France proposes an internet tax on American companies collecting personal data.
France is seeking new ways to raise funds. Because of frustration with American technology companies that dominate its digital economy which are largely beyond the reach of fiscal authorities, France has proposed a new levy. They are proposing an internet tax on the collection of personal data.
Continue reading… “France proposes to tax the internet”
Smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung have been focusing their efforts on the U.S. and more on China, but there are a few more countries that will soon demand their attention.
Continue reading… “Brazil, India, and Russia are the next smartphone battlegrounds”
Body-powered devices eliminate the toxic waste generated by the heavy metals used in the billions of batteries we currently use each year.
A startup in Corvallis, Oregon, has developed a small chip that can turn body heat into electric energy. The chip absorbs heat directly from the skin and then channels energy through a thermoelectric generator that converts it into electric power. In the future, the chip will enable us to power and recharge our handheld and wearable electronic devices with our own bodies.
Continue reading… “A chip that can turn body heat into electric energy”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4EeWdogyec[/youtube]
Millions of tons of waste from factories, building sites, and processing facilities are being turned into something besides landfill with a technology that has led researchers to fabricate bricks out of TVs, computers, paper waste, incinerator ash, rubble and other materials that were conventionally considered useless.
Continue reading… “New bricks fabricated out of junk we aren’t using”
Quantum physicists are still very divided on how quantum mechanics is to be interpreted.
Quantum mechanics is real. We wouldn’t have superconductors, lasers, and many forms of computing and cryptography without its microscopically small probabilistic effects. But despite our laboratory certainty, what’s less clear is the role it plays in the fundamental nature of reality. And as a recent survey published by Anton Zeilinger at the University of Vienna has revealed, quantum physicists are still very divided on how it’s to be interpreted.
Continue reading… “Quantum physicists agree to disagree about the nature of reality”
Free technologies libraries should be using.
There are a lot of free applications and software you can use in your daily life. Here is a list of some of the major free technologies that everyone could be using in their own libraries.
Continue reading… “Top 7 free technologies libraries should be using”
David Heinemeier Hansson – Creator of Ruby on Rails
David Heinemeier Hansson: I’d be happy if 37signals is the last place I work. In an industry so focused on the booms and busts, I find myself a kindred spirit with the firms of old. Places where people happily reported to work for 40 years, picking up a snazzy gold watch at the end as a token of life-long loyalty.
Continue reading… “David Heinemeier Hansson’s thoughts on “Your life’s work””
Lego Mindstorms EV3
Lego Mindstorms EV3 is Lego’s first major update of the Mindstorms line since 2006. Mindstorms are Lego’s programmable robotic parts–a brain, motors, and sensors–that interface with their Technic line. And since social networks, smartphones and apps all rule today it’s only natural that each of these ideas worked themselves into the Lego Mindstorm EV3.
Continue reading… “Lego’s Mindstorms EV3 – a robot kit that is iPhone-controlled”
Nexi the Robot
“In spite of the hardness and ruthlessness I thought I saw in his face, I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word, ” Neville Chamberlain. His first impression of Adolf Hitler can be described as an error in judgment.
Continue reading… “Researchers use a robot to uncover hidden signals of trust”
CubeX 3D printer
3D printers are under constant pressure to become bigger, faster, and more powerful. 3D Systems is answering that call with its latest pair of 3D printers.
Continue reading… “3D Systems’ CubeX 3D printer creates massive objects in three colors”
“Paid apps work because they provide the great experience people deserve as customers.”
Time is money, and apps don’t last forever. All the weeks you spent on your apps and you’re never going get back all those hours you spent on them. And all of the free apps are dangerous, yet free is the dominant business model most mobile apps are taking these days. The idea is to grow as quickly as possible then insert ads of some kind or get acquired. For consumers it offers a crummy set of choices: either losing the countless hours you put into the app or have your private data sold to marketers — since as well all know, when the product is free, you are the product.
Continue reading… “The hidden costs of the ‘free’ app ecosystem”
An internet cafe in Tehran.
Iran has an intense relationship with the internet. The country has made many attempts to curtail its citizens’ use of social media. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in May, issued a fatwa against anti-filtering tools that have helped citizens to access blocked material on the Internet. In December, they launched Mehr, its own version of YouTube, which allows users to upload and view content they create, and to watch videos from IRIB, Iran’s national broadcaster. They have also been building a national intranet – a government-run network that would operate “largely isolated” from the rest of the World Wide Web. Reporters Without Borders named Iran to its 2012 “Enemies of the Internet” list with Iran’s intensified online crackdowns, increased digital surveillance of citizens, and the imprisonment of web activists.
Continue reading… “Iran’s ‘smart’ approach to censorship of the internet”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.