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This article touches on a very important topic about whether technology is helping the economy and job markets more or if it is in fact hurting it. The answer is they do both. The New York Times among others write that tech companies have created relatively few jobs compared to industries such as GM. However TechCrunch argues that technology has created a lot more indirect jobs due to technology. There are in fact new jobs created such as social media marketers online. Most of these jobs are part-time because they are online and connect employers and workers with no hassle. Their conclusion is that there are millions of jobs created with a high demand but an unprepared workforce. The jobs that are needed now are more technology based than ever before and our economy is moving so fast in that direction that some skills that were needed in the past are no longer needed now. Therefore people are losing jobs not because there are not enough jobs produced but because our job market is drastically changing.  Some companies are allowing people to step into job positions with just a bit of online training or courses. Startups like General assembly are creating programs that are accessible to everyone and helps address the needs of the labor market. The final verdict is we need better training tools to quickly acquire high demanded skills and help workers adapt to the change that technology brings to the labour market. This article relates to economics and eLifestyle mostly because it has to do with how our economy is growing from the jobs created by technology but also how our workers have to respond to this change. This article deals with the changes that the labour market is going through now and how the increase in technology is now changing our lives. Some of our old jobs are being replaced by new jobs that not enough people are qualified for, so certain careers are feeling a job decline making it seem like technology is replacing workers. But in fact these new tools a

Video gaming is pretty big in our society.  It may seem like it's just fun and games to most people, but to others it could be serious.  Is it possible that video gaming could be bigger than sports?  Possibly.  The amount of spectators spectating individual gaming events are immense.  Not only do people spectate it live, but they could also spectate from the comfort of their own computer.  The Major League Gaming Spring Championship in June attracted 4.7 million online viewers.    This affects our everyday life because instead of training for a physically active competition, people could "train" and hone their skills to play video games.  People from all around the world could connect with each other and compete with each other through video games.    Whether I agree or disagree with regards to making video gaming a real sport or not is still in between the borderline.  You can practice your skills while playing a sport, but you can also hone your skills by playing video games.  Nonetheless, if video gaming does become an official sport, then we could say goodbye to society as we know it today.

This article explains how a program created by scientists from the University at Buffalo, can allow a computer to determine whether or not a person is telling the truth in a conversation, strictly by accessing the speaker's eye movements. I found this invention extremely interesting and as I kept reading, it turns out a computer with this program was able to correctly spot various lies with 82.5% accuracy, but a trained human interrogator only manages a success rate of about 65%. Somebody who dedicated their entire life to studying human psychology and has done years of hard work and training in this subject was outsmarted by a computer who can do the same effort and work but in a better performance. These scientists really put the time and effort into creating this software to work as efficiently and be most successful as possible so just by the computer looking at your eyes, more specifically the movement pattern and the rate of your blinking, it can identify if you are telling the truth or not. This is a prime example of how technology is evolving all around us and how we are using our knowledge to further programs and devices to help and assist us perform tasks, be successful, and happy living our everyday lives. 

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.

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. 

EA has once again made the Worst Company in American History. Although many think the constant hate towards EA is a circlejerking karma train their problems and mistakes are very much real. This article outlines 3 of their main failures: -not providing a product their costumer will want -not selling a product at a reasonable price -not supporting the products they sell Despite selling games that millions of people buy most are rushed, including features that nobody wants, and not fixing previous mistakes. They also try to squeeze as much money out of their consumers as possible. They make people pay for money in-game products that should already be in the original copy and the make many of their games pay-to-win. The last big point that makes EA the Worst Company in American History was the fact that they have a habit of not supporting the products they sell. For example when

This article is about a new company chosen by FIFA called GoalControl. This company's goal is to clarify goals and prevent incorrect judging of offside rules.This company plans to use cameras to capture the goals so that an assistant coach won't be relied on. Their camera and software system, will be used to judge goal line decisions at this summer's Confederations Cup in Brazil and,maybe next year's World Cup. GoalControl's system involves 14 cameras with seven trained on each goal. In Brazil, the cameras will be attached to the catwalks beneath each stadium's lights and will constantly take full frame,color pictures( 500 per minute) to determine the ball's location at every point in the game. Computers will continually scan the images, and when the ball is seen to have crossed the goal line, a signal will be sent to the referee's watch causing it to vibrate and alert him that a goal should be awarded.GoalControl will cost roughly $260,000 per stadium to install in Brazil. This new technology is positive influence to the soccer world. It will provide teams with their rightful goals and prevent confusion and false calls. It will also be more accurate since assistant referees and referees will not have to determine the situation, but can refer back to the tapings. This new technology is also a negative influence because two different referees may interpret the tapings differently causing more confusion.

This article is about new apps that help disabled people. Many computer science researchers have been looking for an app that would help the disabled, and now they have created a few. One is called VizWiz. This is an app that helps the visually impaired. The user takes a picture of what he/she has a question about, asks a question, and receives an answer by a worker at Mechanical Turk. Mechanical Turk is a service, featuring many people that answer questions. Another app is Scribe. This app helps the deaf and hearing-impaired. Users send an audio stream to many of the Scribe workers who provide real time transcription. Since only highly trained transcribers with special equipment can transcribe all of the words in a live stream, Scribe coordinates a group of six or seven amateurs to transcribe the stream.

Star Craft 2 can now qualify as military training as new technology has been unveiled giving battlefield commanders a real time view of the battlefield with a large touchscreen. The screen provides a real time view of the battlefield providing the exact location and movements of friendly units, and discovered enemy units. The technology collects and displays intelligence collected by drones and reconnaissance units. Additional assets such as close air support and artillery are displayed on the side and can be simply dragged and dropped to be deployed. This is truly the next giant leap for the evolution of the battlefield...3. I now have a reason to play endless hours of starcraft 2.

It's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's the world's first "Spherical Flying Machine," brought to you by Japan, the place where all the cool stuff seems to come from. Remember in Star Wars: A New Hope, when Luke Skywalker was practicing Jedi Lightsaber skills on a small, flying sphere that could hover and move quickly in every direction? Well, Japan's Ministry of Defense seems to have brought Jedi training balls to the world. Mostly driven by remote controls, the sphere utilizes a combination of propellers and wings to hover, fly in all directions at up yo 60 kph and can even move along the ground and walls. They created this ball to solve a problem they were having with aircrafts (they can apparently stand up vertically after flying horizontally, but take-offs and landings were "difficult," as one could have imagined). It is not known whether they will market the flying ball or not, but this is certainly a huge leap forward in the field of robotics, as well as flying. 

Nike decided to come out with a new app that helps you exercise and get prepared for sports. This app connects with a pair of shoes they made and it is able to detect your speed, jump height etc. As well, this app has various techniques and warm ups you can do. This app is for i-phones and is available in the summer. I feel this new technology is good for everyone because it makes you want to become physically active and you can learn new techniques for sports that you never knew before. As well, this relates to the course because the app is a software and sensors in the shoes are the hardware. They had to program the app for it to work and sensor properly. 

Apparently, SNCF, a french railway company who shipped a lot of Jews to concentration camps and by proxy their imminent deaths, is being demanded to pay reparations to many Holocaust survivors in the US who are also trying to pass a bill that makes sure no taxes will go towards that company until they take full responsibility for their actions and that partnerships with American businesses will be blocked. SNCF has already made an apology but goes with the excuse of saying that they were coerced by the Nazis, much to the disbelief of the survivors who think and have evidence that what happened was concretely a business deal. This controversy is a very big deal as it brings up past wrongs that still need to be fixed even to this day. Those Holocaust survivors have been through hell and surely they should receive all of the compensation and more because of the terrors they have experienced which no one in their entire life should. Until this situation turns out, I hope that justice gets served.

Robotic Staffed Casino! and amazing display of today's robotics technology. People are having doubts of how this will work especially with the whole cheating prevention problem. People are wondering how it would work because in the past dealers and staff at casino's have been trained to detect cheaters and con artists, how will the robots be able to detect these subtle signs? Questions will hopefully soon be answered.