Tag: self driving cars

Tech Stories You Might Have Missed December 15 – 19 & December 22 – 26, 2014

Linda Reimer

Since most people are super busy at this time of year — here is a list of interesting tech articles you might have missed for last week and this week – in other words covering the two weeks of December 15 – 19 and December 22 – 26.

Have a great holiday season!

Linda, SSCL

And don’t forget although the library is closed on 12/24 & 12/25 — we are open our regular hours on Friday 12/26 (9 a.m. – 6 p.m.) and Saturday 12/27 — so while you’re out and about on Friday & Saturday drop by the library and pick up some books or DVDs!

Or, access digital content (e-books, digital audiobooks, streaming videos and music) through the OverDrive Media Console and Freegal Music apps found in your app store!

And here are the tech articles you might have missed!

Article 1: This first article discusses what a great level playing field for life is created by access to the Internet, and, correspondingly how this theoretical equality is actually unequal in practice due to a variety of issues including Net Neutrality and censorship issues – it is an interesting article!

Here’s the link:

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30432487

Net is ‘less free and more unequal’, says web founder. (11 December, 2014). BBC. Online. Accessed December 17, 2014.

 

Article 2: Star Trek turbo lifts coming our way!

http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/12/star-trek-turbolifts-will-be-reality-in.html

Wang, Brian. (14 Decenber, 2014). Star Trek Turbolifts will be reality in 2016 with multidirectional elevator . nextBIGFuture. Online. Accessed December 17, 2014.

 

Article 3: Article 3 is a New York Times article that focuses on how the job market is changing due to the advancing technology and how advanced education is going to increasingly be a necessity for people as smart machines & robots do more and more tasks that have in the past been done manually by humans – here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/16/upshot/as-robots-grow-smarter-american-workers-struggle-to-keep-up.html?ref=technology&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1

Miller, Claire Cain. (15 December, 2014). As Robots Grow Smarter, American Workers Struggle to Keep Up. The New York Times. Online. Accessed December 16, 2014.

 

Article 4: And article 4 is another article on Amazon and how the company has changed the way it sells items over the last 15 years. It is an interesting article for those interested in how technology is changing society and also for those interested in business trends — here’s the link:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/the-price-of-books-at-jeff-bezoss-lemonade-shop/?ref=technology

Streitfeld, David. (14 December, 2014.) Jeff Bezos’ Lemonade Stand. The New York Times. Online. Accessed December 16, 2014.

 

Article 5: I found article 5 on a blog called “Coding Horror” which I had never heard of before! However, I think the article is cool because it does offer a “history” of e-ink, as in the e-ink technology of e-readers. And I put the word “history” in quotes because the first commercially successful e-reader, the first generation Kindle, only came out in 2007 – so from a long-term historical perspective that is short period of history!

Here’s the link to the article:

http://blog.codinghorror.com/the-evolution-of-eink/

Atwood, Jeff. (15 December, 2014). The Evolution of eInk. Coding Horror: programming and human factors. Online. Accessed December 17, 2014.

 

Article(s) 6: And you may have heard in the news in the past week that Apple won its long iPod antitrust law suite earlier this month – and here are links to two articles on the subject. The NPR article is short and the Bloomberg article offers more in-depth info on the subject:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/12/16/371217261/apple-wins-1b-ipod-antitrust-lawsuit

Calamur, Krishnadev. (16 December, 2014). Apple Wins $1B iPod Antitrust Lawsuit. NPR. Online. Accessed December 17, 2014.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-16/apple-prevails-at-1-billion-trial-over-digital-music.html

Gullo, Karen., & Burnson, Robert. (16 December, 2014). Apple Deafeauts $1 Billion iPod Antiturst Suite in Three hours. Bloomberg. Online. Accessed December 23, 2014.

Article 7: Article 7 focuses on a new cutting edge trend – being able to see a doctor via a video chat from wherever you are! Katherine Boehret of the re/code site offers a neat review of the technology:

http://recode.net/2014/12/17/a-doc-in-your-pocket-doctor-on-demand-gets-smarter/

Boehret, Katherine. (17 December, 2014.) A Soc in Your Pocket: Doctor on Demand Gets Smarter. re/code. Online. Accessed December 18, 2014.

Article 8: And believe it or not as successful as Amazon is they are not quite as unstoppable as their public images might suggest – NY Times tech columnist Farhad Manjoo offered and interesting look at the reason why this past week – here’s the link to his article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/technology/personaltech/amazon-not-as-unstoppable-as-it-may-appear.html?ref=technology&_r=0

Manjoo, Farhad. (17 December, 2014). Amazon Not as Unstoppable as It Might Appear. New York Times. Online. Accessed November 18, 2014.

 

Article 9: Article 9 is on a current item of local interest – how Corning is developing new glass – here the link to a Technology Review article on the subject:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/533076/chemical-sensing-displays-and-other-surprising-uses-of-glass/

Bullis, Kevin. (17 December, 2014).Chemical-Sensing Displays and Other Surprising Uses of Glass: An inside look at Corning’s labs suggests what’s next for the inventor of Gorilla Glass. MIT Technical Review. Online. Accessed December 22, 2014.

 

Article 10: And another article on the ongoing subject of government surveillance of Internet users and just what can be done about it:

http://recode.net/2014/12/18/protecting-the-internet-from-government-control/

Upton, Fred., Waxman, Harry. Royce, Ed. et al. (18 December, 2014). Protecting the Internet From Government Control. Re/code. Online. Accessed December 19, 2014.

 

Article 11: And on the subject of self-driving cards – Google just unveiled a fully functional self driving car prototype which can be legally driven in California – here’s the link:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2474069,00.asp

Moscaritolo, Angela. (22 December, 2014). Google Unveils Fully Functional Self-Driving Car Prototype. PC Magazine. Online.

 

Article 12: And here’s a link to a Time’s article on just what really happened with that JP Morgan data breach earlier this year:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/entry-point-of-jpmorgan-data-breach-is-identified/?ref=technology&_r=0

Goldstein, Matthew., Perloth, Nicole. & Corkery, Michael. (22 December, 2014). Entry Point of JPMorgan Data Breach Is Identified. The New York Times. Online. Accessed December 23, 2014.

 

Article 13: Article 13 is a quick and neat read for those who love both history and technology as it discusses how our looking to the future when discussing technology was really a though process developed during the Victorian Era – here’s the link:

http://aeon.co/magazine/society/how-the-victorians-imagined-and-invented-the-future/

Morus, Iwan Rhys. (10 December, 2014). aeon. Online. Accessed December 23, 2014.

 

Article 14: And the final article for this two week period is actually my favorite! This Venture Beat article discusses how the rapidly advancing technology is, and will continue to, transform the way we live and both cause certain manual jobs to disappear while fostering the creation of new jobs in newly emerging fields – here’s the link:

http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/22/our-future-of-unlimited-wealth-and-joblessness/

Wadhwa, Vivek. (22 December, 2014). Our future of unlimited wealth — and joblessness. Venture Beat. Online. Accessed December 23, 2014.

Google’s New Self Driving Clown Car – Re/code Article

Linda Reimer

The self driving car revolution is moving every closer to fruition!

http://recode.net/2014/05/27/a-joy-ride-in-googles-new-self-driving-clown-car-video/

Cool stuff!

Linda R.

National Safety Board Wants Cars To Talk To Each Other, 3D Printing Ready To Go Mainstream & Cool Long Exposure Photo Gallery

Linda Reimer

National Safety Board Wants Cars To Talk To Each Other: The National Safety Board has just made a recommendation that all new cars be equipped with computer technology that allows them to talk to each other and thus avoid traffic accidents. This is in response to fatal school bus crashes that occurred in Florida and New Jersey in 2012. The technology to do this is already available and it is included in the newly emerging self-driving cars – like the Google driverless, aka self-driving, cars. I think this is a cool idea because most traffic accidents occur due to human error. Drivers get distracted by their cell phones, conversations with others in the car and an endless number of other things and then those drivers don’t drive a safely as they might and accidents can occur. Imagine a car that wouldn’t allow an accident to occur – ideally there wouldn’t be any injuries of fatalities involved in driving or riding in a car at least not due to human error – and that is a cool idea!

Here’s a link to a Boston Herald article on the subject titled “Technology for cars to talk to each other urged;”

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/national/2013/07/technology_for_cars_to_talk_to_each_other_urged
3D Printing Ready To Go Mainstream: I came across an interesting article on the subject of why 2014 will be the year that 3 D printing goes mainstream. It seems that a number of the patents on 3 D printing technology expire  next year which will result in a drastic drop in the price of basic 3 D printers so we should see affordable home 3 D printers in the very near future.

Here’s a link to the article which is titled “Why 3D printing is set to explode in 2014;”

http://www.impactlab.net/2013/07/23/why-3d-printing-is-set-to-explode-in-2014/
Cool Long Exposure Photo Gallery: On a final note for today here’s a link to a cool gallery of long exposure photos found on the Mashable website – this doesn’t really have anything to do with technology except perhaps for the fact that some of the cameras used in taking the photos may have been digital cameras – but the photos are cool! The photos feature a misty waterfall, a foggy almost gothic looking shoreline, fishing boat seen under a glorious starry night-time sky and a number of other cool things in the 13 photo gallery. Here’s the link:

http://mashable.com/2013/07/23/long-exposure-photos/

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Photo Challenge Long Exposure. Mashable. Online. Accessed July 23, 2013. http://mashable.com/2013/07/23/long-exposure-photos/

Technology for cars to talk to each other urged. (2013, July 23). The Associated Press. Online. Accessed July 23, 2013. http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/national/2013/07/technology_for_cars_to_talk_to_each_other_urged

Impact Lab. Why 3D Printing Is Set To Explode in 2014. Online. Accessed July 23, 2013.

http://www.impactlab.net/2013/07/23/why-3d-printing-is-set-to-explode-in-2014/

 

Technology Is The New Literacy & More Thoughts On Wearable Technology

Linda Reimer

Technology Is The New Literacy: Today I’m going to do something I haven’t ever done before – I’m going to recommend you read a blog posting on another blog! Renee Tougas lives in rural Quebec with her family and is a resourceful homeschooler and blogger. She has written a blog posting titled “Technology is the New Literacy” in which she makes a number of very valid points regarding technology; however, my two favorite points are that A. technology is a tool and that B. technology, or digital literacy if you like, is indeed the new literacy. If you’re going to school or are in the work force today and even if you’re retired I too truly believe that you need to be technological literate to be truly able to communicate with others and learn new things. And I could get up on my proverbial soap-box on this subject but instead I’ll just suggest that you read Renee’s article in which she offers practical examples of using technology as a learning tool and which you can access via the following link:

http://fimby.tougas.net/technology-new-literacy

More Thoughts On Wearable Technology: The tech site Gigaom offers a neat article today titled “With wearable tech like Google Glass, human behavior is now a design problem” which discusses how the advent of wearable technology like Google Glass internet connecting glasses and the Jawbone Up and Nike Fuelband wristbands may change how humans behave and act. If we consider that technology is a tool we can see that it is our personal responsibility to gauge how much technology and what kind to use in our daily lives because any tool can be misused. However, imagine having a wrist band that contains a health computer that is so sophisticated it can tell you what you should be eating for any health condition there is – or simply if you wish to reach a healthier weight or a wristband that can scan the area around you and alert you to any possible dangers like ice on a sidewalk. And moving away from wearables for a moment consider self-driving cars like the Google Car – when that technology is perfected and enters the mainstream – and that time is coming in the very near future – it will allow anyone who is disabled and can’t drive a car but can get around to have a car and not have to drive! So if someone is blind due to macular degeneration or partial paralyzed due to an accident or battle injury that person will be able to get into a self-driving car and simply tell it to take them to the grocery store, the local mall or restaurant of their choice. So technology is indeed a tool that can be misused – for example, if you sit in front of a computer all day long and social network with others and/or play online games – I think you’re rather forgetting to live here in the real world – but even so wearable technology and self-driving cars are worth looking forward too because they will indeed change our lives.

And without further ado here is a link to the Gigaom article:

http://gigaom.com/2013/06/15/with-wearable-tech-like-google-glass-human-behavior-is-now-a-design-problem/

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Madden, Sean, (2013, June 15). With wearable tech like Google Glass, human behavior is now a design problem. Gigaom. Online. Accessed June 18, 2013.

http://gigaom.com/2013/06/15/with-wearable-tech-like-google-glass-human-behavior-is-now-a-design-problem/

Tougas, Renee. (2013, June 18).   Technology is the New Literacy. Fimby. Online. Accessed June 18, 2013. http://fimby.tougas.net/technology-new-literacy

 

New Barnes & Noble Nooks & Streaming Video Service & Other Items of Tech Note!

Linda Reimer

New Barnes & Noble Nooks: On the tablet front, Barnes & Noble introduced two new Nooks on Wednesday; the Nook HD and the Nook HD+. The former is a 7” tablet and the later a 9” tablet. Both tablets have improved screen resolution over previous Nook models. In addition, they are family friendly because they have the capability of allowing up to six people to log in individually and personalize the Nook via their individual log ins. The tablets both have parental controls as well so parents can decide what their children can access e-book and app-wise. Both models will be coming out November 1st and can be pre-ordered from Barnes & Noble now.

Here’s a link to the B&N Nook description page if you’d like to see all the bells and whistles these new tablets offer:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook/379003208

New Barnes & Noble Streaming Video Service: On the video streaming front, B&N announced this week that it is rolling out a video streaming service. This new service will allow Nook owners to rent, buy and view television shows and movies from Barnes & Noble on their Nook tablets.  In addition, this new service, like Amazon’s Instant Video service, will allow people to purchase and view video content on other devices – so you’ll be able to watch B&N videos on your Nook and also, via apps or a software download, to your PC, smartphone, iPad, Galaxy Tab etc.

Here’s a link to a CNET article on the subject titled Nook Video Opens New Chapter for B&N e-Reader:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-57519573-251/nook-video-opens-new-chapter-for-b-n-e-reader/

California Approves Self Driving Cars: On Tuesday (9-25), California Governor Jerry Brown really did sign that law that will allow self-driving cars on California roads!

PC Magazine offers a nice article on the subject titled California Governor Signs Self-Driving Car Bill Into Law – here’s the link:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410180,00.asp

And if you’d rather watch your news – here’s a link to a YouTube video that shows the governor signing the bill with Google co-founder Sergey Brin looking on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAHdX2I4fuE&feature=player_embedded#!

CNET Reports You Can Sign up for a Free Year of Sirius Internet Radio: CNET has an article on their site today titled Freebie Friday Get A Free Year of Sirius XM Internet Radio; it relays the news that the company know for its Car Satellite Radio service actually offers an Internet Radio service too. The service is similar to Pandora and Spotify in that you can access it via apps on your tablet or smartphone and also via the web. The service usually costs $14.99 per month but right now Sirius is offering a free one year subscription to the service – available for a limited time only. Here’s the link:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13845_3-57522181-58/freebie-friday-get-a-free-year-of-siriusxm-internet-radio/

Have a great weekend everyone!

Linda R.