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*Disclaimer: Article above contains profane/vulgar language This article details the findings of the blog 'Jezebel', who compiled a series of racist, anti-Obama tweets following the U.S election, and 'Floating Sheep' who trended those tweets and imposed them over a map of the United States. Using the knowledge of geo-coded tweets and the Twitter search bar, Floating Sheep was able to trend racist anti-Obama tweets from November 1-7. They used an 'LQ' algorithm which compared a state's ratio of racist to normal tweets to the entire country's ratio of racist to normal tweets. States with an LQ score of 1 were on par with the country, while those 1 had more racist tweets on average. After trending the reassuringly low 395 tweets, the study found (unsurprisingly) that higher LQ scores came from South-Eastern states, with Alabama at 8.1 and Mississipi at 7.4. This relates to Privacy and Security because Floating Sheep used geo-coding to find out where the cruel tweets originated from. This relates to eLifestyle because the internet harbours some of the most ignorant/hateful people who make callous remarks without realizing everything that you do can be and often is tracked. This relates to ICS20 because we promote a positive online environment and we frown upon things like racism and vulgar language; the very opposite of what these people mentioned in the article are portraying. If there is a silver lining to this study, it is that in this technological era, we are able to publicize ignorance and judge/analyze those who advocate awful messages.

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.

In the recent weeks, it seems to be the societal trend to chastise Apple Inc. for their mistakes, the most recent of them being their native iOS 6 'Maps' application. Earlier in the week, CEO Tim Cook published a letter on the Apple website apologizing for the poor quality of the app, saying that "At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment." However, this is not a first for Apple admitting their mistakes and apologizing; one example is in June of 2012, Bob Mansfield (SVP) expressed remorse for Apple's withdrawal of the EPEAT rating system, which ensured the company met an eco-friendly standard. They later recanted their actions and went back on to the rating system. Many people attribute Apple's recent downfall to the shift of power from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook. Apple has also come to fire for their general decreasing of employees per Apple store to increase profitability, their standalone podcast app and ultimately the widely regarded inadequate 'Siri', supposedly improved in iOS6. This relates to the tag 'eLifestyle' because when Apple limits the users experience by introducing faulty software and refuses to adress things because of pride, evidently the customers suffer. This relates to 'Environment' because of Apple's debacle with the EPEAT, and society's increasing desire for products that are eco-friendly, and Apple's supposed "higher environmental standards" that they operate under. Legally, Apple has actively been taking and giving lawsuits over the past years, including Samsung and Adobe (a lawsuit directly following Steve Jobs' choice to abandon flash on iOS devices.) From an economics standpoint, Apple seems to be making all the wrong choices, being that they abandon things that work (e.g. Google Maps, third-party podcast apps, EPEAT) and tries to 'reinvent the wheel' and many people argue that without the direction o

Following the September launch of Twitter ads in the U.K., Twitter is now bringing its advertising products known as "Promoted Tweets," "Promoted Trends" and "Promoted Accounts" to its Japanese version of the service Twitter.jp. According to a post on the official Twitter Japan blog, the rollout began earlier this month.

It's no surprise Apple's servers are barely holding on to the mass of people coming home from work and school at around 3:00pm-4:00pm all trying to download the new iOS. This is the biggest software upgrade apple has ever done with at least 200+ new features. Well that is what they said on the Apple Website at least. People are concerned that if Apple can barely manage this wave of "Updaters" how will their servers do when all the iCloud subscribers will all be uploading their photos?

This article (written by Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai) is an interesting analysis of a general trend in the tech industry and demand for people with coding experience. The article states that now is the best time to dive in to coding because it has never been cheaper/easier to do so, with the introduction of Codeacademy - used in ICS20 - in early 2012. In less than 5 months, Codeacademy had stated that it reached over 1 million registered accounts, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Many web-based companies, even the titans that are Facebook and Google, are always looking for people with coding experience. Jobs in programming are also more lucrative than most jobs, even at entry level positions (15 of 21 San Fransisco Developer Bootcamp students were offered jobs in coding, with an average annual pay of $79 000.) The industry is severely lacking in female programmers as well, with only 1:10 ratio of women to men in the industry. This relates to Economics, eLifestyle and ultimately the ISC20 class because as the industry develops, there will be a higher demand for people with experience in coding; 2012 has been widely concerned as the best year for coding because many people who start coding now will most likely be secured for a positon right out of University, which can be very securing to young people who may not be sure of their future. Evidentally, the title says it all; if you are looking for a job, it would be wise to pick up coding because this a newly establihed market; most jobs in computers didn't exist twenty years ago so many people believe that coding will eventually become a societal necessary education, like math or grammar skills. This article shows how we are in a somewhat technological revolution, where we are creating new jobs where all the others are already full.

The above article (by Cyrus Favriar) details various interesting facts about the concentration of cellphone subscriptions on the planet - over 6 billion. At first the idea of 85% of the global population having access to a mobile phone seems outrageous, but 6 billion subscriptions does not necessarily mean 6 billion individual mobile phone owners. Many people living in third world countries will have multiple phones in order to take advantage of cheap calls within the carrier to and from a specific other party. Another interesting fact detailed in the article is that over 1/3 of the world's cellphone subscriptions is attributed to China and India, with over 2 billion subscriptions combined. A study from Gartner predicts that 1 billion smartphones will ship worldwide in 2014, and data from Canalys showed that more smartphones were sold in 2011 than personal computers. Between July 2011 and June 2012, Americans used 1.1 billion GB (> 10 000 TB) of mobile data, and over the last year Americans collectively spent 2.321 trillion minutes on the phone and have sent 2.273 trillion text messages. So, why should we be interested in all of these arbitrary facts? We understand that as smartphone prices become exponentially less expensive and other parts of the world gain access to data services, mobile broadband continues to grow at a rapid pace. There is a global trend from fixed-broadband to mobile-broadband subscriptions, simply because it is more cost-effective. As global bandwidth increases we can supposedly pump an infinite amount of data to billions of customers around the world. This relates to eLifestyle because it shows that although we talk about poverty and oppression around the world, one thing unites us: technology. This relates to Economics because of the decreasing cost of smartphones and the accessibility of cheap subscriptions becoming more prominent. This relates to the ICS20 class because as most of us own mobile phones and have mobile plans with various car

The new Wii U review came out today. The Wii U is longer than the old one and looks sleeker. Also it's lovely fingerprint black. It has an HDMI port (cord is included), other USB ports, and a SD card slot. It runs on an IBM Power-based multi-core processor and an AMD Radeon custom high-def GPU. It comes in 8GB of internal flash memory for $300 and for $350 you get 32GB of memory. The Gamepad is pretty much all your Nintendo devices in one. It comes with a camera. The battery life is about 3.5 hours with everything turned down. If your parents are watching TV you can still play on the gamepad. The pro controller is small copy of the PS3 and Xbox 360's controller. The battery life is 6-10 hours. Overall there are many interactive games and the family will love playing together. eLifestyle because this will become the new trend. Many people will want to get it. Sunday nights the family will get together and play all night. Economics because the Wii U is going to be big competition for the other companies because they don't have a gamepad and you can play while dad is watching CFL playoffs. 

This article is about Freescale launching the world's smallest arm chip. It is made of silicon and is only 2 x 2 x 0.5mm. It can hold 48 HMz ARMM Cortex-M0+ processor, 32KB flash memory, and 4KB of RAM. This, however, is not designed to run desktop software, but is instead intended to be used for products that can be swallowed. I think this is an improvement on "Portable Computing", as this technology can be used in the medical field. This also follows the trend of minimization, as we can now see the potential and advantages of having smaller chips, for example, inserting them into pills that can be swallowed. Freescale is pricing this product at 75 cents apiece, if purchased in 100 000 unit loads. However, I am certain that the cost will go up dramatically if launched successfully, causing the a shift in the electronic market and economy.

This article is about a new concept developed by Berkeley that allows users to emit their password through their thoughts. This concept uses a technology known as Neurosky, and the actual headsets that use this technology look like cat ears. This device is still in testing, but for those eager people who want their thoughts converted into Passthoughts, they can get their hands on the device for a very pricey $199. I don't believe that this invention will "take off" because it doesn't seem very practical in real world situations when typing in a password can be as quick as 2 seconds. However this is a very imaginative invention and will most likely inspire people to create products just like this one. I chose the eLifestyle tag for this post because it may become a fashion trend in some part of the world, (Asia maybe) and people will truly enjoy using this product. I think it is safe to say though that I will not be walking into school wearing cat ears in the future!    

This is an app where you can make the weather look much better on your screen which is available on iTunes.Not only does it show you the temperature or weather outside but it also shows you the hours of sun, temperature a the chance of precipitation.  You can click on one of the bubble and it will have an enlarged view of the particular data  with more details.  An example of this would be : tapping on a temperature bubble and shows high-low feel of temperature as well as wind speed and direction.  Each of the three screens show you a five-day forecast for each of the three metrics across the top. The colour and flow at the back of the screen depends on which way the weather is trending. The little wind direction points  the right way using iPhone's compass.

One on the most popular social networking sites, Facebook, obtains Instagram. Instagram is a trending photo/camera app that many iPhone users are currently using. This will affect facebook users who like uploading and sharing their photos in a great way, because it will give them more options. I think Facebook will manage Instagram very well because they are very experienced in working with apps and software. The creators of Instagram also believe that Facebook will change and work with them in an efficient way.

On twitter @bullymovie tweeted something about bullying and asked people to retweet it. The tweet said "RETWEET PLEASE Did u know kids get bullied every year? I support @BullyMovie. Let's make it trend: #BullyMovie" Many people retweeted it including many celebrities such as Randy Jackson, Ryan Seacrest, Channing Tatum and many more. This shows how people get influenced by the computer from that one tweet.

This article is all about Nintendo 3DS outselling four Sony devices in Japan, now has 65 percent of the market. Japan's Media Create are showing that last year's trend has been fully reversed. Now consumers are hungry for 3DS because 3DS has more games compare to PS Vita. 3DS has a lot of good games, right now Kingdom of Hearts is the best selling game for the 3DS but sony can't compete with it because their PS Vita doesn't have good games to compete with it. A marked turnaround from when the console's future looked gloomy. 

This article is all about Google+ just got a total overhaul to its already-pretty-pretty design. The layout, navigation, and features have all been updated. There's a new navigation ribbon on the left side of Google+ with draggable icons for for your profile, photos, hangouts, and other Google+ apps. Google's also emphasized sharing large photos and videos, from anywhere on Google-YouTube, search, etc. There's also a new Twitter-like trending box in the upper right corner of your homescreen, which ties into the full-network-trending Explore page.

This article is a timeline of cell phones through the ages.  Although it is intended to be a humorous post, it is worth noting how far we've come in the design of cell phones. There are various types of phones depicted here ... [here is my connection goes ... about how the design of devices evolve to improve our usage and relationship to technology ...] [here is where you put your opinion - I've only been around since the mid-90s so I am more familiar with the smaller devices, much smaller than the one here.  Still, the trend continues, as the form of portable devices continue to change ... i.e the iphone 5 which is thinner than any other phone ever.]

Warner bros is apparently thinking about doing a minecraft movie. I love minecraft and it has a huge fanbase so I this it will be very successful because I find it is very much like the the lego movie which I find most people watched because they were curious as to how it would work out. I know thats why I watched it. Minecraft is very blocky and harder to work with. The only big thing I fear is that the lego movie was okay and is now started a trend of copycats and normally the copycats are never as good as the first one. But one thing i am really hoping for because minecraft has an older age group playing it the lego that the storyline will be a little bit better. But over all I would be very interested in seeing how this works out.

Computers were first created in the 1940's and by the end of 2002, one billion computers have been sold worldwide. The increase of computers being sold each year has been creating large amounts of electronic waste and can be a source of toxins if not treated appropriately. The problem that we are facing is that an average 24-kilogram desktop computer requires at least 10 times its weight in fossil fuels and chemicals to be made. Compared to automobiles or refrigerators that only require 1-2 times their weight in fossil fuels, computers have become a serious problem for our environment. By throwing out your old computers, it adds to the mountain of electronic garbage that helps to increase environmental pollution and global climate change. Since this is a problem, most people today are encouraged to recycle computer components so they could be used again. The recycling not only helps the environment but it also eliminates the need to dig out the fossil fuels from nature. I personally believe that the act of recycling these old computers is great for the environment and will help us to save the natural fossil fuels that we so very often use up. The other good news is that companies are now creating their computers from recycled materials to help out on the recycling process.

According to this article, when it comes to computers and the environment the main concern comes from the consequences created when disposing the machine. Overtime, the amount of computer sales have been skyrocketing. This increase, coupled with changing technology, led to large amounts of electronic waste. The metals commonly found in PC's are aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, gold, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, palladium, platinum, selenium, silver and zinc. Eight of the metals are listed as hazardous. I think that this article is true. Many people don't understand that computers need to recycled properly. If people were to start recycling their computers, i think our environment would look better.

The main concern with computers is the process of creating and disposal. The number of computers being made increases as demand goes up, and this has lead to mass electronic waste. This waste tends to be toxic and damaging to the environment. An average computer will use up ten times its weight in fossil fuels to make. As this is a big issue, the UN decided to review the complications it may have in the future. Significant energy use, long term health affects on people, and long term impacts on the environment are all problems. Solutions to this are viable though. Recycling from people and corporations go a long way. Selling of unused parts is always an option, or even a charity donation. This is a problem now, but might not have to be. Computer recycling is a big motion being taken by businesses, because it happens to be cost-effective and good for the environment. Only good things I have to say about the progression of environmental impacts of tech. Let's hope for a continuing trend.

Reaching your work goals may look like a daunting task at first. With careful planning and implementation of right strategies, you can step up the career ladder quicker than you thought of. Here are few tips on how to get promoted at work quickly:



Continue learning

Learning is a lifelong process. To grow in your career, it is imperative that you keep accumulating knowledge across industries' trends, challenges and insights. Staying updated about your domain knowledge enables you to tackle challenges at work more efficiently and higher your chances of getting noticed by employers.

Lead when required

To take charge in a work environment doesn't always require you to be in a top position. You can assume a leadership role when circumstances demands at workplace. Exhibit your leadership skills while solving a critical problem at work by effectively communicating, motivating and working in coordination with other team members. Also start taking responsibilities a level in advance to show that you are ready for the next role.

Give your best

When you give your best in your work, you stay visible for your passion and performance. If you want to add more value to your work, then go t

With all these new eReaders, one has to wonder what's happened to the good old-fashioned library. Libraries are now using eBook checkouts, which have increased by more than 200% since 2010. Some may still prefer reading the classic paper copies - that's still available, they are libraries after all. But, this is a good way to appeal to the younger generation and keep on top of the trends, no less.