Technology for New Generation

One of the best scenes from Larry David’s tour-de-neuroses Curb Your Enthusiasm opens with Larry sitting at a restaurant. As cheesy music plays, the camera pans out, revealing the guy at the table next to him. He’s sitting alone, but jabbering loudly, reminding someone we can’t see that “on no planet is a shoe caddy a good gift.” Then comes the reveal: Cut to the other side of this joker’s head, and there’s his Bluetooth headset. Larry, tired of his crap, starts talking loudly to himself. Eventually he fights with the guy next to him, and then they both go back to complaining to the empty chairs in front of them. Jerks. The episode aired in 2007. Mercifully, the “Bluedouche” problem went away for a while after that—it was replaced by people sitting in silence, staring into their screens, which is at least easier to sit next to. Things are changing again: As we become more reliant on Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and the world of virtual assistants ...

Computer screens display the Facebook sign-in screen in this photo illustration taken in Golden, Colorado July 28, 2015. Reuters/Rick Wilking/Files Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that on August 27th, “1 in 7 people on earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family” -- which means about 1 billion people in a single day. It's a startling statistic and it means human connectivity is evolving at an exponential rate. It also means that when we are online someone, somewhere is watching what we’re doing, what were saying and what we’re posting. Because of the higher level of visibility social media brings to our lives, it’s important to apply the golden rules of etiquette, manners and respect to your online life just as you do in real life, helping ensure you build and maintain your personal and professional brand now and into the future. TMI – too much information?: Social media is the perfect vehicle for the narcissist...

Beware harming your "personal brand" on social media....... Computer screens display the Facebook sign-in screen in this photo illustration taken in Golden, Colorado July 28, 2015. Reuters/Rick Wilking/Files Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that on August 27th, “1 in 7 people on earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family” -- which means about 1 billion people in a single day. It's a startling statistic and it means human connectivity is evolving at an exponential rate. It also means that when we are online someone, somewhere is watching what we’re doing, what were saying and what we’re posting. Because of the higher level of visibility social media brings to our lives, it’s important to apply the golden rules of etiquette, m...

Computer scientists introduce new graphics software Sophisticated geometric matching, machine learning mimic humans' perception of style, giving users powerful new tools to compare the style similarity of 3-D objects Source:  University of Massachusetts at Amherst   Summary: Computer scientists unveiled a new software modeling program that uses sophisticated geometric matching and machine learning to mimic humans' perception of style, giving users powerful new tools to compare the style similarity of 3-D objects The new first-of-its-kind structure-transcending software can benefit several computer graphics applications, researchers say. FULL STORY As the researchers explain, humans can perceive stylistic similarity between objects that transcends structure and function. For example, we can see a common style such as Danish modern' in both a table and chair, though they have different structures. Until now, machines have found it difficult to do t...

Cyberattack exposes 10 million records at US health insurer Excellus Hackers gained administrative access to the company's IT systems Hackers have penetrated the IT systems of U.S. health insurer Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and gained access to personal, financial and medical information of more than 10 million people, the company disclosed Thursday. The initial attack occurred in December 2013, but the company did not learn about it until Aug. 5. Since then it has been working with the FBI and cybersecurity firm Mandiant to investigate the breach. The hackers may have had access to customer records which include names, addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, member identification numbers, financial accounts and medical claims information. Records may contain all or just some of that information, depending on the customer's relationship with the company. The breach doesn't affect just Excellus members, ...

The adversity of DDOS attacks: Q2 2015 State of the Internet - Security Report   According to the report, Akamai researchers when looking at Layer 7 DDOS attack traffic, track the last hop IP address of DDOS attacks against the National IP Ranges, which enables them to identify non-spoofed sources. Akamai Technologies has released statistics "Q2 2015 State of the Internet - Security Report", which lists India in the fourth position for being the origin of non-spoofed DDOS attacks. Of all the attacks, 7.43 percent originated from the country. However, when it concerns Botnet related DDOS attacks, India ranks 7th as the source origin. Image Source: Akamai's "Q2 2015 State of the Internet - Security Report"  According to the report, Akamai researchers when looking at Layer 7 DDoS attack traffic, track the last hop IP address of DDOS attacks against the National IP Ranges, which enables them to identify non-spoofed sources. DDOS ...

Pointing the Way: 3D Computer Cursors Could Navigate Virtual Worlds   Forget everything you thought you knew about computer cursors. Researchers have come up with a way to turn cursors into a tool that can navigate around 3D space. Conventional pointers that are controlled with a trackpad and show up as a tiny arrow on a screen will soon be outdated, according to scientists at the University of Montreal in Canada. They have created a way to turn smartphones , tablets or anything with an interactive surface, into a translucent so-called "controlling plane" to select and manipulate objects in a 3D world. This futuristic technology could play an integral role in how virtual reality software responds to how users move in real life. The 3D cursor was unveiled earlier this month at the SIGGRAPH 2015 Conference, held from Aug. 9 to 13 in Los Angeles. [ Photos: Virtual Reality Puts Adults in a Child's World ] Traditionall...

Wireless power transmission has been a dream since the days when Nikola Tesla imagined a world studded with enormous Tesla coils. But aside from advances in recharging electric toothbrushes, wireless power has so far failed to make significant inroads into consumer-level gear. What is it? This summer, Intel researchers demonstrated a method--based on MIT research--for throwing electricity a distance of a few feet, without wires and without any dangers to bystanders (well, none that they know about yet). Intel calls the technology a " wireless resonant energy link ," and it works by sending a specific, 10-MHz signal through a coil of wire; a similar, nearby coil of wire resonates in tune with the frequency, causing electrons to flow through that coil too. Though the design is primitive, it can light up a 60-watt bulb with 70 percent efficiency.

Cloud computing works.... Cloud computing (the cloud) Cloud computing is defined as a type of computing that relies on sharing computing resources  rather than having local servers or personal  devices  to handle  applications . Cloud computing is comparable to  grid computing , a type of computing where unused processing cycles of all computers in a network are harnesses to solve problems too intensive for any stand-alone machine. In cloud computing, the word  cloud  (also phrased as "the cloud") is used as a metaphor for " the Internet ," so the phrase  cloud computing  means "a type of Internet-based computing," where different services  —  such as servers, storage and applications  — are delivered to an organization's computers and devices through the Internet. How Cloud Computing Works The goal of cloud computing is to apply traditional  supercomputing , or  high-performance computing ...

Computer Networking... The rise of software defined networking or  SDN  has been significant in the recent past. This is a new approach to computer networking and holds the promise of revamping the conventional data center.  On one hand it is compelling established companies like Juniper and Cisco to refashion their strategy and on the other, several new or start up companies are taking to this technology right away. SDN essentially helps deal with networking bottlenecks created by old fashioned routers and switches. While major equipment has received upgrades, these devices have not and therefore cause the networking glitches. SDN splits the control functions but manages them via one centralized program. This means that the routers and switches do continue to manage the data transmission but do not have to be sophisticated like the hardware. After the advent and growth of virtualization, SDN seems to be the next big paradigm shift in the data center.