When Google set out to create Glass, it was looking for the next big platform for communications and computing, he said in a talk at the Hot Chips engineering conference at Stanford.The first prototype was not impressive. Smartphones weigh around 135 grams, but the first Glass prototype required a backpack and weighed 3,350 grams — 7.4 pounds.
Glass is a sophisticated computing platform in that it takes pictures and videos, recognizes your speech commands, and delivers sound to you via a bone conduction method. It has a dual-core processor running at more than a 1Ghz. And it has a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, a magnetometer, and global positioning system location information. These devices give sensor information on your location and Indoor Positioning System.
The device is not symmetric, with two Glass elements covering both eyes, because it’s much more complex. It doubles the weight, increases power consumption, and distracts your other eye from the real world.“Comfort is very important because we want people to wear it the whole day,” Parviz said.
The device can transfer data via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios. At the moment, there is no plan to add cellphone service or a data modem. If there is an overriding mission of Glass, it’s to deliver information fast.“As I talk to you, this is how fast I can access the computer,” he said. “The camera sees the world through my eyes. It lives with me as I live my life. This device is intimately aware of what I see.”
One of the advantages of the form factor is that you can use it to perform tasks much more quickly than even if you were pushing buttons on your smartphone. It responds to touches or to voice commands, and it delivers sound directly to the bone in your head, rather than into your ears.Google Glass can also be more immersive, as the screen can be closer to your eye and make you feel like you are immersed in a computing environment. Smartphone screens can do that, but they are already getting too big.
“This is possible now because of you guys and what you enable in the electronics industry,” Parviz said. “We have also take advantage of the smartphone and the infrastructure it created.He noted smartphone camera resolution has risen from virtually nothing in 2002 to more than 16 megapixels today. That’s a huge leap that paved the way for Glass.
“It produces a beautiful image, and it costs a few dollars,” he said. “That is mind-boggling, and it is an example of why this device was not possible 15 years ago.”As to why Google embarked on this task in the first place, Parviz noted how it is the next logical step in the expansion of knowledge.“This device significantly expands my knowledge base,” Parviz said. “This is why we created Google Glass. The answers are just a question away.”
Today, the company is selling its first Google Glass units for $1,500. Over time, that price will come down. Parviz described it as an interesting first step.“As we released it to a number of Hands free access, and they tested it; it was amazing to experience their lives through their eyes,” he said. “We noticed if you have an electronics device all day, it should not impede any of your other senses.” His eyes and ears are still open and hands are free. ”That was very important,” he said. “You can get very rapid access to technology when you need it.”
Parviz said, “Now you use a huge amount of computing power for a fraction of a second. You ask a question, and it gets back to you.On the road ahead, Parviz wants technology to disappear. That’s why he likes Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing system. You don’t even know it’s there.“It should be the least intrusive,” he said.He said this will require advances in optics, photonics, miniaturization, transducers, computing power, and ultralow power designs. Since the device is on your body, it can’t generate much heat. That puts a lot of constraints on design.
“We are very excited about this platform, potentially as the major next thing in computing and communication,” Parviz said.He said the team takes security very seriously. Everything is pushed from the cloud, and an app cannot be installed and run on the device itself. That might change in future versions, and that will introduce implications for security.
Asked what he thought of the privacy issues as Glass technology becomes more invisible in the future, Parviz said, “That’s already an issue with smartphones. Back in the 1880s, when the first camera came out, and it became possible for someone to take a picture of you, it made people uncomfortable. It took some time for society to figure it out. The trajectory for a device like this is something similar.”
TasksEveryDay promised just such a service for around $10 an hour, which is about half the rate I'd have had to pay a personal assistant in my area. Looking at the site now, I see things that should have clued me in to the possibility that the rates weren't low just because of global labour arbitrage. It's rife with clip art, its marketing copy is riddled with not-quite-correct punctuation and capitalisation, and customer testimonials bear more than a passing resemblance to hostage videos. But in my stupor I was blind to these flaws. What's more, my negotiations with the company's sales representative went smoothly. The woman on the phone was polite, spoke English fluently, and expertly soothed my fears about how the site's assistants would handle my personal data. In addition to a non-disclosure agreement, the company constantly monitors its workers' online activities, its call centre is outfitted with surveillance cameras, and assistants aren't allowed to install any storage devices (like USB disks) into their computers. I was sold.
Things started promisingly. The saleswoman introduced me to my assistant, a young man I'll call Mr F. He sent me an email with his picture - big, slicked-back hair, a boyish face, Bible-salesman suit - and a promise to "put in my best efforts to ensure that all your tasks are executed 100 per cent efficiently".
At 9 am the next day, I shared my Google Calendar and Gmail accounts with Mr F, and I gave him his first task. I needed a flight from San Francisco to Minneapolis. I gave him my dates. I wanted times and prices. Once he'd found an ideal flight, I planned to give him my credit card number so he could book it for me.
But after sending him my request, I heard nothing. After 40 minutes, I sent him a follow-up to make sure he'd received the task. About 40 minutes after that, he responded: "Yes I have received your email and I have started working on it."
Huh. This task should have taken him about 10 minutes; why was he just getting started after a nearly an hour and a half? Around noon - about three hours (and $30) after I'd assigned the task - Mr F finally sent me an email to say he was done. Now I saw why he'd taken so long: Instead of looking for the best two or three flights that conformed to my calendar, he'd created a spreadsheet listing all the details of 10 flights. This was madness: I could have got a similar list myself in 30 seconds on any travel site. What I needed was someone to help me narrow down my options, not replicate a web search. And why did he think I'd need an Excel version? Why didn't he just send me a link to his search?
I chalked it up to first-day troubles. The weekend was coming up, and I didn't need Mr F on Monday morning. I told him to be ready to work on Tuesday. But on Tuesday I heard nothing. Not on Wednesday either. The whole week passed. Then another week. If I had a personal assistant, I would have had him call up TasksEveryDay to find out what kind of two-bit operation they were running. But I had no such help, so the task of calling up the firm to complain was added to a dozen other low-priority tasks on my to-do list. I did revoke Mr F's access to my Gmail and calendar.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
2013年8月26日星期一
2013年6月4日星期二
Egypt ministers caught on live TV discussing sabotage
Politicians meeting with Egypt's president on Monday proposed hostile acts against Ethiopia, including backing rebels and carrying out sabotage, to stop it from building a massive dam on the Nile River upstream.
Some of the politicians appeared unaware the meeting with President Mohammed Morsi was being carried live on TV. Morsi did not directly react to the suggestions, but said in concluding remarks that Egypt respects Ethiopia and its people and will not engage in any aggressive acts against the East African nation.
Morsi called the meeting to review the impact of Ethiopia's $4.2 billion hydroelectric dam, which would be Africa's largest. Egypt in the past has threatened to go to war over its "historic rights" to Nile River water.
Morsi's office later said he had directed his foreign and irrigation ministers to maintain contact with the Ethiopian government to obtain more information on the dam and its likely impact on Egypt's share of the Nile water.
His office's statement included an ominous-sounding note, saying: "Egypt will never surrender its right to Nile water and all options (to safeguard it) are being considered."
Ethiopia last week started diverting the flow of the Nile to make way for its hydroelectric plant dubbed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. On completion, it is expected to produce 6,000 megawatts, and its reservoir is scheduled to start filling next year.
An independent panel of experts has concluded that the dam will not significantly affect downstream Sudan and Egypt, which are highly dependent on the water of the world's longest river, said an Ethiopian official, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the topic.
But in Cairo on Monday, Younis Makhyoun, leader of an ultraconservative Islamist party, said Egypt should back rebels in Ethiopia or, as a last resort, destroy the dam. He said Egypt made a "strategic error" when it did not object to the dam's construction.
Makhyoun said Ethiopia is "fragile" because of rebel movements inside the country. "We can communicate with them and use them as a bargaining chip against the Ethiopian government," he said.
"If all this fails, then there is no choice left for Egypt but to play the final card, which is using the intelligence service to destroy the dam," said Makhyoun, whose Nour party won about 25 percent of parliament's seats in elections in late 2011 and early 2012.
Another politician, liberal Ayman Nour, proposed spreading rumors about Egypt obtaining refueling aircraft to create the impression that it plans an airstrike to destroy the dam.
Abu al-Ila Madi, leader of the pro-Morsi Islamist Wasat party, suggested that a rumor that Egypt planned to destroy the dam could scare the Ethiopians into cooperating with Egypt on the project.
Magdy Hussein, another Islamist politician, warned that talk of military action against Ethiopia is "very dangerous" and will only turn Ethiopians into enemies. He suggested soft diplomacy in dealing with the crisis, including organizing a film festival in Ethiopia and dispatching researchers and translation missions.
Ethiopia's decision to construct the dam challenges a colonial-era agreement that had given Egypt and Sudan rights to the Nile water, with Egypt taking 55.5 billion cubic meters and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic meters of 84 billion cubic meters, with 10 billion lost to evaporation.
That agreement, first signed in 1929, took no account of the eight other nations along the 6,700-kilometer (4,160-mile) river and its basin, which have been agitating for a decade for a more equitable accord.
Ethiopian Minister of Water and Energy Alemayehu Tegenu has said Egypt should not worry about a diminished water share.
"We don't have any irrigation projects around the dam. The dam is solely intended for electricity production ... So there should not be any concerns about a diminished water flow," Alemayehu told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The conclusion of the 8th meeting of Russia-Pakistan Consultative Group on Strategic Stability, held in Islamabad in April 20131, marks the culmination of a series of high profile engagements between the two countries. In the last one and a half years alone, the two sides have witnessed a flurry of high profile bilateral visits that has included Russia’s Chief of Ground Forces, Chief of Air Force, Special Envoy to Afghanistan and the Foreign Minister visiting Islamabad. Similarly, from the Pakistani side, Air Force Chief Tahir Rafique Butt, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Chief of Army Gen. Kayani have all visited Moscow.
For Russia, which has a ‘privileged’ and ‘special’ relationship with India, the increased engagement does raise a few questions. First, what are the driving factors behind Russia current engagement strategy with Pakistan? Second, what are the prospects of this new growing equation? And third, should India be concerned?
Developments in Afghanistan are a key objective of Russia’s increased engagement with Pakistan. There exists tremendous uncertainty in the event of a post-2014 withdrawal of US and NATO troops. The fact that there will be a new government in Kabul coupled with Hamid Karzai’s political overtures to Taliban has raised the spectre of uncertainty ahead. Emergence of a power vacuum and a protracted civil war is a distinct possibility. There also exists serious apprehensions about the capabilities of Afghan armed forces in tackling crime while opium production and drug trafficking continues to go on unabated.3 Russia has been concerned of any turmoil spreading to its ‘near abroad’. More importantly, terrorism emanating from Pakistan and Afghanistan has the potential of inspiring radical Islamists and flaming violence in Russia’s own restive northern Caucasian territories. There is a growing realization that Pakistan holds one of the key levers of bringing stability to the region and it will thus be unwise to ignore it.4 With a new government in power in Islamabad, it becomes imperative to open new lines of communication. Therefore, Russia’s cautious yet steady engagement with Pakistan can be seen in the context of finding a common ground on issues which have ramifications for the whole Eurasian region.
So concerned is Russia about the evolving Afghan situation that President Putin has declared it to be a ‘matter of direct concern for our national security’.5 Russia’s Afghan policy had drawn President Karzai to visit Moscow in 2011, which was seen as a watershed event. The two countries have a technical-military agreement and Russia has continued to train and provide weapons to Afghan civilian, military and police specialists, apart from upgrading Soviet era infrastructure.6 It has also rendered an alternative supply route (Northern Distribution Network) to NATO forces while President Putin has time and again called for greater coordination between CSTO and NATO. He also signed on the law which will extend Russia’s military base in Tajikistan. This will see Russia’s 201st division continue with its deployment on the Tajik border with Afghanistan. Tajikistan shares an approximately 1,300 kilometre long border with the war ravaged country. Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en!
Some of the politicians appeared unaware the meeting with President Mohammed Morsi was being carried live on TV. Morsi did not directly react to the suggestions, but said in concluding remarks that Egypt respects Ethiopia and its people and will not engage in any aggressive acts against the East African nation.
Morsi called the meeting to review the impact of Ethiopia's $4.2 billion hydroelectric dam, which would be Africa's largest. Egypt in the past has threatened to go to war over its "historic rights" to Nile River water.
Morsi's office later said he had directed his foreign and irrigation ministers to maintain contact with the Ethiopian government to obtain more information on the dam and its likely impact on Egypt's share of the Nile water.
His office's statement included an ominous-sounding note, saying: "Egypt will never surrender its right to Nile water and all options (to safeguard it) are being considered."
Ethiopia last week started diverting the flow of the Nile to make way for its hydroelectric plant dubbed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. On completion, it is expected to produce 6,000 megawatts, and its reservoir is scheduled to start filling next year.
An independent panel of experts has concluded that the dam will not significantly affect downstream Sudan and Egypt, which are highly dependent on the water of the world's longest river, said an Ethiopian official, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the topic.
But in Cairo on Monday, Younis Makhyoun, leader of an ultraconservative Islamist party, said Egypt should back rebels in Ethiopia or, as a last resort, destroy the dam. He said Egypt made a "strategic error" when it did not object to the dam's construction.
Makhyoun said Ethiopia is "fragile" because of rebel movements inside the country. "We can communicate with them and use them as a bargaining chip against the Ethiopian government," he said.
"If all this fails, then there is no choice left for Egypt but to play the final card, which is using the intelligence service to destroy the dam," said Makhyoun, whose Nour party won about 25 percent of parliament's seats in elections in late 2011 and early 2012.
Another politician, liberal Ayman Nour, proposed spreading rumors about Egypt obtaining refueling aircraft to create the impression that it plans an airstrike to destroy the dam.
Abu al-Ila Madi, leader of the pro-Morsi Islamist Wasat party, suggested that a rumor that Egypt planned to destroy the dam could scare the Ethiopians into cooperating with Egypt on the project.
Magdy Hussein, another Islamist politician, warned that talk of military action against Ethiopia is "very dangerous" and will only turn Ethiopians into enemies. He suggested soft diplomacy in dealing with the crisis, including organizing a film festival in Ethiopia and dispatching researchers and translation missions.
Ethiopia's decision to construct the dam challenges a colonial-era agreement that had given Egypt and Sudan rights to the Nile water, with Egypt taking 55.5 billion cubic meters and Sudan 18.5 billion cubic meters of 84 billion cubic meters, with 10 billion lost to evaporation.
That agreement, first signed in 1929, took no account of the eight other nations along the 6,700-kilometer (4,160-mile) river and its basin, which have been agitating for a decade for a more equitable accord.
Ethiopian Minister of Water and Energy Alemayehu Tegenu has said Egypt should not worry about a diminished water share.
"We don't have any irrigation projects around the dam. The dam is solely intended for electricity production ... So there should not be any concerns about a diminished water flow," Alemayehu told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The conclusion of the 8th meeting of Russia-Pakistan Consultative Group on Strategic Stability, held in Islamabad in April 20131, marks the culmination of a series of high profile engagements between the two countries. In the last one and a half years alone, the two sides have witnessed a flurry of high profile bilateral visits that has included Russia’s Chief of Ground Forces, Chief of Air Force, Special Envoy to Afghanistan and the Foreign Minister visiting Islamabad. Similarly, from the Pakistani side, Air Force Chief Tahir Rafique Butt, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Chief of Army Gen. Kayani have all visited Moscow.
For Russia, which has a ‘privileged’ and ‘special’ relationship with India, the increased engagement does raise a few questions. First, what are the driving factors behind Russia current engagement strategy with Pakistan? Second, what are the prospects of this new growing equation? And third, should India be concerned?
Developments in Afghanistan are a key objective of Russia’s increased engagement with Pakistan. There exists tremendous uncertainty in the event of a post-2014 withdrawal of US and NATO troops. The fact that there will be a new government in Kabul coupled with Hamid Karzai’s political overtures to Taliban has raised the spectre of uncertainty ahead. Emergence of a power vacuum and a protracted civil war is a distinct possibility. There also exists serious apprehensions about the capabilities of Afghan armed forces in tackling crime while opium production and drug trafficking continues to go on unabated.3 Russia has been concerned of any turmoil spreading to its ‘near abroad’. More importantly, terrorism emanating from Pakistan and Afghanistan has the potential of inspiring radical Islamists and flaming violence in Russia’s own restive northern Caucasian territories. There is a growing realization that Pakistan holds one of the key levers of bringing stability to the region and it will thus be unwise to ignore it.4 With a new government in power in Islamabad, it becomes imperative to open new lines of communication. Therefore, Russia’s cautious yet steady engagement with Pakistan can be seen in the context of finding a common ground on issues which have ramifications for the whole Eurasian region.
So concerned is Russia about the evolving Afghan situation that President Putin has declared it to be a ‘matter of direct concern for our national security’.5 Russia’s Afghan policy had drawn President Karzai to visit Moscow in 2011, which was seen as a watershed event. The two countries have a technical-military agreement and Russia has continued to train and provide weapons to Afghan civilian, military and police specialists, apart from upgrading Soviet era infrastructure.6 It has also rendered an alternative supply route (Northern Distribution Network) to NATO forces while President Putin has time and again called for greater coordination between CSTO and NATO. He also signed on the law which will extend Russia’s military base in Tajikistan. This will see Russia’s 201st division continue with its deployment on the Tajik border with Afghanistan. Tajikistan shares an approximately 1,300 kilometre long border with the war ravaged country. Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en!
2011年5月18日星期三
Cum se rezolva cubul Rubik in doar cateva secunde
What for others is a real headache for them is just a matter of speed. Citynews.ro talked with the best speedcuberi Cluj, who manage to "solve" the Rubik's cube 10 to 14 seconds.
"I started speedcubing of pure chance. I found a video on YouTube where someone solved the cube in seven seconds, and I thought it was fake. Then I found the tutorials and I bought a cube and tried to solve myself. It seems to me a very nice thing as a hobby, I caught the bug, say so. Actually, you're in constant competition with you, you want to improve and pull stroke as good to beat your record, "Tudor told us Pogacean, class XII student of Lucian Blaga High School.
"Most people ask me to teach them, too"
He says he managed to solve Rubik's cube in just 20 seconds in approximately 4-5 months of training. Young's turn to spread the "bug" speedcubingului and his friends. "Some say I'm crazy, tell all your friends as, some say I have nothing to do, but most are asking me to teach them too," he told the boy.
He says he is just a myth that only very smart people can solve Rubik's cube. "Anyone can learn, you only need to do. There are all sorts of methods and algorithms that can be taught. It is a myth that only someone really smart can solve. Be aware that addictive, you can not leave, "Tudor said laughing.
I use professional cubes
Rubik's Cubes Cuberii professional use, which bows and can be rotated easily and do not stick. Such a 3x3 cube cost about 50-60 lei and can be purchased from specialty sites. Official record in a competition Tudor Pogacean is 23.78 seconds, the performance placing it first among cuberilor in Cluj-Napoca.
The fastest cuber in the county is but Andrei Pirvu, Dej, who has an official record of 15 seconds. It works in the MND, but do not let the passion for the Rubik's cube. It all started in the third year of the Academy, when he asked her to teach his sister loved to solve puzzles. Following some tutorials, Andrew managed to learn beginner's method in a few days after that and started looking for a professional cube.
"Exercising every day a few hours we reached an average of 16 to 17 seconds. Official record in the competition last year in Bucharest was 15 seconds, and informally, at home 10-11 seconds. It takes a lot of motivation, patience and passion. You lot of imagination and memory, not necessarily logical, "said Andrew.
"I started speedcubing of pure chance. I found a video on YouTube where someone solved the cube in seven seconds, and I thought it was fake. Then I found the tutorials and I bought a cube and tried to solve myself. It seems to me a very nice thing as a hobby, I caught the bug, say so. Actually, you're in constant competition with you, you want to improve and pull stroke as good to beat your record, "Tudor told us Pogacean, class XII student of Lucian Blaga High School.
"Most people ask me to teach them, too"
He says he managed to solve Rubik's cube in just 20 seconds in approximately 4-5 months of training. Young's turn to spread the "bug" speedcubingului and his friends. "Some say I'm crazy, tell all your friends as, some say I have nothing to do, but most are asking me to teach them too," he told the boy.
He says he is just a myth that only very smart people can solve Rubik's cube. "Anyone can learn, you only need to do. There are all sorts of methods and algorithms that can be taught. It is a myth that only someone really smart can solve. Be aware that addictive, you can not leave, "Tudor said laughing.
I use professional cubes
Rubik's Cubes Cuberii professional use, which bows and can be rotated easily and do not stick. Such a 3x3 cube cost about 50-60 lei and can be purchased from specialty sites. Official record in a competition Tudor Pogacean is 23.78 seconds, the performance placing it first among cuberilor in Cluj-Napoca.
The fastest cuber in the county is but Andrei Pirvu, Dej, who has an official record of 15 seconds. It works in the MND, but do not let the passion for the Rubik's cube. It all started in the third year of the Academy, when he asked her to teach his sister loved to solve puzzles. Following some tutorials, Andrew managed to learn beginner's method in a few days after that and started looking for a professional cube.
"Exercising every day a few hours we reached an average of 16 to 17 seconds. Official record in the competition last year in Bucharest was 15 seconds, and informally, at home 10-11 seconds. It takes a lot of motivation, patience and passion. You lot of imagination and memory, not necessarily logical, "said Andrew.
2011年5月2日星期一
Cubitek's Magic Cube revolutionises modular design
Gallery: Cubitek's latest case is a unique take on modular case design. It's three cases in one very interesting design...
It may be considered a truism that if you've seen one PC case, you've pretty seen them all. With few exceptions - ThermalTake's original Level10 comes to mind - case design is largely set in place.
Well, with Cubitek's new Magic Cube chassis, you can add another exception to this very short list.
The Magic Cube takes a leaf out of the Level10's playbook by thermally isolating HDDS, ODDS and motherboard & attendant parts. But rather than keep those thermal pockets attached to the one chassis, Cubitek's effectively built three small cases for each component. And we love it!
We've yet to do a full review, but on paper we love the idea. All the cases - a small one with room for two optical drives or one ODD and a floppy, a middle-sized one with room for eight hard drives, and two fans to cool them all, and a larger case for the mobo, with three fans - are not only well designed and made from sturdy aluminium, but also modular themselves. Most of the chassis construction is secured by screws, so it'll be easy to take each case apart for further modding.
We'll be doing a full review in an upcoming issue of the mag, but for now, check out our gallery of shots to learn about this unique new case.
It may be considered a truism that if you've seen one PC case, you've pretty seen them all. With few exceptions - ThermalTake's original Level10 comes to mind - case design is largely set in place.
Well, with Cubitek's new Magic Cube chassis, you can add another exception to this very short list.
The Magic Cube takes a leaf out of the Level10's playbook by thermally isolating HDDS, ODDS and motherboard & attendant parts. But rather than keep those thermal pockets attached to the one chassis, Cubitek's effectively built three small cases for each component. And we love it!
We've yet to do a full review, but on paper we love the idea. All the cases - a small one with room for two optical drives or one ODD and a floppy, a middle-sized one with room for eight hard drives, and two fans to cool them all, and a larger case for the mobo, with three fans - are not only well designed and made from sturdy aluminium, but also modular themselves. Most of the chassis construction is secured by screws, so it'll be easy to take each case apart for further modding.
We'll be doing a full review in an upcoming issue of the mag, but for now, check out our gallery of shots to learn about this unique new case.
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