Looking for Balloons and Insights to Online Behavior

John Markoff

November 30, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01darpa.html?ref=technology

The Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), has announced a competition honoring the 40th anniversary of the Internet. Darpa network challenge is testing our social-networking to locate 10 balloons within the United States. The first person that will discover the exact location of the red balloons will be awarded the sum of $40,000. Darpa is hoping that this offers an insight into how internet and social networking can form a team and work together.

I find this article everywhere I look for technology news, so I decided that this would be my blog for this week. The sole interest of this challenge is how its get done. The challenge itself is very interesting and I like what Darpa is presenting here. We all know that web-based tools have helped many people to coordinate jobs. The Darpa Network Challenge is different and I’m sure they can make very hard. People need not only to social networking but to provide a lot of motivational schemes and i'm sure a lot of people will also be out there to try find the balloons. This is a lot like a practice to muster people nationally in response to crisis? I think this challenge offers a possible potential for a lot of stuff.

Charlie the robot joins rest home staff

Leslie Katz

November 23, 2009

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10403944-1.html?tag=mncol

The article is about helping robot for seniors. A new robot named Charlie comes to a retirement home in New Zealand. Charlie is trial robot and part of University of Auckland study as a research how seniors will respond towards robots. Charlie takes vital signs as blood pressure, call for help, clean and lifts heavy objects. The robot did not express emotions as it is assessing the tasks, as the staff would want it to do. The robot is 4 feet tall, have a monitor touch screen for a head and rove with wheels. The seniors and staff have their opinion about Charlie. They prefer to have a robot speaking clearly as a middle age person, but no predilection about what gender it should be. They said the robot should be too human like and seniors feel that they are more inclined to be service by a robot without face. Charlie runs window for user interface and Linux for low-level hardware functions.

Charlie is designed as pragmatic. The robots are coming and they should be designed that makes them fit most naturally into people’s lives. I agree with the staff and seniors that robot shouldn’t be 99% percent human because it brings that uncanny feeling. Robots came a long way compared to where we are before. Charlie is build with touch screen monitor and as far as the article goes it is user friendly. The robot takes accurate data of each residents so they will be no more of “forgetting.” It also helps the staff to give more attention to other responsibilities because the robot has the ability to call for help and with some other chores that just help us to take off that one responsibility.

YouTube to Help Sites Gather News Clips

Brian Stelter

November 17, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/business/media/17youtube.html?ref=technology

Google's YouTube has signed up a deal with NPR, Politico, The Huffington Post and San Francisco Chronicle for YouTube Direct, which is a new approach for handling video submission from the user end. This new factor is to make it easier for YouTube users to post clips that news media companies can select for highlights. The purpose of YouTube Direct is trying to establish a connection with citizen reporters with media organizations. This could also strengthen the site's status for Citizen's journalism video. YouTube also foresee status beyond daily's video news clips. A blog site hinted that business can use this new method to solicit endorsements and that politician could “ask for user-generated political commercials.”

I must say, YouTube came a long way from broadcasting yourself in which users can upload and share videos. This opens another door of wide possibilities for individual journalism as the article says. Many mobile phones are equipped with video recording and have the ability to upload via WIFI. This is really the matter of how quick news can reach people.

Google’s Go: A New Programming Language That’s Python Meets C++

Jason Kincaid

November 10, 2009

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/10/google-go-language/

Google introduces a new open sourced programming language called Go. Go purpose is to serve as a systems language like C++ or C. Go is a trial program and venture mixture of supposedly speedy like the dynamic language like Phython and compiled language almost instantly as if you are using an responsive direct language. Google is hoping that GO would be a successful language of system.

Google is getting a lot more attention than usual with the release of GO. Not only the program is a combination of Phython and C or C++, it's also fast for development and it's a true compiled language. GO has a potential to be successful according to some of the programmers blogging about GO being a language system that is actually fun and useful. Google's Go still needs to improve about optimizing multi-core processors and I believe Go was developed mainly to cater Google engineers to write programs.

One small strip of plaster, one giant strip of data

Elizabeth Armstrong Moore

November 4, 2009

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10390780-247.html?tag=mncol

The article is about sensium technology, a disposable digital strip that can be put on person’s check nest or arm that can monitor several areas of vital signs from heart rate, body temperature to respirations. This technology is designed for BAN (body area network) that communicates through wireless technology in which dispatches data from the body to a home base station. The strip should last a few days.

This is definitely a plus development for BAN. However, there is a set back because of mass data transmitting from patients. The article indicates that it can be improve by using a server instead of storing data. Information design plays a role with this development. The key is the organization of passing the data as visually effective as possible in the receiving end.