holy_calamity - Slashdot User

Submission + - Inside Facebook data mining research group (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Wednesday June 13, 2012 @04:45PM

holy_calamity writes: "Technology Review has an in depth profile of the team at Facebook tasked with figuring out what can be learned from all our data. The Data Science Team mine that information trove both in the name of scientific research into the patterns of human behavior and to advance Facebook's understanding of its users. Facebook's ad business gets the most public attention, but the company's data mining technology may have a greater effect on its destiny — and users lives."

Submission + - Upstart Search Engines Climbing as Google Tinkers (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Monday June 04, 2012 @03:40PM

holy_calamity writes: "Google has made major changes to its Web search this year, including adding its social network into results and a privacy policy change allowing broader use of behavioral data. All that seems to have encouraged Web users to look for alternative search engines. Search startups, Blekko and DuckDuckGo, have experienced significant user growth in recent months. Is there space for new search engines to succeed?"

Submission + - Microsoft's Lifebrowser is a Prosthetic for Memory (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Friday March 16, 2012 @08:07PM

holy_calamity writes: "Technology Review writes about software from Microsoft Research that looks like a smarter, more private version of Facebook's timeline. Lifebrowser uses machine learning techniques to process photos, emails, web history, documents and other data on your computer and automatically create an interactive timeline with an awareness of what's important and what isn't. Lifebrowser is intended to be a prosthetic for memory. When a user searches their archive for specific information Lifebrowser presents notable photos and other information to aid recollection."

Submission + - WebKit Bug Allows Remote Takeover of Most Android Phones (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Wednesday February 29, 2012 @07:44PM

holy_calamity writes: "An attack shown at the RSA security conference today demonstrates that bugs in the WebKit browser library can be used to remotely take over Android phones. Researchers from startup company CrowdStrike paid $1400 for details of unpatched WebKit bugs. They combined them with malware developed in China to create a system that installs a remote access tool when a user clicks a web link. The attackers gain access to phone audio, text messages and a device's location. Android versions 2.2 and 2.3 are affected, approximately 90 percent of devices in the wild."

Submission + - Cloud Service Convinces Your PC Its Hard Drive is "Infinite" (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Tuesday February 14, 2012 @01:39PM

holy_calamity writes: "Startup Bitcasa has launched a beta of its cloud storage service that claims to allow users to treat their hard drives as "infinite". Bitcasa's application links certain folders to the company's cloud storage so that they can appear to swallow unlimited amounts of data, while some files and folders really reside on distant servers and must be downloaded when an application wishes to access them. Mounting online storage locally isn't new, but Bitcasa tries to make the illusion more complete and encourage users to rely on it more heavily. The service will launch later this year for $10 a month."

Submission + - IRobot's Latest, Biggest Military Robot

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holy_calamity

on Wednesday February 08, 2012 @03:20PM

holy_calamity writes: "Technology Review has video of a one-armed robot named Warrior, newly for sale by Roomba-maker iRobot and aimed at military and police. The company's PackBots have been helping US troops disable improvised explosive devices for years and are small enough for one person to carry. The greater size and strength of the 450 pound Warrior — it can tow an SUV and lift 150 pounds — is intended to make it useful in a broader range of situations, such as search and rescue."

Submission + - Stanford Spinout Nicira Tipped to Dethrone Cisco (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Monday February 06, 2012 @11:27AM

holy_calamity writes: "Many outlets today are covering startup Nicira, which has $50 million in funding and could threaten the businesses of networking giants Cisco and Juniper. Nicira offers virtualized versions of data center network hardware, meaning admins control their networks using only software and the underlying hardware sold by companies like Cisco and Juniper is less important. Nicira claims this approach has the potential to make large data centers — and hence any cloud service — more efficient. Technology Review has an in depth article on the company and its ideas and like many others suggests Nicira could become the "VMware of networking"."

Submission + - Patent covering URLs in text messages for sale at (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Thursday January 12, 2012 @05:49PM

holy_calamity writes: "Press day at CES is packed with announcements from the world's largest tech companies, but one unknown managed to grab a spot this year to hawk a patent its founder says is worth $60 million. Robert Sanchez of Cherple says Twitter, Facebook, and wireless carriers all infringe on his patent millions of times a day and that he's in discussions with several major tech companies to acquire it. The broadly written patent "System and method for delivering web content to a mobile device" covers linking to web content in SMS messages, says Sanchez, who claims he will sell it to the highest bidder. Mobile devices manufacturers are said to be among those in talks to buy it."

Submission + - Intel Demos Phone, Tablet in New Mobile Chip Push (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Wednesday December 21, 2011 @01:19PM

holy_calamity writes: "Intel is making another assault on the mobile processor market, showing off a prototype phone, and a tablet, using its newest mobile processor, Medfield. The company claims that products based on the chips will appear in the first half of next year. There's reason to believe that Intel might get somewhere this time. Its chipsets traditionally comprise three separate chips, a design that guzzles power. Medfield introduces an all-in-one chip, mirroring the power efficient design of the ARM-based chips that run smart phones and tablets in the market today."

Submission + - Microsoft's So.cl Combines Search and Social Netwo (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Thursday December 15, 2011 @02:47PM

holy_calamity writes: "As Slashdot noted, Microsoft accidentally revealed a social network a few months ago. Now the company is talking about the site, known as So.cl. Technology Review has a write up with screenshots, showing a Facebook-like design. Users create status updates using a Bing search box at the top of the page, selecting chunks of text or collages of images from their results. Although the site looks like a slick, general purpose network it is aimed at helping students to collaborate while learning, says the team that built it. For now, only students at three schools can sign up, but that may change."

Submission + - Crowdsourcing Sites Host Multi-Million Dollar Astr (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by

holy_calamity

on Monday December 12, 2011 @03:58PM

holy_calamity writes: "Researchers at University of California Santa Barbara have uncovered a thriving astroturfing industry worth millions of dollars per year supported by crowdsourcing sites in China and the US. It costs only tens of cents to have a real person send a tweet or set up a new social media account, making crowdsourcing an effective way to inject subtle spam into social networks. The researchers conclude that the favorable economics and fact that anti-spam systems struggle to detect such activity suggest that "crowdturfing", as they call it, will become a major problem on social networks worldwide."

Submission + - Corporations Sign Up to Track Location of Customer (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Friday December 09, 2011 @02:21PM

holy_calamity writes: "Technology Review reports on Loc-Aid, a startup that enables companies such as banks to get a location fix on the device associated with a customer's cell phone number. The company has built a system that integrates the phone-tracking capabilities of all the major North American wireless networks. Banks are using the service to check a person's location when their credit card triggers fraud alarms. Retailers are expected to use the service to offer location-specific deals and to analyse patterns in customer movements. A person must opt in before a company can use Loc-Aid's service to track their phone. Challenge Loc-Aid to locate your device using their online demo."

Submission + - IBM Makes First Racetrack Memory Chip (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Monday December 05, 2011 @12:38PM

holy_calamity writes: "Slashdot has followed the progress of IBM's revolutionary "racetrack" memory which stores data inside nanowires for several years. Now Big Blue has made the first prototype integrated onto a single chip, using the CMOS processing used in commercial chip fabs. It's still a research prototype, but goes some way to validate IBM's claim that the technology could be commercialized."

Submission + - Qualcomm's Butterfly Wing Display Gets Nearer (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Tuesday November 15, 2011 @03:49AM

holy_calamity writes: "Technology Review has an update on a screen technology from Qualcomm called Mirasol that delivers LCD-like colors and video but sips power like e-ink. Demonstration Android tablets with 5.7 inch Mirasol displays apparently held up well in bright light and were responsive enough for gaming. Qualcomm are in the process of building a $1bn new factory to make the screens, which should appear in devices from phone and tablet makers next year."

Submission + - Verizon Plans a Fast Lane for Some Apps (technologyreview.com)

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holy_calamity

on Thursday November 10, 2011 @12:22PM

holy_calamity writes: "Technology Review reports that Verizon plans to allow mobile apps to request and get more bandwidth when a cell network is congested — for a small fee. Video calling or movie streaming apps could offer a "turbo" button for a user to press when a poor connection threatens video quality. An API will be offered to mobile developers wishing to use the service. The feature will likely be controversial because it breaches some definitions of net neutrality and granting more bandwidth to some users will necessarily take it away from others."

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