Archive for October 2017

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/mit-shows-how-smartphones-could-peek-around-corners  Magically seeing around corners to spot moving people or objects may not rank first in most people’s superhero daydreams. But MIT researchers have shown how they could someday bestow that superpower upon anyone with a smartphone. Their secret to peeking around corners is detecting slight differences in light patterns reflected from moving objects or →

https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smarter-grid/should-a-devastated-caribbean-leap-forward-to-renewable-power-and-microgrids  After the destruction inflicted across the Caribbean by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, renewable energy advocates are calling for a rethink of the region’s devastated power systems. Renewables advocates argue that the island grids should leapfrog into the future by interconnecting hundreds or thousands of self-sufficient solar microgrids. Some power system experts, however, say the solar-plus-batteries →

https://blog.hackster.io/ten-years-of-the-lilypad-arduino-2f5a949f76d2  The LilyPad Arduino was designed for e-textiles and wearables projects. It along with an accompanying collection of power supplies, sensors, and actuators share unique design with large conductive sew tabs around the edges. These allow the boards to be sewn onto fabrics, and soft surfaces, using conductive thread to build working circuits. Essentially it’s a specially →

Today is a special day: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th  Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, which can be the case at least once every year, and up to three times a year. The superstition surrounding this day may have arisen in the Middle →

https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2017/10/12/17-japanese-mascots-getting-stuck-things/  Japan has hundreds of mascots, or Yuru-chara, to promote companies, local culture, history or produce. It’s not an easy life, especially if you’re using public transport… but you might find some of the pictures of those occasions funny. →

http://tech.newstatesman.com/news/conscious-machines-way-off  Breakthroughs in narrow AI, no progress towards general AI. I think he’s a bit optimistic on self-driving cars, at least for Finnish winter driving  “We’re beginning to get there with better ideas about the brain, but all the progress in AI over the last decade which is real and exciting has been on narrow →

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/optoelectronics/topological-laser-cavities-could-revolutionize-optoelectronics  A new type of laser cavity that builds off a Nobel-winning development in physics can take on any shape and switch the flow of light with a magnetic field. Kante and his colleagues describe their so-called topological cavities in the current issue of Science.  Normally, a laser cavity, where light amplification takes place, is shaped like →

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/09/a-chat-with-the-creators-of-arduino/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook  They’ve essentially created a world in which anyone can make amazing hardware - Technotopia talked to Massimo Banzi and Fabio Violante, the co-creators of Arduino.  →

Numerous companies have shamed themselves by posting their sensitive data and encryption keys to public cloud without any protection, where cyber criminals and security researches find them. What is the better way to get a bad dent to the “professional” cover of the data security consultanting company than doing exactly this? And yet those companies →

http://nordic.businessinsider.com/finland-has-a-huge-deficit-in-software-developers-and-its-growing-rapidly-2017-6/  According to the Finnish Information Processing Association, TIVIA, the country has an immediate need for 7,000 more software development professionals with the anticipated demand further expected to grow by up to 3,800 people annually. This can mean EUR 3-4 billion annually in lost GDP. So, if the pay is good, why the massive headcount deficit? Roughly →