Category: Network Lifestyle And Activities

Article

Fujitsu tech takes your pulse with your camera phone – popular science, mobile applications, mobile, Fujitsu – PC World Australia

My Comments

The platform smartphone or tablet is starting to play an increasingly important role on personal health and wellbeing without the need to be dependent on extra peripherals. It is becoming increasingly relevant for these devices so you can keep an electronic record of observations or easily send the data to a doctor or clinic via email or cloud data service. This would lead to these devices becoming part of various home-based healthcare setups like management of chronic illnesses or catering to the idea of “ageing at home” where older people can stay at home independently or under the care of their relatives, friends or paid carers.

Previously I reported on the use of a smartphone camera and app that implements machine vision for “reading” certain urinalysis sticks, avoiding the need to check against confusing charts. I even put forward the idea of using similar “fluid-analysis” sticks and a smartphone app to check other liquids like drinks for “spiking” or “loading” or to check the pH level in a swimming pool.

Now Fujitsu has developed software code that makes a small digital camera like that installed in a smartphone or tablet as machine vision for taking someone’s pulse.This may be seen to displace the medical skill where you “pinch” the patient’s wrist near their hand and count the beats that you feel for a minute measured by a stopwatch or watch with second hand.

This concept works on the fact that the brightness of one’s face changes slightly as their heart beats and uses the presence of green light to look for haemoglobin which is part of the red (just oxygenated) blood cells. The procedure requires 5 seconds versus a minute with the orthodox method and the software can assess when patient is still for improved accuracy.

Fujitsu hopes to commercialise the technology in 12 months but there are questions on whether they will implement it in their own equipment or license it to other developers. For it to be popular, they would have to license the algorithms to other software developers to integrate in to their projects and / or release a finished software product to the platform app stores for people to use on their devices.

They also see this technology as facilitating unobtrusive measurement of one’s pulse using the camera on a PC, smartphone, smart TV, or tablet this being part of long-term observational-healthcare situations like chronic illness management.

What I see of this is the ability to use the cost-effective and ubiquitous hardware i.e. the multi-functional smartphone, tablet or Ultrabook to work as part of remote health care and allied applications with minimum need to use extra peripherals.

Article – French language

Flashez votre barquette de bœuf et retrouvez son origine

My Comments

The recent meat-substitution scandal in Europe where a significant quantity of processed beef and beef-based “heat-and-eat” products sold in that area were filled out with horsemeat has put the meat industry, especially the beef industry, on edge.

But how is the meat industry going to restore consumer confidence in the beef that they are going to purchase especially from the supermarket?

A group of organisations in France have put their heads together to provide a way of checking the provenance of that tray of beef. This involved a group of beef farmers in the Pyrenees, the Vignasse et Donney software developers and the Auchan supermarket chain. With this project, there would be a database that has information on the provenance of the retail packages of meat available for sale. As well, each tray of that meat has a QR code that represents the link to the database about the meat. This would be read by a platform smartphone that runs the “Boeuf Blond D’’Aquitaine” app that shows up information about the meat package whose QR code is scanned.

It could work in restoring the necessary consumer confidence in the meat but this concerns more the sausages, the “cut-up” beef like minced (ground) beef or stir-fry strips as well as the ready-meal products like bolognese, lasagne and moussaka. Here, a lot of this class of food is prepared by third parties and it could be feasible to “balloon” the beef product with pork, oodles of fat or offal or, at worst, horse. This is more so with cheaper versions of these products; and this scandal was primarily anchored around the mislabelling of the product at various points of the preparation process.

I would see the QR-code labelling program and the provenance database being more effective with the sausages and “cut-up” beef which was prepared through the known chain of production established by the partners such as “on-demand on-site” preparation of these cuts by Auchan for example. Similarly, the DNA could be worked out for the meat and meat products and represented in to a smartphone-readable label that can be used by customers to determine the origin of the meat they are to purchase.

Most computer and video games are written in USA or Japan, mainly through larger studios like EA, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and others.

This is typically because of the common platforms such as the main console platforms where the barriers of entry to the platform are very significant. The regular-computer (PC / Mac) and mobile platforms aren’t as exacting as the main console platforms and are in a better position to nurture more games developers. This is although Microsoft was running the XNA game-development program for their XBox 360 console which opened up game development for this platform.

The regular-computer and mobile platforms are opening up the “indie” game-development community which is independent of the main US and Japanese studios. A key example of this is Rovio, a Dutch games studio who built up the successful “Angry Birds” game franchise for the mobile platforms.

Europe has had a chance at the development of computer games through the 1980s while computing platforms like the Commodore Amiga which had an open-access software development environment existed. Similarly, when the Philips CD-I format gained a bit of a foothold in the European market in the mid 1990s, a few European games studios developed games like Burn Cycle for that format. But these were systems that had some level of popularity primarily in Europe.

Typically most of these efforts see their results achieve some sort of “domestic” popularity where the game is popular in its home market. But Rovio, a Finnish independent games studio, had cut through this barrier by releasing the popular “Angry Birds” game franchise, initially to the iOS and Android mobile platforms. But this was so popular worldwide that they ported it out to other non-mobile platforms like the PlayStation Portable and the two main regular-computing platforms, Windows and MacOS X.

The Android-driven OUYA games console is in a position to allow the independent games studios to write for the large-screen console market because it has access to the Google Play app store and the Android knowhow. This could open up paths for games studios in the under-represented areas like Europe and Oceania to cut in to the gaming mainstream. Similarly, there were a few other games consoles such as the “Steam Box” being premiered at the Consumer Electronics Show early this year. These console platforms, along with the Android and iOS mobile platforms, could light up the independent gaming scene and encourage the development of games titles in these areas.

As well, governments and local industry associations could establish incubation programs for the computer and video games industry in these areas. This could come in the form of, per se, a culture ministry treating gaming / interactive-entertainment development in a similar manner to other arts and culture endowment programs. On the other hand, an entertainment-content district like India’s “Bollywood” extending their brand and concept to interactive entertainment like what has happened with Hollywood.

Once you have other countries and areas having interactive-entertainment studios and engaged in computer and video games, it can allow a lot more to occur. For example, games can be reflective of different cultures rather than a Hollywood-led “aggressive” culture. Similarly, a game that is set in the modern era like some adventure and strategy games can be set up to reflect a locale other than the suburbia of USA.

Article

Maingear introduces first boutique gaming all-in-one PC | Reviews – Desktops – CNET Reviews

My Comments

Previously, a computer that had serious gaming credibility, commonly described as a “gaming rig”, was a full-size tower-style PC that was decked out with “hotted-up” processors, highly-strung graphics-card circuitry and other components. These setups needed intense cooling and, in some applications, used elaborate cooling systems as part of some wild case designs. They were typically connected to large displays and gaming-optimised input devices as well as intense surround-sound systems.

Now Maingear have redefined how a gaming computer should be designed by releasing the Alpha 24 Super. This is an “all-in-one” computer that is able to take a full-size PCI Express graphics card and use it to drive the main screen. It has a similar kind of expandability as the HP Z1 all-in-one workstation which, although pitched as a CAD or graphics-arts workstation, can be built out as an intense gaming rig.

It can support a 256Gb mSATA SSD and 3Tb regular hard disk as its main secondary storage as well as having 2 miniPCI Express slots for further function expandability. Maingear are offering it with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX-650 or the GTX-680 which have Optimus automatically-selectable graphics “overdrive”. This means that it can save on energy costs and cooling needs when undertaking regular Web browsing or office work. As for the display, this unit supports a 24” HD touchscreen for Windows 8 and has an HDMI input so it can work as a display for video peripherals.  North-American users can have this computer equipped with a CableCard-compliant TV tuner for use as the “all-in-one” bach-pad entertainment setup when it comes to regular computing use, games, TV, DVD or online video.

What I am impressed about this computer is that it is another “all-in-one” that allows you to upgrade / expand / repair it yourself, this allowing the computer to have a very long useful life. I would also reckon that it could be considered as a “poor man’s” alternative to the HP Z1 Workstation.

Articles

Twitter, Facebook must be more diligent | Technology | BigPond News

Expert says Dawson broke the first rule of social media: don’t feed the trolls | Sydney Morning Herald

My Comments

The Charlotte Dawson saga that has been over the Australian news media over the last week has become a wake-up call regarding the nature of the Social Web and the Internet in general when it comes to the ability to leave unverified irrational comments against people or organisations.

This is where social networks, bulletin boards, forums and similar services are used as a platform to launch an attack against a person. Here, it can manifest in ways such as a caustic remark left on a Facebook profile or a forum; through a barrage of tweets or instant messages of abuse fired at a person or, at worst, a Facebook Page, YouTube video or something similar can be set up to pillory that person.

Even before the Social Web became mainstream, there was the issue of free Web hosts and the “export to HTML” function in recent word processors and affordable desktop-publishing software being used to quickly set up defamatory Web sites against people. This situation was then underscored by the use of cost-effective camera-equipped mobile phones to create distasteful videos to appear on these sites or to send across to others via email or MMS.

Some press articles raised the issue of how easier it has become to leave improper comments on the Social Web, Web-hosted forums and the like without being traced back easily. This is even though most of these services have mechanisms for the Webmaster or others in charge to control scurrilous behaviour, including a reporting mechanism for others who are aggrieved by the behaviour to let those in charge know. As well, these mechanisms are underscored by the terms and conditions that users have to assent to when they become a member of these services.

Even before the rise of the Internet, there was common advice that was offered regarding nuisance phone calls and similar behaviour involving communications services/ For example, one was advised to simply to hang up on a nuisance call and, if the activity persisted, to report the matter to the telecommunications company and the police.

This was also underscored by most countries having laws in place that proscribes the use of a “common carriage service” to harrass, menace or threaten others. The reference to the “common carriage service” is a legal term used to describe telephone, post or similar services used by everyone as a communications tool.

What can you do

What most of us have to be aware of is not to satisfy the cyber-bully’s wants by leaving responses to the caustic remarks or passing on the comments in the common space that the platform offers.

If the behaviour persists, we have to know how to “block” or “unfriend” the troublemakers in the case of social media. There is the ability to report the matter to the social-media platform’s “report this” option where it draws the behaviour to the attention of the platform’s administrators.

In the case of forums, blogs or wikis, you should contact the site owner or administrator through the contact options that exist on the site. There will usually be a “Contact Us” link somewhere on the forum, usually on the login screen.

The only situation that can be difficult is a Website that is hastily built up to pillory another person. It may be difficult to track down the owner of the domain name if the domain name isn’t an obvious hosting domain like wordpress.com associated with a particular Web host. Here, you may have to do “whois” searches oh the domain and locate the entity owning the domain. In the case of a subdomain of a hosting domain, you may have to go the the “www” site of that hosting domain to track down who is operating the site.

Aggrieved people should also be aware of local support services especially where there is a risk of depression being brought on by this activity. Some of these services focus particularly on the cyber-bullying menace and provide online or telephone-based advice.  Of course, your friends or family whom you trust can help out with these situations.

Introduction

Some of you may have dabbled in Facebook or other social networks but then find that you are “sick and tired” of operating them. Then what you end up doing is ceasing to log in to your account. Your friends or followers hear nothing from you and you don’t follow up on activity from the people who are or could be in the social network.

You may even tie your account to an email account that you subsequently cease to use like one associated with your previous ISP or employer; or a Webmail account that you have forgotten about.

These accounts end up with a “pile-up” of friend requests and other people using the social network end up thinking you’re not there. The potential friends may even be considered “spammy” by the social network as they end up with many pending friend requests.

But some of you may want to keep the account alive for such efforts as “keeping in the loop” while travelling or keeping in contact with distant family and friends.

There are some people who may think that it is an act of sacrilege to engage with Facebook, MySpace or Twitter when they have broken off from the network as a statement of their beliefs or actions. The people who I am targeting this post at are the ones who simply abandon these accounts after a fair bit of seasonal activity.

Leave an off-the-air post

When you think that you will be going “off the air” with the social network, write up a public post that says that you will be scaling back your presence on the social network. This lets everyone know that you are OK but won’t be appearing as regularly as you would have done.

Set up notifications

A good practice is to make use of the notification function that the social network has. Here, you could set up your social network’s notification function to send you a summary email post of notifications concerning your account;s activity.

In this arrangement, you should know if someone sends you a direct message, adds you as a friend or follower or confirms a friend request that you instigated. If the social network supports a suggestion framework, you could be notified if someone suggests a member or page for you to link up with on the platform.

Similarly, you can set the email notification to notify you of friends’ birthdays and if your posts or photos have been tagged or someone has tagged you in a post or photo.

When you set the email address, set it to the current email inbox that you are using on a regular basis and keep these email addresses registered with the social network up to date.

Regular “drop in” to your social network

Once a month to once every two / three months, log in and post something or leave a comment on a post or photo so people know you’re “there”.

If you have something for sale, login to Facebook or your other social networks and post a public post with a picture of the item for sale and / or a link to the eBay or “online mart” page you are using to advertising it so your Facebook Friends and others on the network can know it’s for sale.

Here, you don’t forget the login parameters for your account and know that it still exists. This can come in handy if you do want to operate you account frequently like as part of a special trip or event.

It is also worth knowing that some social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ can work as an anchor to a “single-sign-on” mechanism. Here, people can use the credentials associated with these social networks to enrol with and log in to forums, blogs and similar services. If you do have an opportunity to do so, use one of these social-networks that you are enrolled in as credentials for a forum that you are joining in.

Conclusion

Keeping regular tabs on a social network that you had participated in frequently before is a way of knowing that you still exist on it and that people don’t think you have fallen off the earth if you have deserted it.

Articles

Microsoft goes cold on Hotmail as it rolls out Outlook.com | The Australian

Outlook.com preview: Microsoft reinvents its online email offerings | Engadget

Microsoft previews Hotmail successor, Outlook.com |CNet

Video

http://www.viddler.com//v/8848680/

Home Page

Outlook.com

My Comments

Microsoft has launched a brand-new consumer webmail service called Outlook.com which is built from ground zero but to be an improved experience compared to the typical Hotmail or Live Webmail user experiences.

It is intended to answer Google’s Gmail.com by providing that same clean user experience rather than the cheesy look that Hotmail and Yahoo Mail were known for. This was where there were plenty of gaudy targeted ads including TV-commercial “video ads”. Instead, there will be less space devoted to ads and there wont be those TV commercials. Similarly the user interface will also have a “Metro” look similar to the Windows 8 touch-screen user interface.

New users would be assigned an email address with the Outlook.com domain rather than the Hotmail.com which is, in some areas, is treated with disgust. As well, they would get a virtually-unlimited Inbox and 7Gb SkyDrive storage,

Existing Hotmail and Live users can upgrade to the new user interface but would have to preserve their current email address, not just for continuity’s sake but so that other Microsoft Live ecosystem services that they are part of still work. This is because these haven’t been migrated to the new domain name. Of course, there will be a question raised about whether Microsoft will cease the Hotmail service or run it side-by-side with the option to use the new user experience or fully merge to an Outlook.com account.

One key drawcard with the new Outlook.com service is its Social Web integration where you can work Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Gmail contacts from this service. You also have “one-click” access to these services so you can post or share material to these social networks. There is work in progress with integrating Skype in to the service so you can start a Skype videocall from your Outlook.com session.

One improvement I see of this is an attempt to work over an “old-dog” Webmail service in a manner to make it fresh to today’s expectations and throw away the cheesy look of yesteryear.