Internet Speed

Privacy Issues in Social Media

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:43:57 +0000

When social networks were in their infancy, people were slow to jump aboard for fear that their privacy and personal data could be compromised. Gradually, as everyone began to sprout profiles on Facebook, they discovered that there was not much to fear really, as long as you watched what you said and to whom and avoided inappropriate posts and pictures. Nothing very hard about that after all. Then came the “privacy is an illusion” years, when having a bit of relative privacy wasn’t enough — we should also willingly abandon it, because it wasn’t real to begin with. Was this the first sign of what we are seeing now from companies like Google and Facebook?

In this telling infographic, you’ll see several sort points for privacy advocates in the battle to keep the information people post as protected as possible. However, could this effect our web browsing? Will we still benefit from sites like www.hotsauceplanet.com if they clamp down on privacy? I guess time will tell! Warning: scary stuff ahead.

Social Media Brain

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:28:17 +0000

Social media and networking could be ruining your mind, according to statistics laid out in a new infographic by Assisted Living Today. The main concern put forth is that people’s nearly constant use of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ has literally changed the way the receptors in the brain work, and has possibly affected the ability of our neurotransmitters to make the kinds of connections they have traditionally made; on the other hand, new neurotransmitting patterns are replacing the old ones. Is this evolution, or something to be battled with?

Personally, I do not feel threatened, or even worried, about the shortening of the human attention span. I also believe there are plenty of factors well beyond social media use that contribute to its widespread occurrence. I think it is a natural extension of our minds, to be able to take in, process, and respond to so much more information more quickly than ever before. Check out the infographic and let us know what you think.

SOPA: Trouble In the Making

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:51:15 +0000

Unless you’ve been living under an Internet-free rock for the past month, you already know all about the growing opposition among Internet users to HR 3261, the official name of the Stop Online Piracy Act (or, SOPA). The first half of this legislation speaks to infringing websites overseas, and would make unauthorized streaming a felony crime. It would revoke the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, making major players in the social web such as YouTube, Tumblr and Facebook, all which host user content, ultimately responsible for being sure that their users do not post infringing material.

What do you think of all this? Let us hear from you! In the meantime, check out the infographic below to help you understand this legislation.

Google Updates Algorithm

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:28:23 +0000

Yesterday, Google updated its search algorithm again in a first major follow-up to the Panda/Farmer update from early this year. As Netizens increasingly use Twitter and Facebook as sources of breaking news, the new update is designed to give searchers more current results on trending topics. Google reports that around 35 percent of searches will change because of this update. Google is attempting to deliver the most recent information that is also the most relevant to the search terms, so results should now include pages that have been updated as recently as a few minutes ago.

Amit Singhal said on the Google search blog that “Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today’s world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute, and depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old.”

The goal of these new changes is mostly to help searchers find what they are actually searching for instead of just references to the exact words they have typed in. “For recent events or hot topics that begin trending on the web, you want to find the latest information immediately. Now when you search for current events, you’ll see more high-quality pages that might only be minutes old,” Singhal added.

Preference in top search results for reviews will be given to the latest information, and will hopefully provide users with what they most want to know in a more timely manner, with less filtering and sifting through results that are often out of date.

The effect this will have on the projected 35% of searches is yet to be seen. It could be a matter of days before web site owners feel the full impact of the changes, but many blogs and websites that have typically resided well below the radar might potentially enjoy more exposure.

Tech for Students

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:02:25 +0000

Where does education go when students spend more time taking notes on laptop than they do taking them in a notebook? We go digital of course. I had an Anatomy professor that recorded every lecture and test review and made it available to anyone that had an mp3 player so that they could review the material whether they wanted another listen or if they had missed the class. While the course was very difficult and memory taxing those audio reviews were the only thing that got many of us through it. Now I’m hearing that universities are going a step further and giving students an iPod loaded with the course lectures at the beginning of the year so that they can get up to speed and succeed easier.

So what happens when taking notes out of a text book is no longer and instead the students copy and paste the pertinent information that they need to study out of their rented digital textbook on the tablet pc or laptop? Our students of the future have information on tap from reliable sources on the internet and teachers are starting to realize that.

STEM: Our Future Demands It

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:19:22 +0000

This infographic is very interesting, and poses an interesting question: What is the US doing to stay competitive in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics?

I thought back on my education and realized that very little of it was spent actually enjoying those subjects. I can’t recall if it was a lack of good teachers, or the fact that I immensely enjoyed reading and writing so much that I just didn’t care for math or science. Either way, it’s a very well known fact that the US lags behind in math and science, and it’s affecting our ability to compete in a global economy. How can Americans complain about the job market, when we’re not setting ourselves up personally to take advantage of in-demand jobs?

I hope the demand for science and tech applicants increases awareness and more students begin to study math and science in college. It would be nice to see the US have the ability to compete in the world market again, and possibly spark some growth in the economy.

Sushi Gives Clues About iPhone5

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:14:57 +0000

The internet is swirling with rumors about what the iPhone 5 is going to be like. Will it be thinner? Better battery? Better camera? It’s hard to say, but one thing is for sure: there is no shortage of rumors…and people are looking EVERYWHERE for truth…even in a picture of sushi. Anton D’Auria, an Apple engineer, snapped a lunch time photo of his sushi…what happened next is amazing. People began to analyze the picture down to it’s megapixels…and they have concluded that there is a small possibility that D’Auria snapped the picture with the iPhone5. I wish my lunch time sushi sparked a viral news story…

Mashable - Evidence is mounting that a photo of a plate of sushi — of all things — may have been taken by Apple’s next-generation iPhone.

The photo would be one of the first iPhone 5 photos to reach the public as the device’s launch approaches.

The photo, titled “lunch” and discovered by PocketNow, was found on the Flickr account of Apple software engineer Anton D’Auria. While the photo looks like a simple plate of sushi, its EXIF data reveals that there is more to this photo than meets the eye.

The EXIF data says the photo was taken with an iPhone 4, but several things don’t fit with what we know about that version of the iPhone. First, the original picture was taken with a 3264×2448 pixel resolution (approximately 8 megapixels) and cropped to 2235×2291 (approximately 5 megapixels). The iPhone 4 is a 5 megapixel device, so it wouldn’t be capable of taking a 3264×2448 photo.

The second piece of evidence is that the photo was taken with a 4.3mm f/2.4 lens. The iPhone 4 has a 3.85mm f/2.8 lens.

The photo was also likely taken at Apple HQ. Its GPS data pinpoints the photo’s origin to 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, CA — which, as every geek knows, happens to be the address of Apple headquarters.

D’Auria’s Flickr account has since been made private, but the image is already widely available online. While it’s possible the image is a fake (EXIF data can be altered rather easily), we doubt an Apple engineer would make so many EXIF changes to an iPhone 4 picture. If the photo is indeed from an iPhone 5, expect an 8MP camera with the quality of a point-and-shoot on iPhones in the next month or so.