Here’s how to outwit the smartphones

They make loud phone calls in public places, and take their iPads to the dinner table. Here's how to beat the new social savages 

A recent study of dining habits reveals how far standards have slipped. The majority of Britons no longer eat together as a family, but of those who do four out of ten can’t see anything wrong with bringing their laptops, iPads and smartphones to the table and carrying on engaging with them.

Some of us are surprised by this news. Can you tell us, Birmingham Food Fest, who conducted the survey, why are the figures so low? We had thought the epidemic was more widespread. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/9399954/Heres-how-to-outwit-the-smartphones.html 

 

Facebook software screens chats for criminal behaviour

Facebook is using a piece of software which screens it users’ conversations for criminal activity and suspicious behaviour, according to a report. 

The social network uses the technology to monitor chats for certain phrases and vulgar words which may indicate something is wrong with the exchange.

Depending on the language, suspicious exchanges will be reported to police, revealed Facebook’s chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, to Reuters.

The software pays more attention to conversations between people who do not have regular interaction.

If a chat is considered suspect in any way, it is reported to a Facebook security staff member, who will then make a judgment on whether the police should be called. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9398590/Facebook-software-screens-chats-for-criminal-behaviour.html 

 

Saving BlackBerry from its 'deathbed'

'There is a lot of excitement about this future but we need to get to this future." The words of Research in Motion's chief executive, Thorsten Heins, at the company' annual shareholder meeting last week in Waterloo, Ontario, neatly summed up the BlackBerry maker's problem. The future is bright – but is their business going to be part of it?

Angela Merkel is the German leader who has faced the greatest pressure over the past six months, but the 6ft 6in Heins would surely be second in any list of Germans in the line of fire.

Unexpectedly promoted to the top job at RIM in January, the former Siemens executive is tasked with engineering the revival of the company that brought the world its once-favourite communication device.

The BlackBerry was, at its peak, so popular it was nicknamed the CrackBerry and fans could point to President Barack Obama as its most famous addict. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/electronics/9400106/Saving-BlackBerry-from-its-deathbed.html 

Social media top news source for under 25s

Young people are almost twice as likely to discover a news story through social networks rather than search engines, according to a new study. 

The first Reuters Institute Digital Report has found that 43 per cent of Britons aged between 16 and 24 are now much more likely to access news through social networks, such as Facebook, rather than search engines.

However, the report, which is aiming to chart the consumption of news in the digital age, found that only 11 per cent of over 45s access news stories through social media while 33 per cent still favour search engines.

Facebook has been deemed the most important social network for news – accounting for over half of all news sharing in the UK (55 per cent), followed by email (33 per cent) and Twitter (23 per cent).

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/9386445/Social-media-top-news-source-for-under-25s.html

Queen's English Society says enuf is enough, innit?

The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee, but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold.

For 40 years the society has championed good English – and hasn't been above the occasional criticism of the Queen's own pronouncements – but it has finally conceded that it cannot survive in the era of textspeak and Twitter.

Having attempted to identify a role for the society and its magazine, Quest, "for the next 40 years", the society chairman, Rhea Williams, decided it was time to close. She announced the group's demise in a terse message to members following the annual meeting, which just 22 people attended. "Despite the sending out of a request for nominations for chairman, vice-chairman, administrator, webmaster and membership secretary, no one came forward to fill any role," she said. "So I have to inform you that QES will no longer exist. There will be one more Quest, then all activity will cease and the society will be wound up. The effective date will be 30 June 2012."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jun/04/queens-english-society-enuf-innit 

Manager mit Chinesisch-Kenntnissen gesucht

Weil die Sprachkenntnisse der Mitarbeiter zu schlecht sind, beklagen Unternehmen Umsatzeinbußen, stellt eine Studie fest. Neben Englisch ist vor allem Mandarin gefragt.

http://www.zeit.de/karriere/beruf/2012-07/studie-fremdsprachenkenntnisse-unternehmen 

Apple’s ‘smaller iPad due for Christmas’

The move would set up a battle between Apple’s iPad, Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7 tablet, announced last week in San Francisco.

The new model will have a screen that’s 7 inches to 8 inches diagonally, less than the current 9.7-inch version, Bloomberg claimed.

Apple is expected to announce new products in October, including a new iPhone. The 7” iPad is unlikely to have the “retina display” high definition screen of the full-size version. It may, however, have the same number of pixels as the iPad 2.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9374730/Apples-smaller-iPad-due-for-Christmas.html 

Science: It's a Girl Thing !

Mit einem allzu poppig-pinken Video hat die EU versucht, junge Mädchen für die Wissenschaft zu begeistern. Nach erbosten Netz-Protesten wurde das Video zurückgezogen. Jetzt antwortet der Schwarm: mit Ingenieurinnen im Cheerleader-Kostüm und singenden Meeresbiologinnen.

Read the article:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/science-a-girl-thing-kritik-am-video-der-eu-kommission-a-842092.html

Watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g032MPrSjFA

Why are athletes wearing coloured tape?

Why are athletes wearing coloured tape?

In the Euro 2012 Championship, Italian striker Mario Balotelli was sporting three tramlines of blue sticky tape on his back.

And at Wimbledon, Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has had his elbow patched up with the same stuff.

So what's behind this latest sporting fad?

The Japanese makers of Kinesio tape say it gives players an edge by mending injuries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18672458 

A Conversation With Bill Gates About the Future of Higher Education

Bill Gates never finished college, but he is one of the single most powerful figures shaping higher education today. That influence comes through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, perhaps the world's richest philanthropy, which he co-chairs and which has made education one of its key missions.

The Chronicle sat down with Mr. Gates in an exclusive interview Monday to talk about his vision for how colleges can be transformed through technology. His approach is not simply to drop in tablet computers or other gadgets and hope change happens—a model he said has a "really horrible track record." Instead, the foundation awards grants to reformers working to fix "inefficiencies" in the current model of higher education that keep many students from graduating on time, or at all. And he argues for radical reform of college teaching, advocating a move toward a "flipped" classroom, where students watch videos from superstar professors as homework and use class time for group projects and other interactive activities. As he put it, "having a lot of kids sit in the lecture class will be viewed at some point as an antiquated thing."

http://chronicle.com/article/A-Conversation-With-Bill-Gates/132591/?cid=wb&utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en 

How-To Video: How to Save a Wet Cell Phone

So you dropped your phone in the toilet. Here’s a cheap and simple trick that just might save it.

http://techland.time.com/2012/06/25/video-how-to-save-a-wet-cellphone/

Facebook changes everyone's listed emails to '@facebook.com'

Without asking for permission, Facebook has changed users' listed email address to one ending in "@facebook.com."

The changed was discovered Saturday, and has resulted in either users having their @facebook.com address being listed or simply having all of their other addresses be hidden, as happened in my case.

The @facebook.com email service was announced in 2010, but it hasn't really gained traction as a replacement to other email service. It makes sense for the social network to want to promote its own service, but the way it's gone about it is sure to upset some people.

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-facebook-changes-emails-20120625,0,1918913.story

TEDGlobal: Smart city ideas awarded at TED

Developers with innovative ideas about how the cities of the future should look have been honoured at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh.
This year's TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) prize, normally given to an individual, was awarded to an idea dubbed "City 2.0".
Ten projects that are improving city life were selected to benefit from the $100,000 (£64,300) prize fund.

Winners include a designer of an open-sourced "wiki-house".

The first winner, announced at the TEDx summit in the spring, was Ruganzu Bruno who will be using the money to create a play centre, built entirely from plastic water bottles, for children in the slums of Uganda to play and learn.
Four of the winners were announced at TEDGlobal, while the rest to be revealed in the autumn.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18607438

5 Steps to Pizza-Grilling Success

Of the less-than-conventional foods to throw on the grill, my favorite is probably pizza. I love a luscious, melted pie in any form, but there's something about the crunch and char of the crust from the grill that makes barbecued pizza irresistible. Thinking of throwing a pizza on your grates for the first time? Here are a few tips for grilled pizza pizzazz.

http://www.yumsugar.com/How-Grill-Pizza-23714615

The one question to ask before starting a business

Most people take ‘Build something people want’ to mean ‘Pick a problem to solve and solve it well.’ This is not sufficient to build a world-changing company. ‘Why now?’ is the question entrepreneurs really need to answer, because it encompasses two important and closely related concepts: Why have previous attempts at this idea failed? What enabling factors have emerged that enable you to succeed today?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/starting-out/the-one-question-to-ask-before-starting-a-business/article4204470/

New-tech moguls: the modern robber barons?

Are today's captains of industry – the wealthy and powerful figures who control the digital universe – any different from the ruthless corporate figures of the past?

Here's an interesting fact: 10 of the people on Forbes magazine's tally of the world's 100 richest billionaires made their money from computer and/or network technology. At the top (second on the list) is Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at $61bn, despite the fact that he continues to try to give it away. Gates is followed by Larry Ellison, boss of Oracle, with $36bn, and Michael Bloomberg with $22bn. Larry Page and Sergey Brin – co-founders of Google – occupy joint 24th place with $18.7bn each. Jeff Bezos of Amazon is No 26 with $18.4bn while the newly enriched Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook sits at No 35 with £17.5bn. Michael Dell, founder of the eponymous computer manufacturer, is at No 41 with $15.9bn while Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, is three places lower on $15.7bn and Paul Allen – co-founder of Microsoft – brings up the rear at No 48 with a mere $14.2bn. Steve Jobs, who was worth about $9bn when he died, doesn't even figure.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jul/01/new-tech-moguls-robber-barons