D printers have become so advanced recently that an average person can go and pick one up for as little as $300. The future of 3D printing looks amazing and as time goes on, these devices will become more and more advanced.  I chose the tag of eLifestyle because 3D printers are quickly becoming a household device that many can afford. Advances in printer technology are making it possible to find a model online and then print it out right in the comfort of your own home, instead of going out and buying it. I really like the idea of 3D printing, it feels so futuristic in that we can print our own things on a whim. I think 3D printers could also be quite dangerous as anyone who has access to one of these devices could print out weapons such as knives and firearms. It seems as authorities would have trouble controlling this and could pose a major problem in the near future. Overall 3D printing has both its ups and downs.

New "surveillance--proof" app, Silent Circle has been released providing an easy way for people to text and call people without anyone else ever knowing what has been said, including ISPs and governments. This app makes sure no one can eave drop on your personal business by using what's called encryption. Encryption is the process of changing data into a secret code, the secret code can then only be read by the device you are trying to communicate with. The encryption codes are randomly generated each time the app is used so it is almost impossible to crack the code. This app is can be used on iOS and is currently in development for other devices and platforms as well. Some feel that free communication should be a right, but governments must be feeling a little bit nervous about this app. I chose the tag "privacy and security" because this article is about how Silent Circle has given people an easy way to speak in a secure and private environment without any intervention from anyone else other than the communicators. In my opinion I feel that free communication is important, but people will abuse this through using this app to possibly deal drugs, plan terrorist attacks, or other illegal activities. Who knows, maybe even the government controls this network to monitor people who use it, but that is just a theory.

Many of us think of Apple as this giant in electronics. Over the past decade, Apple set the market for smartphones, ultrabooks, and tablets. However, in the past couple of years, Apple has begun to fall off. Rather than being the huge 'juggernaut,' Apple has become a follower, forced to play catch up to other companies including Google and Amazon. Evidence of this are tied to the recent releases of the Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7. Apple's response was the iPad Mini, when they realized consumers enjoyed smaller tablets. Before that was the iPhone 5, in response to people wanting larger phone displays. Apple Maps is a blunder that both iOS 6 users and Apple pays for. Apple was slow on the draw to join in on changes to the market specifications. Having controlled the market for the past decade with the popularization of smartphones, tablets, and retina display, Apple was simply unprepared to react to these changes. Apple still has their innovation and secrets hidden in R&D, but the fact of the matter is their most recent releases contain ideas from other companies' progress. This relates to elifestyle because our generation uses these products in our daily lives. Most of us do not remember a time when electronics did not make up a substantial part of our lives; when Apple was not a prominent consumer electronics company. This reminds us that power does not last indefinitely; innovators become followers, and companies fall. The next big thing in electronics may not even exist yet. 

I guess in the future, wars won't be called "bloody" anymore because these guys, namely DARPA, are creating robots that would take the place of human soldiers. With the use of complicated interfaces and algorithms, they are aiming to enable these robotic avatars to effectively partner with their respective human soldiers. Amazing but at the same time scary because the more technological advances in weaponry means the more destructive the war will be. Another thing is they are trying to make these soldiers indestructible as possible. What if those robots start a rebellion or something? Just saying.

Google plus is not only able to compete with Facebook, but actually do well. With a 95% profit margin it doesn't look like their stopping any time soon. This is interesting as it asks the question, should we rely on one company or organization for all our information, networking, communications and social media without giving that company too much power that they could eventually control or monitor us.

In this article Blizzard sues valve over the name DOTA because DOTA was originality a Warcraft 3 mod which they did not create but do hold some control over because it made with their tools. I personally do not like these two amazing company's taking away resources from making their great games but i feel that valve should not be sued because blizzard does not actually own the name and valve hired the people who originally made it

this article is about a company announced its AudiOffice product at the 2012 Mobile World Congress this week. It's a dock equipped with speakers for Apple's iPhone, iPod and iPad. It plays music, makes calls and allows users to video chat with others.Since apps such as Skype and FaceTime are often used for business communication to help with web connectivity and control costs, AudiOffice allows users to use these programs without having to go through your computer.Don't have an iOS device? You can still connect a mobile phone to the system via its internal Bluetooth radio.

This article is actually really interesting. They made Zeiss Cinemizer OLED. This device is used too play games, and enter the virtual world, and control what you do in the game. You can walk, and play. It's like a joystick used for forward motion. From people who tried it, according to them it felt really life like. This device will actually be out this year in 2012. This device is really worth getting, but it is inexpensive it's $850 plus you have to get the tracking hardware. This is worth trying!

Over the years, Samsung has been working hard to improve their phones. We are expecting to have a very good phone. Compared to the last Samsung Galaxy note we are expecting to have better grip and a longer battery life. Also it has a better camera and has something called an S pen which you can use to control the phone. I personally am looking forward to see this phone and if it is what they really say it is.

The new generation of the ever so popular HTC One is coming. Photos, specs and release dates have been leaked. The M8, (Second HTC One) has been rumored of having a new screen, with on screen controls, more power, a new second camera for stabilization, and the ever so loved HTC One design, and speakers. Personally, i love the new on screen buttons as it gives you more screen space without increasing the size of the device, and allows the screen to be in the center when watching content in landscape.

On the 13th of February, Facebook made a change to their gender identity on profiles. You can now choose from the existing "male" and "female" option, but now there are also 56 different gender identities. Some options include agender, cis, gender fluid, transgender, and neither. Not only did Facebook change the identity, you can now also control what your friends can refer you as- male, female or neutral (they/their). Facebook worked with a group of leading LGBT organizations to help select the new genders in the option, now the only thing people ask for in the comments of this official announcement is for Facebook to change the "Interested in" option.

thoughts & opinions?

This article is about a channel on a game streaming site that allows users to 'join in'. The channel's creator, Polygon, has formulated a way in translating chat comments into control inputs. Over the past few days this Pokemon game has received over 35 000 players typing in commands all at the same time, causing lag and a lack of cooperation. However, despite the slow progress in leading the hero around the playing field, players are still determined to defeat the game's eight gym leaders. What is really amazing about this is that Pokemon even after all this time is very popular and people are still finding different ways to program and play this game. It also shows that you don't have to create a new advanced system or another pacemaker to be successful in computers.

I'm not entirely clear what the connection is to careers in computing. Please clarify

"Mobile World Congress on Monday, Zuckerberg delineated some of his plans for moving forward with Internet.org, the initiative led by Facebook to bring Internet connectivity to poor countries around the world.  While Zuckerberg touted the altruistic vision of his company's goal to connect the next one billion people, it's important to note that the project isn't just for the sake of bringing basic services to those that don't have it, but rather bringing millions of additional eyeballs to Facebook and its advertisers.  See Also: Hey Facebook! Connecting The World To The Web Isn't Enough "[We are] making it so that we can increase the amount of up-sells to subscriptions when they're using these basic services," Zuckerberg said in his keynote. "They will come to a link that isn't included in the basic services package; a popup that says, ok if you want to consume this, you have to buy this data plan." Facebook is making a long-term promise to both data carriers and advertisers-Zuckerberg said the next one billion people to attain Internet access will not be as affluent as those already on Facebook, thus making it harder to monetize the company's services. Zuckerberg said the social network will subsidize Facebook, Messenger, and other services like weather or basic news and information, and then provide up-sells in applications to deliver the whole package-like a gateway drug. Those up-sells are where carriers and Facebook make money. "The reason why they're not on [the Internet] is they don't know why they would want to get access to it," Zuckerberg said. "[We will show] people why it's rational and good for them to spend the limited money that they have on the Internet." How WhatsApp Fits Into Internet.org Facebook recently spent $19 billion to acquire the mobile messaging application WhatsApp, an application Zuckerberg claims will be one of the few services to amass a billion users in the future. He claimed that, by it

Samsung has put out the Galaxy Gear "smart watch" with what is said to be 3 days of battery life. The new mobile operating system, Tizen OS is used in this. Along with the Tizen OS there is a 1.63-inch touchscreen, 1 GHz processor and up 4 GB of storage, and it is compatible with Samsung smartphones. The Tizen is hoped to be used in multiple other devizes, from cars to TV's. The article relates to hardware because this may be the future of our equipment, possibly all connected and controlled with maybe one or a few things. It can be said that this is what everything will be like, from our tools to our everyday items. My idea of this is that these new things that are popping up that will make our lives "easier" will bring everyone to become more and more lazy. Before electronics people actually went out to have fun, but now everything we do, or at least almost everything, is in the "comfort of our home".

I found this article interesting because of what Facebook is saying. They are saying that teens don't think Facebook is popular anymore to that age group so with the purchase of WhatsApp, teens will be able to enjoy Facebook again. WhatsApp is this hugely popular cross-platform messaging app that allows users to chat with individuals or groups, as well as sending files and pictures back and forth. The cost for this purchase was $4 billion dollars and $12 billion in Facebook shares. I believe this is a good purchase because this will increase Facebook's popularity even more than what it already is

Facebook has just bought the messaging app Whatsapp for a $16 billion. Whatsapp is a messaging app where people with different phones that having different operating systems such as android, iphone, windows and blackberry, can chat. I personally think Facebook buying this app was a really bad idea. I use this app frequently to talk to friends and family and when Facebook took control of the app on Saturday, it was terrible. The servers crashed and were down for most of the day and I was hardly able to use it. Whatsapp should of stayed as its own company and never should of made a deal with Facebook.

Only a few months after the Samsung Galaxy Gear was released, Samsung has just announced that they well be releasing two new smart watches; the Galaxy Gear 2 and the Galaxy Gear 2 Neo. The watch comes packed with a 1.63 inch super AMOLED display and a 1GHz dual core processor. You will be able to track your health with fitness apps, control your TV with the watch-on application, answer phone calls, listen to music and many more feautures. I personally would get this because the new technology of smart watches interests me because you don't have to pull your phone out all the time to answer calls or to change the song you are listening too. Sooner or later we won't even need a phone to pair a smart watch too, all you will need is the watch.

The GTX 750 ti released less than a week before I wrote this is an outstanding GPU. It's small, it's cheap, it requires very little power, and runs games in 1080p pretty seamlessly. When Nvidia was designing there Maxwell products they were taking into account the performance per watt. By focusing mainly on that they are going to have a strong fight against AMD who controls the cheaper GPU's. The 750 ti uses 60 watts and under a full load using up to 68 watts. The GTX 750 ti is overall a great GPU and everyone should consider grabbing one of them!

California passes a bill that allows children under 18 to delete any posts that they may regret in the future. Some people, such as James Steyer, agree with this idea and say that it is a way to put "privacy in the hands of kids, teenagers and the parents, not under the control of an anonymous tech company," however big social media networks who already lets everyone delete their posted items which make people complain about this new law. This also is a burden to some social media networks due to the problem of having to find the people who live in California. This relates to my tag because it is a bill passed by the government for children in social messaging systems, so it includes both politics and politics. My thoughts on this are the same as the people arguing against this, because there is no point in creating a bill only for people under 18 when almost all social media networks can do this for all ages. < SORRY SIR I FORGOT TO SHARE THIS TO THE GROUP LAST WEEK!!!!

The youth of today hate politics, but who can blame them when a struggle between old white men for power doesn't really peak there interest. Ontario's premier, Kathleen Wynne, thought she had the solution to the disenfranchised youth problem and turned to the social media site, Reddit, for a solution. on February 11 , 2014, Premier Wynne held an AMA (or ask me anything) from here account on the Canadian reddit board. Many, including myself, were very excited; a politician that's hip, relatable, and will answer questions I have about the government, this was every poli/computer-sci's wet dream. Unfortunately however, madam Wynne has lived up to the rest of her political career, underwhelming (shots fired). During the hour long AMA, hundreds upon hundreds of questions were asked, ones that got to the core of Ontario's political scene, questions about the socio-economic impacts of subway vs LRT. This was shaping up to be the AMA of the century... on the upside, we now know what her favourite books are... and where her next marathon will be held... yay? The premier answered a grand total of 10 questions, the 2 aforementioned included, and all received the same scripted political rhetoric that gave questions instead of answers. Our hopes for a relatable and understanding politician were scrapped by this blunder. All we wanted was a bridge between the politicians that control our lives and the thing we use daily. This was apparently too much to ask, leaving us youth as unconnected and dismissive as ever.

This article is about how the PS4 topped the Xbox One in sales again for the month of February. However by not that much, as the Xbox One has increased its sales from January by around 61%. This is all thanks to Microsofts new Titanfall bundle. This bundle included the console, along with a copy of titanfall for free and a month of xbox live. I actually bought this console last week because of the bundle and I love it. The gaming system is really good, the controller is designed really well, and titanfall is such an amazing game. I think in the next few months the gap between sales of PS4s and Xbox One's will get narrower and narrower.