Posted by admin on Oct 27, 2008 in
Gadgets,
Green,
technology I saw this article just now and thought I just had to share it. Sorry I lied just a little bit, there isn’t a green computer. But they are doing some pretty amazing things here and honestly does it even make sense that computers and components have to be made of plastic? I think quite a few things could be greened up so to speak if we just start thinking out of the box. Anyways this stuff is wacky…
(sorry you have to go to the site to see I dont steal pictures)
Computer Products Made of Wood for Sale in Japan
Stephen Kamizuru (Blog) – October 20, 2008 1:44 PM
For the person who has everything
From the category of “what were they thinking” Marubeni Infotec Corp. is marketing a computer mouse called the Play Mouse that is made of natural wood. This optical mouse was jointly developed with Yamaguchi Kogei, a Fukui Prefecture company specializing in wooden products.
Measuring 53 x 88 x 27mm, the mouse is available in two types of wood maple and walnut. The mouse has a smooth immaculately sanded finish and both mouse buttons are made of wood as well. It is being sold for 9,800 Yen ($96 USD) and is the ultimate melding of nature and technology.
If wood computer mice were not enough they are also selling wood flash drives in the shape of animals. The animals available are the dog, the hippopotamus, the elephant, the swan, and the pig. Available in two types of wood walnut and maple the flash drives have a capacity of 1 gigabyte and will connect to your PC using a USB cable. The USB drives are 90 x 18 x 60 mm in size and will cost 7,980 Yen ($78 USD).
When products such as these are announced it makes you wonder what the thought process was that went in to them. Who the target market is, who are they competing with, who would value a wooden hippo flash drive that can only hold a gigabyte and cost four times as much as competitor products? My guess is these products could be targeted to the extremely eco conscious, people with too much money, or the small segment of the planet who just want electronics made of wood.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.
Posted by admin on Oct 27, 2008 in
Gadgets
I have seen about a dozen articles in the past week that have done nothing to make me feel good about the election process being left in the hands of machines. Absolutely nothing has been done since the last election to ensure that these machines would be secure. On top of that many states and counties don’t even have a paper trail left behind so if there were discrepancies discovered nothing could or would be done about them. If that isn’t enough to scare you just wait, theres more.
Recent studies have shown that these machines can be manipulated in a variety of methods that not only leave the voter with no knowledge that something malicious was done, the data itself can be further manipulated. Basically this means that without someone physically counting each ballot there simply is no assurance that the data is even correct! Like I said before since many states do not require a paper trail it is impossible to know whether or not the data is correct or not.
Here is a recent article on the subject.
Well what can be done about it? Probably nothing for this election. The powers at be have decided we should not be privy to this information, as if whether or not the upcoming is fraudulent or not is insignificant! E-Voting is supposed to have “security, privacy, integrity, and accountability. Of course, our current e-Voting systems promise these things, but then hide the where-and-how inside an information black box.”
Well here are some ideas on what can be done:
E-voting Alternatives that are Actually Secure
Tom Corelis (Blog) – October 24, 2008 10:08 PM
Up-and-coming alternatives to fickle touch-screen voting systems, combining low- and high-tech
It’s been a while since I’ve written about e-voting here on DailyTech. Given that the 2008 presidential election is coming up – or is already in progress in some states – it certainly seems like a good time to sit down for a little refresher, doesn’t it?
Accusations of foul play are already flying. As expected, fallout from the U.S. government’s sordid love affair with these newfangled e-voting machines surfaced earlier this week, this time in the early-bird State of West Virginia: voters say the machines are switching their votes, and officials are both sadly and predictably discounting their claims.
There are other stories, of course, but I’m not here to talk about them.
Instead, let’s talk a little bit about the future: namely, the fact there are a number of very smart people officially on the job for proposing a better, more secure presidential election in 2012.
An article in The Economist points out three different proposals for how an e-Voting system might be carried out, each one very different from the others but simultaneously identical in its emphasis on the four things important in any good election: security, privacy, integrity, and accountability.
Of course, our current e-Voting systems promise these things, but then hide the where-and-how inside an information black box. The proposals I am about to describe are backed by vetted techniques in encryption and security science, and do not make use of exotic or closed-source technologies.
The first proposal, currently under development by UK University of Newcastle upon Tyne computer scientist Dr. Peter Ryan, involves a two-part ballot that is torn in half when the voter is finished: the half with the names is kept, and the half with the votes is handed in. The candidates’ names is written in a randomized order, and each possible order is represented equally among all the ballots distributed; the votes, on the other hand, are read with an optical scanner and include a barcode, or some other form of computer-readable identification, with information pointing to the ballot’s original order. This technique has the advantage in that the ballot cannot be read by humans beings who might be inclined to manipulate its results.
You can read the rest of the article here.
I am all for technology. I love every bit of it but the current system is troubling at best. There is no reason to not leave a paper trail and one can only infer from this that the reason for not leaving a trail is because when someone manipulates the data they don’t want to be caught! Why else?
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.
Tags: Voting
Posted by admin on Oct 27, 2008 in
Gadgets,
technology
I am sure most people dread the thought of having to clean their house. Not to mention the fact that homes are unnecessarily getting bigger and bigger. It certainly doesn’t take a “rocket scientist” to figure out that it will inevitably take longer to clean larger houses. What if you could hire a robot maid?
Check this thing out! SCARY!!
Robot Capable of Doing Chores Developed in Japan
Stephen Kamizuru (Blog) – October 27, 2008 10:19 AM
Will robots make humans more productive or lazier?
Toyota Motor Corp. and the University of Tokyo have jointly developed a prototype robot named “AR” capable of handling household chores according to The Mainichi Daily News. In a demonstration for reporters the robot was able to clean up rooms, put away dishes from a dining table and pickup shirts and put them in a washing machine. The robot was also capable of moving furniture in order to sweep under a table.
The robot is 155 cm tall, weighs 130 kg, and moves around on wheels. This particular robot’s strengths include the ability to distinguish different objects such as furniture and cleaning equipment. Past robots have traditionally had difficulty handling anything other than solid objects, but AR is able to recognize clothes by their creases and actually pick them up, repeating the action should it drop them.
The robot is also able to learn by analyzing past failures and alter its behavior patterns. The robot is equipped with two arms, five recognition cameras and laser sensors. AR’s movements are slow and often clumsy, but future improvements are planned according to University of Tokyo Professor Masayuki Inaba who said, “The task now is to improve its efficiency and endurance.”
According to Toyota and Tokyo University’s Information and Robot Technology Research Initiative, the robot was developed to help ease the future labor shortage looming due to Japan’s aging society and low birthrate. The developers said they will keep improving the robot and hope to start marketing it in around seven years.
Seriously this is just crazy. I cant imagine the amount of programming involved to tell a machine what a shirt is let alone how to pick up shirts and then wash them! It can set the table? Its hard to teach kids how to do that right!
It has long predicted that robots would live among us but I guess I never thought I would see it in my lifetime. Now it seems that it is almost a certainty.
If you would like to work with an agent who is leading the way call 715-894-1001 today or send me an email.
Tags: Robots
