RWW: The Future of Tech

"Silicon Valley is upbeat that in 2013, Washington will finally deliver a fix for its high-skilled immigration woes, shaking off its fatalism over failed attempts in the past." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"Smartphones using Google Android have outsold Apple's touchscreen behemoth this year in the Australian mobile market, according to a report. Google claimed 44 per cent of the market to Apple's 43 per cent, the new Telsyte Digital Consumer Study said." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

Hello Dona. I see that Xeeme is a nice place to put the links to all your sites in one place, but I just have one question. Why did you go pro? - Stephen Robinson

Welcome! Have a look around, and please feel free to jump in on conversations that appeal to you. FF is a highly synchronous medium. The more time you spend, the more you'll get out of it. - Mary B: #TeamMonique

"A new private company called Deep Space Industries announced today that it intends to send a fleet of small spacecraft to near-Earth asteroids with the aim of mining resources and turning them into products using space-based 3-D printers. Last year was thick with audacious private spaceflight company unveilings, including the announcement from Planetary Resources, Inc. of their plans to mine relatively valuable platinum group metals from asteroids...There exists potentially extremely valuable material on asteroids, including nickel, silicon, platinum group metals such as platinum and palladium, and water, which can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen to make rocket fuel. DSI intends to create a fleet of prospecting spacecraft called “FireFlies” (perhaps trying to rouse interest in their plans from Joss Whedon acolytes) that will travel to asteroids in Earth’s vicinity on journeys of two to six months." - Lit from Bookmarklet

Guess they would have to develop the technology to easily direct asteroid re-maneuvering and movement first ;) ...Glad you enjoyed the posted material. :) - Lit

"Swartz believed deeply that information — particularly that which might benefit society — should be made available for free to the public. In 2011, Swartz was indicted on federal data-theft charges for breaking into the MIT computer system and allegedly downloading 4.8 million documents from the subscription-based academic research database JSTOR. Swartz was facing up to 35 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. He pleaded not guilty. His trial was set to begin this April. .... Swartz, who studied at Stanford University for one year before dropping out, would later become a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, where he worked with Lawrence Lessig, the renowned law professor and activist. Over the years, Swartz worked with Lessig on several major projects, including Creative Commons and Rootstrikers." - Lit from Bookmarklet

"A passionate advocate for social justice, Swartz founded the group Demand Progress, which played a crucial role in persuading the U.S. Congress to back down from controversial antipiracy legislation last year. In a statement, Swartz’s family criticized the way the federal government has handled the JSTOR case. “Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy,” his family wrote. “It is... more... - Lit

#AaronSwartzChat http://friendfeed.com/search... - polymath22

"Amazon spent another year invading everyone's territory and pushing the limits of its business strategy. The e-commerce company continued to dabble in book publishing and Web site hosting and tried its hand at video-gaming development. Anything slightly related to its business -- Amazon jumped on it. That's not surprising given Amazon's history with identifying and mimicking both services and products to strengthen its bottom line. Here are the five biggest Amazon stories of 2012: 1. Go big on hardware or go home Amazon beefed up its hardware selection this year, releasing three new devices to add to its previous line of e-book readers and its tablet. The new devices, the Kindle Paperwhite, the Kindle Fire HD, and the updated Kindle Fire, are part of the company's strategy to make money off content. Amazon actually loses money on the sale of the devices, but that doesn't matter to the retail giant. It wants people to buy into its ecosystem of apps, books, movies, and music. The... more... - Lit from Bookmarklet

" 3. More sales tax drama Ah, the ongoing sales tax battle. This dates back years -- and continued to be an issue for Amazon in 2012. As part of Amazon's quest for faster, cheaper shipping, the company started building fulfillment centers in additional states, forcing sellers to start collecting sales tax in several states this year, including California, Texas, and Pennsylvania. These... more... - Lit

"Free books from NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope's science team and the European Space Agency bring Earth and the heavens to life — as long as you have an iPad, and the patience to wait for a longish download. Even if you have a regular old computer, you can still download the books about Hubble and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, as PDF files. But you'll miss out on all the interactive features. Those two books were unveiled today by the Baltimore-based Space Telescope Science Institute, which takes care of the science programming for the two NASA-funded telescopes. They're joining the ESA's first iBook, "Earth From Space: The Living Beauty," on my iPad bookshelf. The Hubble book guides you through scores of pictures from the world's most famous space telescope, organized into categories ranging from cosmology to planetary science. There's also a chapter on the telescope itself, with a 3-D model and a diagram you can tap on to learn about all the components. (Our... more... - Lit from Bookmarklet

"The 74-page e-book about the Webb telescope uses a similar approach to explain the science behind the $8.8 billion observatory, which is currently scheduled for launch in 2018. There aren't any pictures from the Webb, of course, but the book's interactives, videos and photo galleries explain how the telescope will observe the cosmic frontiers in infrared wavelengths. "These new e-books... more... - Lit

""By turning the virtual pages of this iBook you will discover how some of the latest technology has changed the way we see Earth," Volker Liebig, director of ESA's Earth observation programs, said in the space agency's publication announcement. "So, it was time to bring these ‘scientific voyages’ to you in a dynamic way. I believe that electronic media hold a huge potential, just like... more... - Lit

"Samsung and Apple ended 2011 in a neck-and-neck battle for leadership in the smartphone market, with only 1 percentage point of market share separating them. However, entering the 2012 year, Samsung moved ahead decisively ahead of Apple with a wide range of Android smartphone offerings. Samsung made significant gains in both the high end as well as the low-cost market with its Galaxy line of smartphones." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"An Apple v. Samsung court filing on Wednesday reveals that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office invalidated Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" patent, a property key to the trial as its claims were the basis of some of the $1.05 billion in damages won by the Cupertino company." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"Facebook's photo-sharing service Instagram has moved to deny that it has changed its privacy policy to give it the right to sell users' photos to advertisers without notification. It said instead that users had incorrectly interpreted its revised terms of serviced, which it blamed on its "confusing" choice of language. Instagram's clarification follows much user opposition to the believed change. "To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos," it said. Instagram chief executive Kevin Systrom said in a blog posting: "It is our mistake that this language is confusing. "We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear." Compulsory changes to Instagram's terms of service are due to come into effect on 16 January, The originally proposed new wording that caused the controversy included: "You hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the content that you post on or... more... - Lit from Bookmarklet

Since Facebook doesn't charge users anything, the users are the product. - Morton Fox

"I certainly do think this is Microsoft’s time – and the more people I talk with, the more root for a company that has made strides in products that you want to own and use because they make life simple." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

I did also, a much better computer-tablet, meant to get some work accomplished. - scottnewell

"Inaccurate, inconvenient, ill-conceived ... now add "potentially life-threatening" to the list of words being used to describe flaws in Apple's much maligned maps app." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"For the second time in less than two months, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a first Office action tentatively declaring a key Apple multitouch patent invalid" - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"This whole notion of Steve Jobs launching his "thermonuclear war" on Android is a farce. A sham. A joke. It has been from the start." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"Businesses with 10 or fewer employees will now be charged $50 per year for the use of Google's suite of Web-based tools." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"It was discovered on Thursday that famed hacker and former Microsoft employee Kristin Paget is now working for Apple as a core operating system security researcher, suggesting the Cupertino company is beefing up OS X safeguards amid recent Mac-directed malware attacks." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"Black Friday is the biggest retail event of the year, and it gets shoppers into stores and on the web, with credit cards out and ready. But this year, laptop makers didn’t see any growth over last year’s Black Friday sales. This included Apple, which has a brand new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro just released in October, and a lineup of new MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs released this summer to offer shoppers. Sales of MacBooks were even with Black Friday 2011 sales, according to a report published Tuesday by the NPD Group." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"MetroStore Scanner is a third party website that makes available the full store on the Internet. It lists all apps available, which at the time of writing is more than 25500 apps. What’s interesting in this regard is that you get access to all apps released worldwide or only to select regions of the world. A country filter is available should you want to browse only apps available in a specific country." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"Chip giant plans to make Ivy Bridge more power efficient than the versions that are currently used in the MacBook Air and Windows 8 ultrabooks." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"In addition to our latest release for Android, Skitch for Windows 8 received some new features that make it an even more powerful app for tablet users. The new Skitch for Windows 8 lets you work on the move and quickly capture the world around you. Let’s walk through some of the new features." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet

"The newest update to Skitch for Android includes options to customize the way you annotate your Skitch images and how you organize them, as well as features to make annotations easier. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights." - LANjackal from Bookmarklet