Group items tagged

JavaScript is a well known programming tool that has been around for quite awhile. Many up and coming programmers start out with JavaScript based on it being flexible, maintainable, powerful, and very easy to use. However, once these startups start becoming larger and larger, many lines of coding are needed, and this is where the issue arrives. When being used on a larger scale, JavaScript is in no way the main performer as it is on the smaller scale. JavaScript's features previously stated are what attract programmers to using the engine. However, now that larger companies are using it, the limitations are becoming evident. Being described as an 'iron triangle', JavaScript's issues lie in the fact with an improvement in one area. another area suffers. If you want high flexibility and performance, it's going to be harder to maintain the code. If you want great performance and maintainability,  the flexibility and ability to adapt to change will be reduced. Big budget companies don't have time to be messing around with JavaScript's shortcomings, which is keeping them attracted to lesser engines, such as Flash. The article then continues to discuss whether or not JavaScript is on it's death bed. Some argue that a total revamp is required to keep JavaScript afloat, while others believe that the death of JavaScript will allow newer, more optimized engines to be developed and brought to the world's attention. I tagged this article as economics simply for that last point. Browser engines such as JavaScript and Flash have been around for quite awhile, with no threats to their status in sight. JavaScript is in no way broken, and it is still a very viable tool for web development. However, it may take the death of JavaScript and perhaps Flash for companies to be inspired to build from the ground up a new engine that will pick up all the short comings of the past years and completely rid of them. At the end of the article, JavaScript variants and languages are seen a

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 Etsy sending 20 of their female engineers to a hacker school in New York City to learn more about coding. Etsy finds it very important that they send women because in the engineering field women are a minority. Etsy's VP, Marc Hedlund believes that we need to start introducing engineering to women sooner, like in elementary school. I found this very interesting because I think it would be great if the school systems started introducing engineering earlier. As well I found it interesting how so few women were in the engineering field. 

This article is basically about how Google has Forked WebKit with Blink, making a new web engine for both Chromium and Chrome. WebKit is usually referred to as the glue that binds the moodern web: the rendering engine powers Apple`s Safari, Google`s Chrome and many mobile browsers both past and present. Google believes that Chromium`s multi-process approach has added to much complexity for both the browser and WebKit itself, so it`s creating a seperate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be much the same as WebKit from the start, it`s expected to change over time as Google strips out unnecessary codes and tweaks the underlying platform. The company has also confirmed that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future.

In England, Two computer engineers were able to make a rubiks cube solving machine, out of legos. The machine does not just simply solve the rubiks cube, it is also able to solve it in under 3.253 seconds, making it the faster robot ever to solve a rubiks cube. The amazing thing is, is that this machine was built on these engineers free time. I believe what these two english engineers did was simply amazing. If someone has the free time to make a machine like this, these two powerful minds have the capability to make robots that could solve equations that are difficult, or things that make our every day life easier. Lego is truly a toy not just for kids, the motors and actuators are used from multiple Lego Windstorm sets and is being controlled by a Samsung galaxy s4 with a custom app.

Google is taking one step forward in personal protection with their recently added feature. By automatically adding an "s" to http at the begining of the URL, they are encrypting the website and protecting its viewers from being seen by random people snooping around their searches, by making it more difficult to do so. This feature will soon be an available setting for Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, and Internet Explorer servers. Firefox users can install HTTPS Everywhere extention. Chrome and Chromium users can right click on the URL bar and add an "s" to the end of the "http". Internet Explorer users can add the setting in IE add-ons page.

Everyone has used google at one point in their lives. Well, a new revolution of google is on its way. When we google something have you noticed besides the 'www.' there is an 'http://'. This is means that your search worked but it isn't encrypted. This means that people can see what you're searching. With a new google search engine under development, the search engine revolution will advance. Instead of having to look for the website or whatever you're searching for, which sometimes makes me want to pry my eyes out of my head, the new google plans to take you directly to the website you searched for. What about 'http://' or whatever you ask? Another feature the new google will have is using the 'https://' system. The 's' at the end of the 'http' means 'secured', so basically no one can see what you're searching besides google itself. In other, more technical words, your data is encrypted. Looking forward to the new future of google!

We all know that voice recognition software exists having been created by companies like Apple, some of us thought that advanced technology would end at a computer recognizing words and responding to questions. However that is not the case. A company called Kimera Systems is developing a system that figuratively reads your mind. This isn't a software that literally reads what you are thinking and performs an action based on your thought since that would require an implant into your body. Rather, Kimera's system consisting of the Salience Engine and DigitalMe (or DMe) Smart Agents. The Salience Engine collects information from its users and uses this to understand human action better while the Smart Agents perform actions based on the user's preferences and the user's previous actions. For example, if a user sent out party invitations to friends and then went out to buy groceries, Kimera's system would automatically download a shopping app for the user because the system understands the user is going to the grocery store to buy select food items. This system, should it be implemented into future phones and devices could very well change society for the better and for worse. This system could make people's lives better by allowing decisions to be made by the system for the user so they can worry about other things while knowing Kimera's system will take care of tasks for them. This could negatively impact society though because since the system automatically makes decisions for the user, if they begin to rely on this system and lose their sense of judgement rendering them unable to decide without this system. Though automated technology is the dream of many, is an automated life really what we want? From this new technology Kimera is creating, other more advanced automated technologies could arise and eventually we could end up losing our humanity since everything we need to do is done for us by a computer. We would end up like the humans in the movie Wall-E who were

Basically it's about search engines and how they have a long memory and how we don't think before we post. Our immoral and illegal act online, such as the negative tweets towards Obama. Basically saying that whatever you post is hard to take back even if it was something you once did years ago. (Which you probably even know) "The past is hard to escape" I agree. No matter what bad things you do, if you put something out there, someone will remember for long periods. Just like remembering those embarrassing moments in elementary. Although it's a good thing to make it hard to escape. Most youths and victims will eventually find it a huge mistake/regret.

Steve Wozniak likes to be the first person in line to buy the latest Apple products. This evening, the Apple co-founder and designer of the Apple I and II, was #1 on line outside the Apple store in Los Gatos, California to get the iPhone 4S. He tweeted about it and he'll be staying up all night. TechCrunch TV caught up with Woz and asked him why he does it. He explains what feature the new phone has that will change his life. Woz also tells us why "search engines should be replaced by answer engines."

This article is about how Google has a new web engine for Chromium and Chrome. What they basically did was they "forked" with WebKit and Blink. WebKit is described as the glue that binds the modern web: the rendering engine powers Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and many mobile browsers both past and present. Google believes that Chromium's multi-process approach has added too much complexity for both the browser and Webkit itself, so it's creating a separate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be very similar to WebKit at the start, it's expected to differ over time as Google strips out unnecessary code and tweaks the underlying platform. The company has also confirmed top us that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future.

We should all probably know that when technology starts upgrading as time goes by, we always want to get the new products. Our generation is getting more and more into technology and in this article, it explains a study of how we are digitally getting distracted in our academics. This study shows that 47% of teachers should make courses and content in digital literacy into a school's curriculum. I agree with this because as our generation spends our days mainly on our phones or on computers, we wouldn't be distracted on the technology if we have our work finished with it. The only back draw to this is that many students would just go on Google or Wikipedia for their answers as the Internet has a huge amount of information displayed for us to use. This article relates to portable computing because it's starting to affect how we do in our education. In addition, it relates to eLifestyle because we're using this technology as a daily part of our lives and if we start to use it as a method of education, we can use it as a form of gaining new information.

The article, by Neha Prakash, is about a study on the effects of technology on the current generation of students. The study concluded with 87% of teachers saying students were easily distracted and had short attention spans. This is most likely due to the internet providing such quick and easy access within a keystroke in search engines such as Wikipedia and Google. Students are used to having things accomplished and out of the way so quickly that they no longer have the attention span to complete more complicated and time consuming tasks. Due to this, students lack time management and also do not check if their sources are reputable. A solution to this problem could be to incorporate digital literacy and technology into schools' curriculum. With this additional knowledge, methods of education can be improved in today's technological environment. This relates to elifestyle in that we use technology so much that we can take it for granted. Normally, we do not acknowledge the consequences of repetitive and prolonged use of social media, search engines, cell phones, and so on. As the class of ICS2O, we learn to use technology in a healthy balance in our lives. We are at the forefront of electronic education, using sites such as diigo, Google Drive, and Google Reader to complete assignments and engage in the events of the outside world. While there are negative impacts to the overuse of technology, like most other things, technology, used in balance with other aspects of life, can be beneficial.

This article states that a new study has shown that more and more kids/teenagers are distracted by technologies which affect their learning.  87% of the teachers in this study have said that "technology is creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans."  Other teachers also claim that "technologies do more to distract students than to help them academically."  Teachers, though, remained somewhat optimistic about digital impact, with 77% saying Internet search tools have had a "mostly positive" impact on their students' work. I think that technologies help out a lot in kids learning however it could still distract them. A lot of kids use the internet with homework and study help which could in some cases is a very beneficial thing. They would learn and find out more about the subject they are studying. Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project, says that maybe it is not the problem with tech, but the lack of digital literacy training in students that creates the problem. I agree with this also. 

Last November, Google has removed the feature and option of people personalizing their backgrounds when they use the search engine on Goggle. But now personalized backgrounds are back! You can do this by just simply specifying that you want a certain picture to be your background.  This feature makes Google feel like your own and it's fun to do. Plus it adds a bit of flare onto the page instead of looking at a boring Google search page. You can also upload a photo if you chose for it to be your personalized background. 

 This article is about a new 3-wheeled car about to go into production. But this car is not like any other car in production. Instead of picturing large robot arms shooting sparks to make a heavy car this one is 3-d printed,strong as steel, and half the weight. This car is only 1,200 pounds. Although part of the car(named Urbee) is printed plastic, the engine and the rest of the chassis is made of metal. Despite people thinking it is not as safe as cars on the road right now, the makers of the Urbee are claiming to be as safe as those in races. Personally I believe this will be the future of car production and 3d printed cars can a lot better for society.

The US has a skilled developer shortage and it's one of its own making.While Silicon Valley wrings its hands over H1B visa caps onto skilled foreign workers, the bigger issues remains in the US because they are unable to educate its own citizens. While they try to educate a surplus of Science,Technology, Engineering and Math students for STEM roles we seems to fail to entice enough of them to get into technology. since 1980, STEM grads increased 60%.

Google's strategy to free itself from Apple and Microsoft using their search engine, android for mobile, aspiring glass experiment, and now the Chromebook.  The Chromebook was well thought out and was constructed just as well as any laptop on the market. $1,400 may be a high asking price, yet majority of people would rather purchase a Windows PC or Mac over a high priced Chromebook

This article discusses that soon, video cameras will be able to predict your next move.  By using technology similar to that used in Microsoft's Kinect and Google's self-driving cars, the cameras are getting better and better at spotting and identifying certain objects. The step the researchers are on now is creating a "cognitive engine" so that a computer can decide whether or not those objects are misbehaving and whether or not they are about to. This will defiantly make a thief's/shoplifter's job much harder. This new software can be implemented for not only military purposes, but also civilian situations. For example airports.( if someone is leaving a suspicious package somewhere.) This kind of technology will make our everyday lives much safer because it will prevent things such as theft, terrorism, etc.  This software is not complete yet but it's coming together very swiftly. Prepare everyone, Skynet is coming.

This article discusses the speculation that facebook may be already working on its own phone. They are hoping to release a facebook smart phone already by next year. The article states that Facebook has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple engineers who worked on the iPhone to help them create this phone. A Facebook-built smartphone would allow users to more seamlessly send messages, post updates and share photos or article links. Although it makes apps for iPhones and iPads, Facebook is still not integrated into Apple's mobile operating system. They are working on this because, more and more people are now using smartphones, tablets, etc. over computers and laptops. This would allow easy access to facebook anywhere they go without paying for data on your phone. In my opinion, this would be a good thing for frequent facebook users that maybe need it for jobs, just to stay connected, or simply they need to make a status about everything that they do. It would make it much easier to use facebook if they were to make such a phone. I am not a very frequent facebook user. I can wait to get home in order to use so if this phone would come out, I personally do not see a need for me to purchase it.

Apparently around 650,000 mac computers were infected with Trojan horse virus called "Flashback" This trojan is hijacking people's search engines in result of their web browsers it pretty much damages the inside of the computer, it also steals banking or log in credential.  Cyber criminals could send new malware to their systems that cause bigger problems. This flashback was designed to conduct a click fraud scam.  Apple released a security patch for Java  that prevents Flashback Trojan from infecting your computer/mac.  

This is article tells us how engineers have been able to create Wifi chips for phones to get Wifi easier. I think that this would be helpful because, as the article says, "Ultimately it would reduce the chip count on the cell phone, which would reduce the cost and the complexity of manufacturing of the phone and improve battery life." This is particularly good because since many of us use our phones regularly, improved battery life will be so much more helpful without having to worry about our phones dying.