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Creator Develops Ultrafast Wireless Which Seemingly Violates The Law Of Physics

Gaming On Demand

The founder of the cloud-based gaming on demand service OnLive, Steve Perlman is now claiming to have discovered a new technique of wireless communications that would drastically outpace what we now have and would actually disprove many of the accepted regulations of how wireless communications work.

First the theory popped up in a presentation which Perlman gave at the NExTWORK conference and was only a small mention at that.  There was no demonstration or real proof given.  His proposal flies directly in the face of the Shannon-Hartley Theorem, which is a guideline for wireless technologies.  So we are not inclined to believe his claims.  But occasionally someone will say something so crazy and with such confidence that you have to take notice.  This particular idea would have such huge effects on communications technology that we must encourage discussion about it.  This is not to be taken as an endorsement though by any means.

Perlman briefly proposed DISO as an entirely new radio system with different chips that work in an entirely different way and on different towers.  He claims that DIDO can broadcast through solid objects which usually block cell signals.  He says it needs something about the size of a router and the signal broadcasts much farther than usual towers, in fact up to 30 miles.

Perlman says that DIDO (distributed-input-distribution-output) system overcomes the traditional broadband system where each user gets a small piece of the overall bandwidth of the tower they’re connected to.  Instead DIDO, each user can access the full speed of the tower.

Wired interviewed an electrical engineering professor who notes that elements of the Shannon-Hartley Theorem have been disproved or altered.  But no one has seen Perlman’s DIDO in action though it is patented and he is as confident about DIDO as anything else he’s ever designed.

Study Tells Fairgrounds To Look To Entertainment

Fairgrounds Look To Entertainment

The report will be discussed at a meeting Tuesday at the Vallejo City Council and will focus on the slumping economy as well as prevailing market forces.  The report says that they don’t promise well for retail development in the very near future.

Another suggestion of the report was to look into whether a local educational institution like California Maritime Academy would be interested in working together on revenue-generating uses for the very aging fairgrounds property.

Further investigation is recommended on whether Six Flags would be willing to pay for and work together to operate an interim RV park or other attractions which would be tied to its business.

But the report’s key advice is to examine “building on the strength of Six Flags’ regional appeal” by creating a major entertainment feature at the fairgrounds, which is just across the street on Fairgrounds Drive. The report shows Merlin Entertainment’s Legoland theme parks as an example.

This type of addition could make Vallejo “a magnetic agglomeration of amusement attractions” which could lead to more restaurants as well as other supporting businesses, according to the report.

A Six Flags spokeswoman, however, refused to make comments on the merits of the idea.

“Since we don’t know the full extent of the city and county’s plans, it’s too early to make speculative comments,” Nancy Chan, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom spokeswoman said Friday.

What possibilities for the property has been the focus of an ongoing planning process by Solano County, Vallejo and the Solano County Fairgrounds Association officials.

Originally, planners imagined redeveloping the site with an “iconic” retail anchor to attract visitors. But the new report which was just released last month as part of the planning, suggests the economy will remain too feeble for big-box options in the near term.

Facebook Looks Socially Awkward Thanks To Google

Mark Zuckerberg Awkward

Mr. Mark Zuckerberg may be considering fast-tracking Facebook’s initial public offering.

It appears to be a hasty response to Google’s launch of a rival social networking site called Google+.  Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook’s new video-chatting feature on Wednesday.  He said it was “super awesome.”  Google had made the same feature in 2008.  Now Facebook appears vulnerable.  This could be rough news for many investors who recently paid top dollar for Facebook stock during private sales.

The first rule when launching a new social network is to make everyone wait in line.  Exclusivity is how Facebook built buzz in early days.  For two years you could only get in if you had an .edu email address.  Now Google+ is using a similar strategy.

Google has used this strategy before to conquer Yahoo in email which was a key driver of Yahoo traffic.  Then Google introduced Gmail but it was first only available by invitation.

Second rule is to deliver a superior service.  Many will try it out but to keep people using it they have to have a good reason.  Gmail offered more storage space, a reason most people would switch to using it.  Google+ seems to offer some upgrades on some shortcomings of Facebook.

Just for starters, Google+ allows people a handy way to organize their social contacts into circles of friends, relatives, etc. and they can use such circles to share information with groups.  Though Facebook offers Groups users have to broadcast their information to everyone by default.

Google+ also offers video chatting for groups.  This may be the reason why Facebook’s announcing one-on-one video chatting on Wednesday fell short.  Facebook has yet to offer group video chatting.

Obama’s Father Once Thought About Putting The President Up For Adoption

President Up For Adoption

The author of a new book about President Obama’s father saw a document that indicated the President’s father once thought about putting young Barack up for adoption.

Biographer Sally Jacobs, writes in that paper today:

President Obama’s father revealed a plan in the spring of 1961 that he was considering putting his unborn son up for adoption, which could have changed the course of American history.

The elder Barack H. Obama who was a sophomore at the University of Hawaii had been under scrutiny by the federal immigration officials over concern than he had more than one wife.  When questioned by the school’s foreign student adviser then 24 year old Obama insisted he had divorced his wife in Kenya, his native home.  While his wife Ann Dunham was five months pregnant with the son who would be named Barack Obama II, Obama insisted that they would put the child up for adoption.

“Subject got his USC (United States citizen) wife ‘Hapai’ [Hawaiian for pregnant] and although they were married they do not live together and Miss Dunham is making arrangements with the Salvation Army to give the baby away,” according to a letter which describes the conversation with Obama and was written by Lyle H. Dahling, an administrator in the Honolulu office of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Jacobs’ book — The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama’s Father – will be published on Tuesday.

Obama’s mother — Stanley Ann Dunham, the subject of another biography to be published  this year — died in 1995.

Obama family members and his aides say they know of no plan for adoption, Jacobs wrote:

The former White House press secretary Robert L. Gibbs, said at the time the document was released that President Obama had never known that his mother had considered putting the child up for adoption.

New APP Uses Smartphone’s Sensors To Tag Photos With Names, Places And Even Emotions

Smartphone's Tag Photos

A new application can automatically tag your smartphone photos with many attributes.  It can pick out the people and the context of the picture including emotions, types of activities and weather conditions.

It is called TagSense and it was developed by students at the University of South Carolina and Duke University when they combined smartphones’ sensors into an all encompassing tag suite.  It goes way beyond GPS current technology that recreates a photo’s location and context.

A phone’s built in accelerometer can tell whether a person is dancing or engaged in another activity or just standing still, according to a Dukes news release.  The light sensors in the phone which are normally used to dim or brighten a display screen can also be used to tell whether the picture is outside or inside.  Weather conditions can also be checked against the phone’s location and it can even use a microphone to tell whether the subject is laughing or quiet. All these attributes can be assigned to each picture and someone can search according to categories.

“So, for example, if you’ve taken a bunch of photographs at a party, it would be easy at a later date to search for just photographs of happy people dancing,” said a visiting graduate student from the University of South Carolina, Chuan Qin.

According to Romit Roy Choudhury who is an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke, the students used eight Google Nexus One mobile phones which snapped more than 200 photos at various places on the Duke campus.  It found it was more sophisticated than Google’s Picasa or Apple’s iPhoto tagging systems.

The team unveiled the app at the Association for Computing Machinery’s International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications and Services or MobiSys in Washington, D.C.

Google+ launched – Insane Demand For New Social Networking Service

Google+ launched

Google+ is quickly becoming an Internet stir as evidenced earlier last week as Google was required to postpone Google+ invites after an “insane demand” for the new social networking service. But does Google+ have what it takes to contest Facebook and other popular social networking sites?

Google representatives say that this new social networking site which they recently launched is here to stay, unlike previous attempts at social networking by Google.  Although it is in beta version it has been met with overwhelming positive response.  Rumor even has it that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has opened an account on Google+.

Part of Google+ success is due to several amazing features which will change the way people socialize, interact and connect with other people over the Internet.

They include:

A circle concept which closely follows the way a person organizes their contacts in real life.  For example: You might meet different kinds of people each day yet interact with them in several different ways.  Circles allow a simple means of organizing your social network through grouping contacts into any category you can possibly imagine, like: family, co-workers, friends, and there are countless more circles you can imagine.  The circles are formed easily be dragging the new contact’s picture over the circle which represents the best group for that person.  You can even drag groups of people over a circle to move them there.

Streams help you to receive instant updates from people in your Circles.  You get to pick which circles and people you choose to share your information with.

Sparks allow you to have videos and stories or any other cool content you are interested in pulled right into your Google+.  Sparks stream is not the same results you would get if you put that term into a search engine.  Sparks allow you to instantly get relevant information to share with friends.  You can choose from a list of possible interests or you can enter your own specific interest.  Google+ will search out the topic content from all over the Internet.

With other tools called Hangouts, Huddles and Instant Uploads one can only imagine the possibilities that a Google+ account might bring.

The million dollar question is — Can Google+ shakeup the order which exists in other social networking websites and claim the top throne as one of the top 10 social networking sites?

Want To Know How To Take Beautiful Pictures For July 4th Fireworks?

July 4th Fireworks Pictures

Watching July 4^th fireworks is a time-honored tradition for most families.  If you are one who likes to capture the memories in pictures here we have some tips for you that will help ensure you get beautiful photographs of the fireworks shows.

1. Get a tripod
When you take photographs of fireworks, the camera must hold the shutter open long enough to capture the fireworks. The longer the time the shutter is open, the more vulnerable your photo is to being blurred by motion. So get and use a tripod to ensure there’s not movement. When shooting photos in open areas, use a stand-alone model with telescoping legs. A more mobile option is the Joby Gorillapod original, a tripod which can wrap around trees and poles or stand on the ground.

2. Use your “fireworks” scene mode
Most point-and-shoot cameras have a dial with “Scene” or “SCN” on the camera. If not you’ll probably find it in the “menu” button. With your camera in scene mode, a list of the modes to choose from will pop up on screen. Select the option that says “fireworks” or which looks like a spray of fireworks.

3. If your camera does not have a “fireworks” or scene mode, use the “landscape” mode
Your camera will automatically try to find an object to focus upon. And when presented with a black sky, the camera will not know what to do. By putting the camera in “landscape” mode, you’ll be setting the focus to infinity which also narrows the lens opening, and keeps both far and near objects in focus.

4. Turn your flash off
Turning your flash off allows the camera to know that it only has the light which is available to take pictures. This is an important tip because the camera will keep the shutter open long enough to capture the beautiful fireworks. The flash button is a separate button usually found on the back of a camera. On some cameras, you won’t be able to turn off the flash unless you put it in a scene mode or either in program mode.

Harry Potter is Going Digital

Harry Potter is Going Digital

On Thursday, Author J.K. Rowling announced Pottermore.com, a website where she will be selling Harry Potter e-books and other new material.  Rowling said she will sell electronic versions of all seven of her Harry Potter books and this will be a place that fans of the series can come together and socialize together and also with Rowling herself.

There was a ceremony in London on Thursday where the announcement was made.  The plan is also explained in a short YouTube video that was released today.

Rowling plans to make Harry Potter e-books available in various languages and they will be able to be read on any electronic reading tool.  The store is geared to open in October.

If you don’t want to wait until October you can go ahead and register your email at the Pottermore.com store and you will be contacted as full registration begins at the end of July, which is Harry Potter’s fictional birthday.

Once you are registered you will be able to partake in challenges where 1 million people will be taking part in a beta phase of the website.  Winning users will be allowed to suggest improvements to the site according to Bloomsbury Publishing, Rowling’s U.K. publisher.

In a statement Bloomsbury announced it will share in the revenues generated from the site.  Rowling owns the rights to the Harry Potter books digital version.  Bloomsbury owns the rights to print of the books in the U.S.

Rowling added that Pottermore.com offers social networking tools so that Harry Potter fans can share their stories with their friends.  The website will feature an enlarged Sorting Hat which asks site visitors questions so that they can get sorted into Hogwarts houses just like it did with students within her books.

The website will also feature 18,000 new written words about the places, characters and objects from the series of books.

At the London announcement, Rowling said she has been slowly convinced of the value of digitized books.

Divorce Has Lost its Groove Somehow

Divorce Has Lost its Groove

Just a couple of months back a writer in Brooklyn by the name of Susan Gregory Thomas went to a friend’s 40^th birthday bash.  At the party she ran into a familiar woman that she knew from the Park Slope mommy society.

The woman was so excited when someone introduced her to Susan that she screamed.  “You are famous,” she added.  Ms. Thomas did not understand and wanted to know what the lady meant by the famous remark.  The lady explained that Susan comes up in conversations a lot.

Susan not totally surprised because she has been concerned about what people might say ever since her divorce over three years ago.  She had descended from her Park Slope throne and away from her completely involved husband and their nice home.  She was now a divorcée who had remarried and had a new baby along with two children of the divorce who were very young.  She found herself as a stranger in a community where she had lived for almost 13 years.

She recalls knowing that everybody she had known felt bad for her situation but that they all were avoiding her too.  She said, “I feel like I have a giant letter A on my front and back.”  This feeling despite the fact that there was no adultery involved.

Divorce statistics have seen a steady down falling slope after their peak in the year of 1980.  But an interesting trend is revealed in that today only 11 percent of Americans who are college educated now divorce within the first 10 years of marriage.  This compares to nearly 37 percent of the rest of the population.  The trend especially is true for Moms with young children is moderately scarce since its heyday.  Many now reach 15^th year anniversaries.

A 41-year old mother from a suburb of Portland Oregon, Teresa DiFalco was shocked when her husband announced he wanted to split up their marriage three years earlier.  She recalls saying, “I had this sense of: ‘You’re kidding me. We have children. It’s not allowed.” She had believed that divorce would not be part of her children’s lives.  Only one of her children had one friend who was from a divorced family.

Another Mother in a similar situation was concerned about her kids being from a broken home.  She was afraid that the kids would be devastated from this stereotype.

According to a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University Andrew Cherlin, “The shift in attitudes and behavior is very real. Among upper-middle-class Americans, the divorce rate is going down, and they’re becoming more conservative toward divorce.”

Author of “The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and Family in America Today”, Dr. Cherlin says the swing is due to several factors including a makeover by generations.

Some children are looking at their parents’ sloppy divorces and refuse to become a statistic in their own marriage.

Waist Lines Get Bigger, With Less Energy Being Exerted At Work!

Waist Lines Get Bigger

With Americans exerting less energy at work, their waist lines continue to get bigger a new study suggest.

One study found that jobs that have some type of physical activity have dropped tremendously since the 1960 job market.  Almost to the tune of 30% which greatly attributes to the waistline growth

Dr. Timothy S. Church a lead author and exercise researcher said; “If we’re going to try to get to the root of what’s causing the obesity epidemic, work-related physical activity needs to be in the discussion.”  “There are a lot of people who say it’s all about food. But the work environment has changed so much we have to rethink how we’re going to attack this problem,” he added.

According to the authors, this switch in physical activity can make a difference of up to 140 calories per day. That does not sound like much but when you add it up over the course of several years it really is a significant number.

“You see the manufacturing jobs plummet and realize that’s a lot of physical activity,” he report to the Times. “It’s very obvious that the jobs that required a lot of physical activity have gone away.”

It is doubtful that more active jobs are going to be created especially in light of all the automation in today’s job market.  There are a few things like moving printers far away from an employee’s desk and starting wellness programs such as walks at lunch hour, workout rooms, etc can also help.