News: Mobile Data Traffic to grow 13-fold

Mobile Internet data traffic to grow 13-fold by 2017, says Cisco:

"One point also worth highlighting is that it appears researchers are forecasting mobile data traffic to increase sharply because of more devices online — not users.
By 2017, Cisco is predicting there will be 5.2 billion mobile users — up from 4.3 billion in 2012. But they also predicted that there will be more than 10 billion connected devices (including more than 1.7 billion M2M connections) within four years — up from 7 billion total in 2012."

Source: CNET

News: Reddit Co-Founder Commits Suicide

Aaron Swartz, a leading activist of open access and copyright reform, committed suicide Friday January 11th in New York City.

Swartz was the founder of Demand Progress, which launched the campaign against the SOPA/PIPA censorship bills (SOPA/PIPA) and a co-founder of Infogami, which merged with the internet aggregator Reddit,. He first entered the public limelight with his involvement in the standardization of RSS in 2001 as a ninth-grader. Most of his too-short twenty-six years of life were devoted to creating a more open web. Swartz's essays, which he posted to his blog, were a staple of many young programmers' introduction to internet culture. His posts included "Who Writes Wikipedia?" and "How To Get a Job Like Mine."

His framework for web servers, web.py, was first released in 2006 when Reddit switched from Lisp to Python and continues to be actively used and updated. In a 2008 attempt to make a public version of the contents of the PACER public court records database, Swartz angered government officials when they learned he had downloaded 20 million articles, which he subsequently made freely available. In 2011, he was controversially indicted for data theft for downloading large amounts from the academic article repository JSTOR. Despite JSTOR's reassurance that they had "no interest in this becoming an ongoing legal matter," the case continued with additional charges, for which Swartz could potentially have been imprisoned for 50+ years. (A sentence Lawrence Lessig bemoans.) He pled innocent in September of 2012. Many will contend that Aaron Swartz died innocent.

RIP, Aaron Swartz

News: Curiosity Rover lands safely on Mars

NASA’s Curiosity Rover lands safely on Mars.

Here’s what it took and how it happened.

News: NASA Announces Next Steps

NASA Announces Next Steps in Effort to Launch Americans from U.S. Soil:

NASA and its Commercial Crew Program announced new agreements with three American commercial companies to design and develop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities, enabling a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next five years.
Advances made by these companies under newly signed Space Act Agreements through the agency’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative are intended to ultimately lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers.
SpaceX’s crewed Dragon will get more lift capability from the next-generation of Falcon rockets. The uncrewed version of Dragon recently made history as the first commercially built spacecraft to rendezvous and then berth with the International Space Station.
Sierra Nevada Corporation will advance its Dream Chaser spacecraft, which resembles NASA’s space shuttle but is smaller and based on improvements to the agency’s HL-20 lifting-body design. The company partnered with United Launch Alliance to launch its spacecraft atop an Atlas V rocket.
Boeing will continue to develop its CST-100 spacecraft, which underwent rigorous testing during two previous commercial crew development phases. It too will launch atop an Atlas V.

Source: Nasa.gov

News: Rare Pixar Computer Selling On eBay

There are less than 2 days left to drop $25,000 on a rare Pixar Image Computer, which cropped up on eBay this weekend. The 'museum-quality historical artifact,' which was originally developed in the 1980s by Lucasfilm's computer division, carries a hefty price tag, but costs $105,000 less than its original sale price.

The tombstone-modeled matching monitor and tower, engraved with the Pixar logo, was made commercially available in 1986, when Steve Jobs bought the company. But regular consumers weren't expected to plunk down $135,000 for the machine - it was intended for high-end visualization markets like medicine, geophysics, and meteorology.

News: Scientists Fire the World’s Most Powerful Laser

Scientists Fire the World’s Most Powerful Laser:

Hidden away at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility is a terrifying 10-story laser. Recently scientists have finally started using it in anger, and now they’ve even smashed previous records to fire the most powerful laser shot ever recorded.

The long-term plan, of course, is to use this incredibly high-powered laser to kick-start nuclear fusion reactions. So, we might even see some of that power make its way back to us at some point. 

Source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via Popular Science

News: iCloud Helps Woman Recover a Stolen iPhone

Technology is a wonderful thing, but when that technology fails on you, it can be very frustrating. Sometimes, however, technology does exactly what it is supposed to and you find a fringe benefit you weren’t expecting.

This was the case when Katy McCaffrey’s iPhone was stolen on a Disney Cruise. It turns out her unwitting thief was off having fun with his newly discovered iPhone and failed to turn off the iCloud feature, which was still connected to Katy’s service.

If you don’t already know, the iCloud feature automatically saves every picture you take on your phone to the cloud server so that you can automatically have a copy of those pictures on all your other iDevices. So while she was lamenting the loss of her pricey iPhone, she was treated to a photo journal of its misadventures with its new owner!

Hacks: Stranded Frenchman Builds Bike from Car

Man, stranded in the desert, makes a motorcycle from his broken car

The original story is in French, and the Google translate is very rough. Please forgive us if we don’t get this completely accurate.

While traveling through the desert somewhere in north west Africa in his Citroen 2CV , [Emile] is stopped, and told not to go any further due to some military conflicts in the area. Not wanting to actually listen to this advice, he decides to loop around, through the desert, to circumvent this roadblock.

After a while of treading off the beaten path, [Emile] manages to snap a swing arm on his vehicle, leaving him stranded. He decided that the best course of action was to disassemble his vehicle and construct a motorcycle from the parts. This feat would be impressive on its own, but remember, he’s still in the desert and un-prepared. If we’re reading this correctly, he managed to drill holes by bending metal and sawing at it, then un-bending it to be flat again.
It takes him twelve days to construct this thing. There are more pictures on the site, you simply have to go look at it. Feel free to translate the labels and post them in the comments.
Update: From [Semicolo] in the comments

You got the translation right, but there’s not just a swing arm that’s broken, there’s a frame beam broken too (not sure about the exact term, one of the 2 girder of the chassis). He’s not far away but he has a lot of tools and other hardware that could be stolen if he leaves them unattended.

Via: Reddit
Credit for translation goes to JonhDksn

News: Photography Ban

Scotland’s Largest City Set To Ban All Photography in Its Subways:

Earlier today Amateur Photographer reported that the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) in Glasgow, Scotland is set to impose a series of bylaws for the cities transport, including a ban in section 12.1 which would prohibit riders from “take[ing] photographs, or make[ing] video, audio or visual recordings on any part of the subway.” In fact, the only way around the ban would be to get express written permission from the SPT and show it to any officer that may request to see it.

Source: petapixel.com

Net: Made in NY

Yesterday, at Internet Week New York, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne, and Internet Week New York Chairman David-Michel Davies launched the “Made in NY” Digital Jobs Map, "an interactive guide to the City’s startups, investors, incubators, and coworking spaces, including over 325 digital companies that are currently hiring for thousands of jobs."

Created by Internet Week New York in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the Made in NY Digital Map already plots more than 500 digital companies across the five boroughs. The map offers direct links to the companies’ jobs listings pages and pinpoints the city’s hottest tech hubs, from the Flatiron District to DUMBO. The Mayor made the announcement at Internet Week headquarters and was also joined by Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky and Branch CEO Josh Miller.
…The Made in NY Map draws its data from sources including NYC Digital, New York City Economic Development Corporation, Internet Week New York, New York Tech Meetup, and user-generated submissions.

News: The 16th Annual Webby Award Winners

The winners have been announced for the 16th Annual Webby Awards. Winners will accept their awards and give their Webby 5-Word acceptance speech on May 21, 2012 at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. The show will be streamed live in HD via the Webby Awards website. Comedian Patton Oswalt will host the show.

Special Achievement Award winners:

Webby Person of the Year: Louis C.K.
Webby Artist of the Year: Björk
Webby Actresses of the Year: Juliette Lewis and Graydon Sheppard of “Sh*t Girls Say”
Webby Breakout of the Year: Instagram

News: Olympics to ban social network photos?

Olympics to ban social network photos?: 

"The London 2012 conditions state: ‘Images, video and sound recordings of the Games taken by a Ticket Holder cannot be used for any purpose other than for private and domestic purposes and a Ticket Holder may not license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the internet more generally, and may not exploit images, video and/or sound recordings for commercial purposes under any circumstances, whether on the internet or otherwise, or make them available to third parties for commercial purposes.’

Ruck, a semi-retired freelance, blasted the rules as unenforceable.

He said there will be a 'million and one' people taking photos and video, whether by camera or mobile camera phone."

Source: Amateur Photographer

News: deGrasse Tyson is behind change in Titanic re-release

Neil deGrasse Tyson is behind the only major technical change in the Titanic re-release:

It took James Cameron 60 weeks to prepare Titanic for its rerelease, but apart from remastering the original at 4k resolution and converting it to stereoscopic 3D, nothing about the movie has really changed.

Well, almost nothing.

According to Cameron: “Neil deGrasse Tyson sent me quite a snarky email saying that, at that time of year [April 15, at 4:20 am], in that position in the Atlantic in 1912, when Rose is lying on the piece of driftwood and staring up at the stars, that is not the star field she would have seen.”

“And with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in. So I said ‘All right, send me the right stars for that exact time and I’ll put it in the movie.’”

So Tyson did just that, and Cameron re-shot the scene. According to the Telegraph , it is the only major technical change in the film’s re-release.

Source: io9

News: James Cameron's Record-Breaking Trench Dive

James Cameron Completes Record-Breaking Mariana Trench Dive:

Explorer and filmmaker James Cameron reached the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean at 7:52 am Monday local time (2152 GMT Sunday) in his specially designed submersible. He is the first person to dive there solo and reach a depth of 35,756 feet (10,898 meters), since it was initially explored in 1960.

Net: PayPal Redesign

PayPal Redesigns How You Buy With Its "Digital Wallet":

Your money is a mess. In principle, you've got this pot of it somewhere. But trying to use it actually turns out to be a headache and a hassle. Which card should you use at any given time? Why do you have to pull out so many bits of paper and plastic when you've got a coupon, a gift card, and a credit card to use at the same store?

PayPal agrees. That's why the company introduced a new set of digital wallet tools today at the SXSW conference in Austin, TX. It's the first time in the company's 13-year history that it's redesigned and re-architected the system's payments experience, Sam Shrauger, PayPal's vice president of global product and experience, tells Fast Company.

"When we started, we were about making money work better on the web," he said. "This is about making money work better everywhere."

Source: Fast Company

News: 38% of China’s Internet mobile-only users

38% of China’s Internet population are mobile-only users, says report:

Mobile-only Web users account for more than one third of China’s Internet population, according to a report from mobile research specialist On Device. The study found that the country’s rural population drove an annual 8 percent increase in mobile-only Web usage, which accounted for 38 percent of China’s Internet users in 2011.

Source: The Next Web

News: Hackers Steal Archive of Jackson Tracks

Hackers Allegedly Steal Sony’s Archive Of 50k+ Michael Jackson Tracks:

Hackers reportedly illegally downloaded over Michael Jackson’s entire back catalog, consisting of 50,000 tracks, many never released. Sony purchased the catalog from Jackson’s estate for $250 (£157.51) million last year. W.E.N.N. reports, “The attack was discovered weeks after hackers targeted Sony’s PlayStation Network in April, but was only confirmed by a Sony Music representative on Saturday.The UK’s Daily Star reports, "Record bosses only discovered the theft of 50,000 music files when a worker saw Jackson fans chatting about it on forums."

Source: PaidContent

News: Robo-cheetah sets speed record

Robo-cheetah sets speed record:

If there's anything scarier than a cheetah coming after you, it would have to be a headless robo-cheetah coming after you at record speed. That nightmare is now a reality, thanks to DARPA's Cheetah robot, whose 18 mph pace has set a land speed record for machines with legs.

The feat, revealed today on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's website, is aimed at developing combat robots that can outrun and evade humans on foot — and a 3:20 mile should just about do it. (The world record for humans is 3:43.) Boston Dynamics has been working on the cheetah-bot as part of DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program, or M3.

"This robot is galloping," Boston Dynamics President Marc Raibert told the Boston Globe. "It's the first time we've had a robot that gallops."

The previous record for legged robots was 13.1 mph, set in 1989 by the MIT Leg Lab's stick-figurish Planar Biped robot. For what it's worth, flesh-and-blood cheetahs can still run much faster, zooming at up to 70 mph.

 Source: Cosmic Log

News: The WikiHouse Revolution

The WikiHouse Revolution:

Will open-source DIY architecture usher in a new age of architectural innovation?
In the early half of the 20th century, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold tens of thousands of self-assembly homes to customers across the United States by mail order. A “Sears Modern Home” came in a railroad-delivered kit complete with more than 30,000 component parts, along with nails, paints, and fittings, and a weighty leather-bound instruction manual to help you put together the designs yourself. The plans were designed to be simple enough to be assembled without help from architects, carpenters, or any specialist contractors—in most cases, Sears homes were assembled solely by the buyer, with the help of friends, family, and neighbors, in communal, barn-raising fashion.

As it was the advent of mass-manufacturing and the birth of American DIY spirit that gave way to the then-popularity of the Sears precut home (Sears wasn’t the first, nor the only company in the business), so it is that an Internet reaching maturity, with open-source spirit, brings us the Sears home of our own age: the WikiHouse.

Source: Slate

News: Engineers create self-propelled medical device

Stanford engineers create wireless, self-propelled medical device:

For 50 years, scientists searched for the secret to making tiny implantable devices that could travel through the bloodstream. Engineers at Stanford have demonstrated just such a device. Powered without wires or batteries, it can propel itself though the bloodstream and is small enough to fit through blood vessels. Someday, your doctor may turn to you and say, "Take two surgeons and call me in the morning." If that day arrives, you may have electrical engineer Ada Poon to thank. This week, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, before an audience of her peers, Poon demonstrated a tiny, wirelessly powered, self-propelled medical device capable of controlled motion through a fluid – blood, to be exact. The era of swallow-the-surgeon medical care may no longer be the stuff of science fiction.

Source: Stanford University