Google + Usage Skyrockets

Google opened G+ to the public–no invitation required anymore–and visit skyrocketed 1300%. That’s around 15 million US visits according to Experion.

Is FB listening yet?

G+ or FB–Weigh in

Here are the results of a poll Mashable is running comparing readers thoughts about the major Social Networks–FB, G+, Twitter. I voted so I could see the results. Here they are:

Did You Know: How Big Twitter is

The numbers

• There are 175 million registered users on Twitter (source: Twitter)

• There are about 95 million tweets every day (source: Twitter)

• Around 42% of users check Twitter to find out about products (source: Edison Research/Arbitron: Twitter usage in America)

• About the same number tweet about brands they follow (source: Edison Research/Arbitron)

• 67% of brand followers will purchase that specific brand (source: DigitalSurgeons)

 

IBM Computer Competes with Jeopardy Winner

Fascinating. I wish computers could solve world hunger.

IBM computer taking on ‘Jeopardy!’ champs for $1M

By Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. — It’s the size of 10 refrigerators, and it swallows encyclopedias whole, but an IBM computer was lacking one thing it needed to battle the greatest champions from the “Jeopardy!” quiz show.

It couldn’t hit a buzzer.

But that’s been fixed, and on Thursday the hardware and software system named Watson was to play a practice round against Ken Jennings, who won a record 74 consecutive “Jeopardy!” games in 2004-05, and Brad Rutter, who won a record of nearly $3.3 million in prize money.

“‘Jeopardy!’ felt that in order for the game to be as fair as possible, just as a human has to physically hit a buzzer, the system also would have to do that,” IBM spokeswoman Jennifer McTighe said. “Now Watson has its own real buzzer.”

The practice round was to be played on a stage at an IBM research center in Yorktown Heights, 38 miles north of Manhattan and across the country from the game show’s home in Culver City, Calif. A real contest among the three, to be televised Feb. 14-16, also will be played at IBM, but the date hasn’t been made public.

The winner of the televised match will be awarded $1 million. Second place gets $300,000, third place $200,000. IBM, which has headquarters in Armonk, said it would give its winnings to charity while Jennings and Rutter would give away half theirs.

Read on

Did You Know: Facebook is the #1 Share

This surprised me, but I think the results fall under the category of, how do you define ‘share’. See what you think:

 

Is this how you share?

Sunday Stats: Everything You Need to Know About the Blogosphere

Here’s the breakdown:

• If you blog, you’re probably 35-45, or in a broader sense, 25-55 (check for me)

Sunday Stats: Twitter is Buried in Queries

Twitter is supporting 800 million queries a day, or 33 percent more than it said it was handling back in April, according to co-founder Biz Stone, who spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

This from Social Media:

Working off comScore figures from December 2009 for worldwide search queries, we have:

• • Google: 88 billion per month
  • Twitter: 19 billion per month
  • Yahoo: 9.4 billion per month
  • Bing: 4.1 billion per month

Click here for more of Sunday Stats.

It’s Not Just StarTrek That Gives Us a Blueprint For the Future

Read this

‘Star Wars’ meets reality? Military testing laser weapons

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

Are we finally witnessing the dawn of the “death ray”?

Five decades after the creation of the laser, the ubiquitous technology of the modern era may be ready to serve up that Star Wars science-fiction staple: the laser blaster.

How Google Earth Helps Paloeanthropologists

Google Earth played a role in the discovery of a new hominid fossil at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. The discovery is one of the most significant paleoanthropological discoveries in recent times, revealing at least two partial hominid skeletons in remarkable condition, dating to between 1.78 and 1.95 million years.

Sunday Stats: Internet Use by Age

Lots of people use the internet for lots of different reasons.

• Teens are more likely to be playing video games
• Gen X and Y–and younger boomers–are more likely to be watching videos
• Older boomers are more likely to be job hunting
• The Silent Generation is sending instant messages

Sunday Stats: Lets Talk Video Games

Source: Online Education

DARPA Challenges American Ingenuity–Again

DARPA–the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency–is the research and development office for the U.S. Department of Defense. DARPA’s mission is to maintain technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security. We also create technological surprise for our adversaries.

Early Warning Signs of Technology Addiction

I’ve been wondering about this… about myself. I spend an awful lot of time researching gadgets, virtual reality, AIs. I’m considering joining Second Life. I understand the difference between ‘crackers’ and ‘hackers’, and when I’m reading about ‘virtual reality’ as opposed to ‘simulated reality’. I’d rather chat online than in person.

Am I addicted? For a diagnosis, I went to Clara Moskowitz at LiveScience. Here’s her analysis:

How to Tell If You Are Addicted to Technology

By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer

posted: 25 January 2008 03:51 pm ET

They’re not called “Crackberries” for nothing. Some people may be as addicted to Blackberries and other personal electronics as junkies are to drugs, according to John O’Neill, director of addictions services for the Menninger Clinic in Houston.

These over-wired people are so focused on their gadgets, they neglect relationships with other people, O’Neill said. Communication aids such as texting and e-mail may actually hamper our abilities to have more important face-to-face conversations.

But some experts object to labeling the techno-savvy as addicts without verifying that they meet the precise psychological definition of addiction.

* In 2006, psychiatrists at Stanford University surveyed people over the phone to try to determine how compulsively they used the Internet. They found a sizable portion of respondents displayed troubling tendencies, but could not determine whether their use merited a medical diagnosis and said more research needed to be done.

* A 2006 article in the journal Perspectives in Psychiatric Care said the Internet can “promote addictive behaviors” and advocated formally recognizing its use as a possible addiction to improve treatment.

* Another research paper, published in 2007 in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology by a psychiatrist at Tel Aviv University, recommended that Internet addiction be regarded as an extreme disorder on par with gambling, sex addiction and kleptomania.

O’Neill admitted that there is not enough research to establish whether excessive technology use qualifies as addiction, but cited people who can’t sit through a movie without checking their cell phones or make it through dinner without peeking at their Blackberries as potential addicts.

“Technology can become more than a passing problem and more like an addiction,” he told LiveScience. He listed some danger signs: “You become irritable when you can’t use it. The Internet goes down and you lose your mind. You start to hide your use.”

He said he can see corollaries between drug and alcohol addiction and the way some people use technology.

But some experts object to calling any excessive behavior “addiction.” (more)

8 Great (Unknown) Science Websites

Videos on science topics

Visit a Virtual Farm

Virtual weather, machines and surgery

National Geographic Kids

NOVA Videos—great topics Nova video programs

Science Headlines—audio (grades 3+)

Great site on yucky stuff (great fun site)

Virtual tours

Social Networks are the Matrix

First, this post about Second Life being used for business meetings and research labs. Now this story about the Supreme Court delivering official documents via Twitter. If you were the last hold out that social networks were just a fad, read on:

Court serves injunction via Twitter

Updated on 01 October 2009

By Benjamin Cohen

In a landmark decision, the high court allows an injunction to be served via Twitter in a case that could set a precedent for dealing with anonymous bloggers. Benjamin Cohen reports.

The case surrounds a Twitter account @blaneysblarney, which purports to be that of the well-known right-wing lawyer Donal Blaney, who blogs under the name BlaneysBarney.

The account, which was registered on 17 September, even features a photograph of the real Donal Blaney and posts rather provocative tweets including –

“So the Iranians were lying all along. Time for the RAF to start practicing bunker bombing…”

“Now Obama, who the eurofederasts [sic] love, is happy to leave us to the mercy of the mad mullahs…”

//

Mr Blaney became aware of the Twitter account, which has 79 “followers”, a week ago, and last night he decided to take legal action.

He told Channel4 News: “I know that is quicker to say contact Twitter and say someone is impersonating me and they’ll take the account down.

“But that’s not good enough any more. People want to know who’s doing this and to force them to stop.

“Too many people abuse the anonymity on the internet, and it’s right that they’re stopped from doing so.”

This morning the high court issued an injunction requiring the user to (i) stop posting messages on Twitter, (ii) preserve the accounts (i.e. not delete it), and (iii) contact Mr Blaney personally. (more)

Is the Virtual World More Real than Life?

Second Life is a 3D virtual world created by its Residents (people like you) that’s bursting with entertainment, experiences, and opportunity. Not only is it a play world for adults, a place they can be anyone they wish, with radically different physique and goals than they’re saddled with in real life, Second Life offers an array of virtual tools to the business and scientific world. They call this Second Life grid. already, it’s being used by corporations, education, non-profits, to simulate challenges they face and test out solutions.

Second Life Work offers a virtual world for meetings that are affordable (no one goes further than their computer), environmentally-friendly with exactly the business climate you’d like. There, you can hold meetings and events, conduct training sessions, or create simulations that address a wide variety of business problems and situations.

It also can be used as a virtual lab, where tests that can’t be completed in the real world, can be exhaustively studied in a 3D environment:

A Virtual Laboratory

Residents of Second Life—an online computer game in which players can do almost everything they can do in real life, such as buy and sell property, take classes and date—tout their world’s realistic settings and social opportunities. Now a growing number of scientists are beginning to take notice and are bringing their human behavior research into the virtual world.

Second Life allows researchers to study scenarios that they cannot in real life…(more)

How Generation N Uses a Cell Phone

Did you see the commercial about using the cell phone for a paper weight because there was no service? Got me thinking about all the uses there are for wireless phones–beyond communication.

Here’s a post from my buddy Worddreams on practical uses for cell phones (unlocking your car door, emergency contact)…

…and then I saw this. Kind of a spoof on how much we have come to rely on cell phones, but I have no doubt this chart is accurate:

Gosh I love my cell phone.

TIME’s Best Inventions of 2008

It’s almost time for Best Inventions of 2009 (if Time again publishes this list in October) so I thought I’d remind us all what was so scientifically stunning about 2008:

Full List – TIME’s Best Inventions of 2008

Invention of the Year

1. The Retail DNA Test

Bionic hand

The Other 49 Best Inventions

2. The Tesla Roadster

3. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter4. Hulu.com5. The Large Hadron Collider6. The Global Seed Vault7. The Chevy Volt8. Bullets That Shoot Bullets9. The Orbital Internet10. The World’s Fastest Computer11. Green Crude12. Housing Funds13. The Memristor14. The Bionic Hand15. The Direct-to-Web Supervillain Musical16. The Dynamic Tower

17. The Mobile, Dexterous, Social Robot18. The New Mars Rover19. Montreal’s Public Bike System20. The Everything Game21. The Synthetic Organism22. The Shadowless Skyscraper

23. The Branded Candidate24. Bionic Contacts25. Thin-Film Solar Panels26. The Speedo LZR Racer27. Bubble Photography28. The Invisibility Cloak29. The 46th Mersenne Prime30. The Internet Of Things31. Einstein’s Fridge

32. Facebook for Spies33. Biomechanical Energy Harvester34. Made-in-Transit Packaging35. Airborne Wind Power36. The New Ping-Pong Serve37. Smog-Eating Cement38. The Baseball Instant Replay39. Enhanced Fingerprints40. The Seven New Deadly Sins41. The Peraves MonoTracer42. Disemvoweling43. High-Tech Running Shoes44. Sunscreen for Plants45. The Short Refinance46. Aptera Electric Car

47. Google’s Floating Data Center48. The Time Eater Clock49. Sound-Enhanced Food50. A Camera For the Blind

Best Of and Worst Of Sci Fi Futures

If you’re interested in an intellectual journey into what could be, this list from the Discovery Channel covers the best futures imagined by Hollywood. It includes:

1. Star Trek
2. Planet of the Apes
3. The Time Machine (the HG Wells version)
4. Logan’s Run
5. Soylent Green
6. Gattaca
7. 2001
8. Fahrenheit 451
9. 1984
10. Blade Runner

For more details, read, Top 10 Sci-Fi Futures : Science Top 10s: Science Channel

Entertainment Weekly made their own list of the worst sci fi futures. There are 21, but I’ll tease you with the first 10:

1. I Am Legend
2. Clockwork Orange
3. Brazil
4. Road Warrior
5. Escape From New York
6. Logan’s Run
7. 12 Monkeys
8. Metropolis
9. The Matrix (that must be a mistake)
10. Blade Runner (best-worst. The movie’s agents must understand that any news is welcome)

Women in Technology

Great article about Microsoft’s DigiGirlz High Tech Camp. Getting females into technology and science is an ongoing problem–one I take seriously. The number of women earning IT degrees has dropped by half in 23 years. That’s the wrong direction. Somewhere between age 7 when girls are more interested than boys in technology and college, it disappears.

Girls encouraged to enter technology field – Washington Times

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