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Submission + - A Fictional Compression Metric Moves Into the Real World (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: The "Weissman Score"—created for HBO's Silicon Valley to add dramatic flair to the show's race to build the best compression algorithm—creates a single score by considering both the amount of compression and the compression speed. While it was created for a TV show, it does really work, and it's quickly migrating into academia. Computer science and engineering students will begin to encounter the Weissman Score in the classroom this fall.

Submission + - How to prepare for the flood of wearables into the workplace (citeworld.com)

Submitted by mattydread23
mattydread23 writes: Wearables are poised to make a dramatic entrance into our lives and workplaces, if they haven't already. Wearables pose many of the paradigm shifting challenges that mobile devices, apps, and cloud services did. Companies will have to figure out how to redesign apps — again — to be more aware of context, and will have to grapple with new privacy and security challenges. But unlike with the flood of smartphones, this time they can be prepared.

Submission + - Stanford Engineers Explain How They Created a Fictitious Compression For HBO's S (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: Professor Tsachy Weissman and Ph.D student Vinith Misra came up with (almost) believable compression algorithms for HBO's Silicon Valley. Some constraints--they had to seem plausible, look good when illustrated on a whiteboard, and work with the punchline, "middle out". Next season the engineers may encourage producers to tackle the challenge of local decodability.

Submission + - Mime Troupe Plays For Peace In San Francisco's Tech Wars (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: In its newest play, "Ripple Effect," performing at parks in San Francisco and beyond, the San Francisco Mime Troupe calls for the city to embrace its new tech immigrants instead of isolating them. The rousing comedy also aims to get tech workers to start thinking of themselves as political.

Submission + - Coupa Cafe co-founder talks about how he processes Bitcoin transactions (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: Palo Alto's Coupa Cafe has been taking Bitcoin for more than a year, cobbling together a system involving a QR code, a smartphone, the cash register POS system, and a cell phone alert. The company believes in Bitcoin so much it has yet to convert any of the Bitcoin currency it has received into dollars.

Submission + - Facebook – Our ffriendly automated identity bender (robohub.org)

Submitted by Hallie Siegel
Hallie Siegel writes: Facebook’s algorithms are making decisions about what kind of person you appear to be to your ffriends. Robot ethics expert Jason Millar looks into how automation might be influencing how your social networks perceive you.

Submission + - Photographing Fearless Genius at NeXT, Apple, and Others (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: Photographer Doug Menuez spent 15 years embedded in NeXT, Apple, Adobe, and other Silicon Valley tech companies and came away with a lifetime of stories. He's published a book, and sent an exhibition of his photographs on tour. And this week he came to the Computer History Museum to reveal what he heard in his years behind the scenes, not just what he saw, back in "Silicon Valley in the age of the beeper, when fax was cool, and when entrepreneurs and engineers came together and sparked an explosion that changed our world.” He then jumped forward to look at this generation of entrepreneurs and app developers, and said he's worried they don't have the same passion.

Submission + - Nathan Myhrvold's Recipe for a Better Oven (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: We cook our food today using technology invented to bake bricks. We can do a lot better. Nathan Myhrvold explains what's wrong with today's ovens and challenges oven designers make them better.

Submission + - Post-Snowden, Silicon Valley Execs Give U.S. Cyberpolicy a D-minus (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: Stanford President John Hennessy, VC Mark Andreessen, and other Silicon Valley leaders discuss the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, and conclude that it's a disaster for the tech industry, and that the U.S. has a critical 12 to 24 months to figure out a better cyberpolicy or face long term damage.

Submission + - After the Sun (Microsystems) Sets, the Real Stories Come Out (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: Former Sun executives and employees gathered in Mountain View, Calif., in May, and out came the "real" stories. Andy Bechtolsheim reports that Steve Jobs wasn't the only one who set out to copy the Xerox Parc Alto; John Gage wonders why so many smart engineers couldn't figure out that it would have been better to buy tables instead of kneepads for the folks doing computer assembly; Vinod Khosla recalls the plan to "rip-off Sun technology;" and more.

Submission + - The Augmented Reality America's Cup (ieee.org)

Submitted by Tekla Perry
Tekla Perry writes: In "The Augmented Reality America's Cup" (http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/the-augmented-reality-americas-cup) Stan Honey and Ken Milnes describe the positioning, communications, graphics, and augmented reality technology they developed that will be used in the upcoming America's Cup races and, they hope, will change the way sailing is televised and watched forever after. Honey and Milnes pioneered car navigation with the startup Etak, and changed the way we watch football on TV with Sportvision's yellow line.

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"More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined." -- Fred Brooks, Jr., _The Mythical Man Month_

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