Monday, October 11, 2010
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871)[2] was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer[3]. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991, a perfectly functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbage's original plans. Built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbage's machine would have worked. Nine years later, the Science Museum completed the printer Babbage had designed for the difference engine, an astonishingly complex device for the 19th century. Considered a "father of the computer",[4] Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.
Bansky Simpsons Intro
Banksy Show • Bristol City Museum • Film 2009
Banksy goes to New York
Who is Banksy?
Worth It?: Google's Gmail Calling
Worth It?: Google's Gmail Calling 10/8/2010 9:34:11 AM
WSJ's Courtney Banks tests Google's new addition to its Google Voice platform: Internet calling through Gmail, which offers free calls in the U.S. and Canada and cheap international rates. But outgoing calls can sound garbled, she reports.
Microsoft's Handset Hopes
digits: Microsoft's Handset Hopes 10/11/2010 1:24:19 PM
Microsoft unveiled a lineup of smartphones using its revamped Windows Phone 7 mobile-operating system, the software giant's boldest move to remain a player in the mobile business. Spencer Ante, Dan Gallagher and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries discuss.
Apple Readies Verizon iPhone
Walt Mossberg and Marcelo Prince discuss the possible benefits and drawbacks of having the iPhone on Verizon's wireless network, including whether it will suffer some of the same problems that have plagued AT&T. Plus, Verizon readies 4G service.
The iPhone is finally coming to the Verizon wireless network as Apple gears up to produce a CDMA version of its popular smartphone that will be available in the first quarter of next year. Marcelo Prince and Julia Angwin discuss.
Apple Readies Verizon iPhone
By YUKARI IWATANI KANE And TING-I TSAI
AT&T Inc. is about to lose its lock on the iPhone.
Apple Inc. is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year, according to people familiar with the matter, ending an exclusive deal with AT&T and sharpening the competition with Google Inc.-based phones.
Walt Mossberg and Marcelo Prince discuss the possible benefits and drawbacks of having the iPhone on Verizon's wireless network, including whether it will suffer some of the same problems that have plagued AT&T. Plus, Verizon readies 4G service.
While Apple is on track to sell 40 million iPhones across the globe this year, the touchscreen handset is facing pressure in the U.S. from phones running Google's Android software, which have been heavily promoted by Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. carrier by subscribers.
Apple plans to begin mass producing the new iPhone by the end of the year, and it would be released in the first quarter of 2011, these people said. The phone would resemble the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T, but would be based on an alternative wireless technology used by Verizon, these people said.
The new iPhone spells the end of the exclusive arrangement that AT&T has had since 2007, when Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone. Since then, the iPhone fueled much of the AT&T's growth.
Verizon Wireless has been meeting with Apple, adding capacity and testing its networks to prepare for the heavy data load by iPhone users, according to one person familiar with the matter. The carrier is seeking to avoid the kind of public-relations hit that AT&T took when the boom in data-hungry iPhones overtaxed its network, especially in New York and San Francisco.
The iPhone is finally coming to the Verizon wireless network as Apple gears up to produce a CDMA version of its popular smartphone that will be available in the first quarter of next year. Marcelo Prince and Julia Angwin discuss.
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The move would give consumers more choice in terms of networks and perhaps pricing. Verizon's network is untested in terms of whether it can withstand millions of iPhone users, but studies by Consumer Reports and others have concluded Verizon has a better network than AT&T. Verizon also still offers unlimited Internet data plans.
Apple is facing increasing pressure to find new avenues of growth in the U.S. market as most AT&T customers who wanted the iPhone have now bought them. Meanwhile, phones running Google's software—built by Motorola Inc., HTC Corp. and others—have surged this year.
Android smartphone subscribers in the U.S. reached 10.9 million as of August, from 866,000 a year earlier, according to comScore Inc., a market research firm. In comparison, there were 13.5 million iPhone subscribers at the end of August, up from 7.8 million last year, comScore says.
Separately, Apple is also developing a new iPhone model, said people briefed on the phone. One person familiar said the fifth-generation iPhone would be a different form factor than those that are currently available, said one person familiar with the new iPhone plan. It was unclear how soon that version would be available to Verizon or other carriers.
At a press conference Wednesday, Verizon Communications Inc. President Lowell McAdam declined to comment on whether his company would soon sell an iPhone. "At some point our business interests are going to align," he said, referring to Apple. "I fully expect it, but I don't have anything to say."
A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal in March reported on Apple's plans to build an iPhone that works on code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology used by carriers like Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp.
Toni Sacconaghi, a Sanford Bernstein analyst, estimates Verizon could add more than 10 million U.S. iPhone customers, adding it could help stem the rapid adoption of devices that run Android.
It was unclear whether Sprint Nextel and CDMA operators in countries such as South Korea, Japan and Latin America would get the CDMA iPhone as well.
Many Verizon customers have been clamoring for the iPhone for years. "This is the longest running tease in the history of consumer products," said Garret Bedrin, a 31-year-old Apple fan in Glen Rock, N.J., who plans to buy a Verizon iPhone as soon as it's available. "As loyal as I am to Apple, I won't leave Verizon," he said.
John Donovan, AT&T's chief technology officer, wouldn't comment on whether AT&T is losing exclusivity next year but said iPhone buyers would have reason to chose his network over Verizon's. AT&T's network lets users browse the Web while making calls, while Verizon's can't, he said.
"It's not like we sit around and don't prepare for the future," Mr. Donovan said in an interview Wednesday, noting AT&T also has compelling offerings in Android phones, as well as Research In Motion Ltd.'s new BlackBerry Torch.
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AT&T has been taking steps all year to answer concerns about a loss of exclusivity, adding new phones to its lineup. It has also said more than four-fifths of its contract subscribers are on family or business plans, which make switching to a new carrier more burdensome.
Apple's CDMA iPhone is being made by Pegatron Technology Corp., the contract manufacturing subsidiary of Taiwan's Asustek Computer Inc., said the people briefed on the matter. A spokesman for Pegatron declined to comment.
Apple originally decided against developing a phone for Verizon to focus on a version based on GSM, a more prevalent mobile technology used by AT&T and most mobile operators in the world, people familiar with the decisions have said.
Verizon, in those earlier discussions, balked at Apple's requirement that Verizon not allow its retail partners to sell the phone, people familiar with the discussion said at the time. Verizon also declined to give up its ability to sell content like music and videos through its proprietary service, these people said.
This time around, Apple considered a dual-mode phone that would let users roam on GSM-based networks, one of the people briefed said. But the company ultimately went with a device that would only work on a CDMA network. Qualcomm Inc. is providing a key chip set for the new iPhone, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for Qualcomm declined to comment.
—Roger Cheng and Spencer E. Ante contributed to this article.
Video about Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO
A short film about Moscow business-school SKOLKOVO
SKOLKOVO: Executive Education Programme for Oil and Gas Sector Executives in Russia (Russian)
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Center for Speech Technology Research
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Center for Speech Technology Research
The MMDAgent Speech Synthesis Kit for Real-time Conversation with a CGI Character.
The Nagoya Institute of Technology, Center for Speech Technology Research presented a demonstration introducing their prototype MMDAgent software and speech interaction system. Via the MMDAgent software, visitors to the booth were able to engage in real-time conversation with a CGI character displayed on the screen. The exhibit also featured demonstrations of dialogue with the virtual diva Hatsune Miku.
Freeware that brings together voice recognition and synthesis technologies MMDAgent software is based on four different technological elements - the HTS voice synthesis kit, a Julius voice-recognition engine developed and released by NIT's Center for Speech Technology Research, a 3D rendering module, and a dialog module. NIT also plans to release MMDAgent as freeware once it has passed the prototype stage. The speech interaction control section can be configured to suit a wide range of actions (conversations, motions, etc.) in respond to both internal and external stimuli such as speech input. What's more, as the descriptions for various dialogue scenarios are written in a script format, general users who do not have specialist knowledge can freely configure the software. OpenGL 3D rendering functions ensure high performance to enable imaging with abundant toon rendering (cel-shaded animation) and shadow mapping in addition to providing life-like expressions via the physical engine. Because all model data is in the open-source format, everything from the 3D character models and motions through to speech and dialogue scenarios can also be freely customized. Therefore, when this freeware released, it is sure to become a highly attractive tool for all creators from general users to specialized professionals.
Strong interest from the tourism industry and an important tool for establishing venture enterprisesApplying specialized research into speech technologies, NIT's Center for Speech Technology Research's reputable high-precision tools have been developed based on its vast amount of accumulated knowledge and expertise. In addition to generating significant interest internationally, NIT has received many inquiries from customer service businesses and the tourism industry throughout Japan and notably, its technologies are used in mobile device applications in China as well as in car navigation systems. The venture enterprise, "Techno Speech", was established within NIT to enable it to better delineate between its objectives as a research institution advancing technology and its involvement in corporate economic activities. This will enable these highly flexible development tools to be provided to a wider range of users and at the same time, allow NIT to focus on supporting the development of even higher precision software to meet the needs of society in general. Using a vertically mounted screen and microphone, NIT's demonstration at CEATEC Japan 2010 featured a life-sized character answering questions in real time with the virtual diva, Hatsune Miku, also making an appearance.
Booth number: 2B07
Meet NELL. See NELL Run, Teach NELL How To Run (Demo, TCTV)
A cluster of computers on Carnegie Mellon’s campus named NELL, or formally known as the Never-Ending Language Learning System, has attracted significant attention this week thanks to a NY Times article, “Aiming To Learn As We Do, A Machine Teaches Itself.”
Indeed, the eight-month old computer system attempts to “teach” itself by perpetually scanning slices of the web as it looks at thousands of sites simultaneously to find facts that fit into semantic buckets (like athletes, academic fields, emotions, companies) and finding details related to these nouns. The project, supported by federal grants, a $1 million check from Google, and a M45 supercomputer cluster donated by Yahoo, is trying break down the longstanding barrier between computers and semantics.
This is not the first time researchers have tried to tackle one of the great, elusive white whales of the programming world, but as the NY Times points out, the way NELL proactively creates and continues to expand its knowledge base is unique.
And yet despite all of NELL’s initiative and innovation, she needs help.
She is accurate 80-90% of the time, according to Professor Tom Mitchell, the head of the research team (see our demo with Mitchell above). For that 10-20% where NELL misses the mark the results can be somewhat comical— for example, according to NELL, AOL’s parent company is CarPhone and the Palm Treo is an Apple product. Mitchell and his small team are trying to clean up errors as they surface but with nearly 400,000 facts and counting, it’s a gargantuan task.
That’s where the online community comes in.
Currently, you can access NELL’s knowledge base, via the “Read The Web” project homepage. Here you can peer into NELL’s brain by searching for terms or download the entire database, if you so desire. The next step is turning readers into pseudo-editors. Starting sometime next month, Mitchell will open NELL ‘s database to anyone who wants to help edit and flag errors. “We’re soon going to be adding some buttons by these beliefs, as you browse, so if you see a mistake you’ll be able to click a button and say I don’t believe this… I think that will be very valuable to us,” Mitchell says. “
While this may remind you of Wikipedia’s model with its crowdsourced method of submission and editing, the NELL community will be tinkering with the content and more importantly, the engine. Every correction helps NELL “learn” about facts, relationships and the mechanics of language, which will help it avoid future mistakes. By unleashing the power of the internet on NELL, the system’s intelligence has a chance to grow exponentially, which will help the CMU researchers achieve one of their ultimate goals: to get computers to read, fully understand and return complete sentences.
To help with this process, Mitchell is also looking at alternative avenues to up NELL’s IQ, including gaming mechanics. He gave TechCrunch a first look at an upcoming game he plans to launch called “Polarity,” created by Edith Law, Burr Settles and Luis Von Ahn. In this game, a user will be randomly assigned to another user on the web. Each player will be given a keyword like “longtail salamander,” one user will have to click on the words that describe the keyword, while the other user will have to click on the words that do not describe the keyword. All these answers will feed into NELL’s engine and augment the system’s understanding of relationships.
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