Category Archives: Technology

Valentines day is traditionally a time when you can act on your secret crushes and let them know how you feel about them.

Anyone who cares about security and technology has an app or a platform or a programming language or something that might not be very cool or very glamorous but which they love, trust and rely on. So this year weve decided to ask Naked Security writers what their secret crushes are.

Mark Stockley, our web technologies guru, has had a long, slightly dysfunctional love-hate relationship withPerl. He says:

My secret tech crush is Perl.

Its not for looks, mind.In a bad light Perl looks like the contents of the unix tool chain after a heavy fall down some stairs.

Its not because Perl loves me and nobody else either. When I first met Perl (in its prime in the late 90s), it had caught everyones eye and was living it up at the heart of things on seemingly every server and every website.

And its not because Perl was nice to me, either.Back then, we didnt have well lit safe spaces like Stackoverflow to get to know a programming language that had caught our eye. We had to use usenet and meeting Perl meant risking the piranha-infested waters of comp.lang.misc.perl, a usenet group so fierce and elitist that suitors with questions were publicly eviscerated for sport.

Perl is complex difficult moody, even. On the rare occasions that things go well, working with Perl can be like painting with oils or dancing with Darcey Bussell. But when they arent (and they frequently arent) it can feel like wrestling socks on to an octopus.

In fact there are a hundred reasons to choose something else, but for me there is no doubt that its Perl. For all its faults it was my gateway drug, the red pill that led me to late night Slackware installs, unfathomable man pages and scratching my head for two weeks as I looked in the wrong place for Apaches it works! page.

Here at Naked Security, were upfront about our love for password managers and multifactor authentication. But Naked Security stalwart Lisa Vaasfell out of love with hers recently. She says:

I dont know if youd call this a secret crush. The feelings I have for my password manager are more along the lines of master-sub, with a dash of Stockholm syndrome. The strength of the bondage came clear recently when I lost my phone during a trip. Got off the Metro, but somehow, the phone did not.

After a good deal of hand-wringing and fruitless searching , I gave up and ordered a replacement phone courtesy of my insurance company. Thats when the fun really began.

The lost phone had my multifactor authentication (MFA) app on it, Google Authenticator, and without it, I couldnt get into any email accounts. The lost password hoops Google made me jump through were recursive and failed every time.

Using a friends laptop, I tried to reach my password manager vendor (LastPass) to help me out. I could get one toe into LastPass, given that Ive memorized that one password, but losing my Google Authenticator app on the phone meant that I couldnt verify my login with the second factor: the one-time use password Authenticator produces.

Turns out that LastPass has no phones. None. OK, so Ill write to customer support, I thought. Explain the situation, see what they can do to ascertain Im not a hacker trying to hijack my account. Automatic LastPass responses kept telling me Id get a faster response if I upgraded to premium, and I kept wailing that I am a premium user. Days later, I finally got a response: well send you the instructions to download a new Authenticator instance, they said. To your email address on file. which I couldnt get into.

Ill stop there. Suffice it to say that I was rather impressed with the locks and chains set up around my accounts by MFA and that crazy, frustrating password manager. One lesson I learned quite well, after about a week of writhing in those bonds: I need to set up a safe word. What does that extended metaphor translate into? Well, Im not going to give it away, but lets just say that its along the lines of writing down a password. and then locking that physical token safely (hopefully!) away, not putting it on a sticky note on my monitor!

Sometimes the old loves are the best, and Naked Security writer Maria Varmazis remains devoted to Notepad++. She tells us:

As someone who dabbles in code but primarily writes for a living, my indispensable but slightly-unsexy tool is a text editor. For my PCs, Im a Notepad++ fiend. For my Macs, Im devoted to SublimeText.(Linux text editing is a sore subject in my household. I cling to emacs, which I picked up in college, while my husband is a vi die-hard. Somehow were still married.)

The simplicity of these editors is what makes them so beautiful and so useful. When you just want to write without distraction or frill, theres nothing better than opening a simple text editor and getting to work. Text editors let me type without worrying about font and format, or being interrupted by grammatical suggestions and when youre on deadline, interruption-free writing is precisely what you need. Once Ive written what I need and start editing, the built-in line numbering and contextual highlighting many of these text editors come with (handy for folks who are deep in code all day) make my life a lot easier as well.

Perhaps my devotion to these humble text editors comes from habit: back in the 90s when so many of my peers and I were learning rudimentary HTML, we went to work with just Notepad. I still remember the humble Made with Notepad buttons some of us would put on our sites as our nerdy badge of honor. Notepad was still my editor of choice in the years following when working on professional website development, Dreamweaver and others be damned.

I know a text editor isnt the first thing people think of when they need to write, but if you find it hard to get started and the thought of firing up Word makes your blood run cold, open a text editor instead. They provide minimal distractions and render no judgments so you may write freely. And for that, they will always have my devotion.

Google may be dominant on the search scene, but not everyone is comfortable with the amount of data it scavenges about users. So Danny Bradbury, our man in British Columbia, tells us why hes quietly in love with DuckDuckGo:

Google is great at delivering the results you want, in an attractive style. Half the time, thanks to voice search and Google Assistant, you dont even have to type anything. But I dont like searching for things using a tool run by a company that makes money by selling my data, especially when my work causes me to search for a lot of strange things. Evidence suggests that while Google enables users to switch off the search history that it shows them, its still collecting a lot behind the scenes. DuckDuckGo isnt as polished as Google, but Im becoming increasingly paranoid about giving my data to large companies, especially given the political uncertainties facing us over the next few years. Perhaps Im not the only one, given that DuckDuckGo racked up 4bn searches last year.

Love is wide-ranging, and its not just software and applications that Naked Security writers are secretly in love with. Freelancer Bill Camarda has been faithful to a much-loved headset for many years. He tells us:

Im jaded. Ive been disappointed too often. My idea of lovable tech is something that just works, doesnt demand a lot, didnt cost a lot, and stays out of my way the rest of the time. Thatd be my old Logitech ClearChat Comfort USB Headset H390.

I mean, this is seriously mature technology. Introduced a decade ago this coming August, you can still buy one new at Amazon. Where youre informed that itll Elevate the Power of Windows Vista. Hey marketers, I love the thing, but please: nothing could do that.

Heres what it does do: whatever I plug it into Windows 7, 8.x, 10, Mac it goes right to work. No waiting for drivers to fail install. Never crashes the system. Good sound. Good mic thats easy to adjust (and moves neatly up out of the way when Im only listening.) Handy mute button. Well-made USB cable. Fairly if not perfectly comfy adjustable padded earphones, for todays endless Hangouts, Skype videocalls, et al. Not sexy: stable, reliable, there for me. If thats not love, what is?

Meanwhile, Naked Security freelancer John E Dunn, also has a hardware love: its the privacy- and security-focused Blackphone. He says:

From the femtosecond I first saw version 1 in 2014, Ive wanted one. If they ever get around to making Men in Black 4, this is the smartphone theyd use. But how to justify paying nearly 600 for an uneventful Android smartphone? One answer is that in an age obsessed with features and looks, the Blackphone strips away all that nonsense and just does the important thing privacy well.

Granted, a lot of people think that privacy is another feature but a lot of people are wrong. Security and privacy is the future of everything, the destiny of the world. Finding all of this in a slim black device that can trace its software lineage back to the genesis of popular encryption with Phil Zimmermanns PGP just adds to its desirability. Its old but new with it.

And what about me? Ive only been editing Naked Security for a few months, but Ive been writing about technology and security for many years, and so Ive had plenty of time to fall in love with any number of flighty suitors. But the technology I still love, even though its almost as old and uncool as Donny Osmond (who I saw performing in London earlier this month; I still love him, too) is Windows Phone.

Ive been using Windows devices since back when it was known as Windows CE, and Ive only reluctantly moved to Android after smashing the screen of my beloved Nokia Lumia 1520 and discovering it would cost 250 to fix (Im now rocking a Pixel XL).

I love Windows Phone for its elegant design language: instead of dozens of multicoloured icons splattered across several pages theres a homescreen of tiles displaying all the information you need at a glance. On my homescreen I could see how many emails were waiting for me, if Id missed any calls, which of my key contacts had tried to reach me, if I had any Twitter mentions or DMs, when my next train was, and so on.

I also love that it remains a pretty secure platform: theres been almost no malware spotted in the wild. And finally, while other manufacturers made Windows Phones, the Lumia range had (and to some, still has) the very best cameras a cellphone could sport: the 1020s camera, amazing in its day, is still one to beat.

Whats your secret technology crush? Wed love to hear about your first and current loves.

Read the original here:

Valentine's day: what's your secret technology crush? - Naked Security

Mobileye Chairman Amnon Shashua with Volkswagen brand chief Herbert Diess. Their deal marks the first time an automaker is using Mobileye's mapping technology, known as Road Experience Management.

Volkswagen AG is teaming up with Mobileye to create a navigation system for autonomous vehicles.

The automaker said on Monday that it would use Mobileyes camera sensors and localization technologies on upcoming vehicles, allowing both companies to collect road data, like lane markings and construction signs, for cloud-based realtime maps. The constantly updated navigation system can be used to develop advanced driver assist systems, and eventually, self-driving cars.

The future of autonomous driving depends on the ability to create and maintain precise high-definition maps and scale them at minimal cost, said Amnon Shashua, chief technology officer at Mobileye.

The partnership with Volkswagen marks the first time an automaker is using Mobileyes mapping technology, known as Road Experience Management, in its vehicles. The sensor supplier said it is hoping to sign similar agreements with other automakers to increase the amount of data collected and create more accurate maps.

In December, Mobileye said it was collaborating with intelligent mapping company Here to share road and navigation data.

The agreement with Volkswagen, signed on Feb. 10, will go into effect in 2018.

VW CEO slams infighting as spat escalates over worker agreement

VW works council says talks over strategy pact broken off without results

Automakers press Trump to review 2025 mpg targets

Ex-VW chairman Piech refuses to testify in German emissions inquiry

VW's U.S. comeback faces roadblock from Trump tax on Mexican Beetles

Piech returns to settle old scores in diesel scandal

VW mulls action against Piech over diesel claims against board

Original post:

VW plans to use Mobileye sensing and localization technology - Automotive News (subscription) (blog)

Technological advances have provided immense improvements in our lives, but often with a hidden cost. Even the historic skills of bronze and iron working were driven by a desire not only for ploughs and tools, but for better weapons of war. This is still the case for much of modern science. Technical knowledge has helped to combat diseases, improve health, provide more food, offer faster travel, or ease hardship, and this is progress. We like novelty and innovation, but forget they happen at the limits of our understanding. We rarely see, or cannot predict, potential dangers. Innovation and knowledge are expanding at unprecedented rates, but we individually understand an ever-smaller percentage of the total.

The numbers of our daily exchanges of emails, phone calls, texts, photographs, and blogs was unimaginable just a few years ago. We receive them but ignore, delete, or forget them far faster than we did with hand-written letters and photographs. Technological progress means the life expectancy of stored data is rapidly shortening as our computer systems evolve and old data are incompatible with the modern storage and software technologies. We have photos of grandparents but do not expect electronic pictures to survive for our grandchildren. Stone carvings did not say much, but they exist.

Unexpected dangers lie in our reliance on computers and communications that are dependent on electrical power, optical fibre links, and satellites. Satellites are crucial for communications yet they have a finite life expectancy, and can fragment into thousands of high speed components that will destroy other satellites. This is a runaway situation, and current plans to improve data rates by doubling the number may mean satellite-based technology is doomed within a few decades. Failed satellites already contribute to a myriad of orbiting fragments, so further collisions are inevitable. Chunks as small as a mobile phone, at orbital speeds, can have kinetic energy 500 times greater than a military tank shell. Impacts are spectacular. Satellite technology may self-destruct; only the time scale is uncertain. Political, or terrorist, acts could rapidly remove satellites.

Such dangers are predictable, unlike natural phenomena such as sunspot emissions which strike the Earth. They make beautiful aurora in the night sky, but have destroyed power networks. We are vulnerable as we are totally dependent on electrical power, electronics, and satellites. Major solar emissions that intersect our Earths orbit are inevitable, and they can cause a total loss of power in advanced societies, including the destruction of satellites. The consequences are so horrendous that few people wish to consider them.

The tangible benefits of technological progress are wonderful, but are matched by irreversible damage to our global resources. To support almost eight billion people, our attempts to provide sufficient food are made with limited regard to the land or other creatures, and we have destroyed cultures and hundreds of languages. Crop yields and health care have advanced with the aid of drugs and chemicals but they are not, and cannot be, confined to their original locations. Food and water supplies are seriously contaminated with a cocktail of chemicals and drugs which no earlier civilization has ever experienced. Despite warnings and research, the potential for allergies, ill health, and mutagenic and fertility changes are ignored by the majority. Humans have always been concerned with the present, self-interest, and profit. This is why we have advanced. The difference now is that we have outgrown our potential resources.

Technologies isolate many people from society, especially the poor or elderly. Our dependence on computers offers an obvious example as the changing systems are expensive or too complex for such people. Instead of benefitting them, they are side-lined. Further, the technologies are invariably designed by, and for, the young, who cannot appreciate how age has reduced sight, sensitivity to pale colours in display contrast, or manual dexterity. Lack of understanding can equally increase vulnerability to computer scams on their data and money. Technology is spawning an exponential growth in cyber-crime. This is globally running at many billions of dollars per year, and steeply rising.

I am highlighting dangers of new technologies that are often unexpected and unforeseen. They are hidden by very positive aspects of new science, but are placing advanced civilizations in danger of a sudden and total collapse. My comments are not anti-technology, but are intended to raise awareness of our vulnerability to the dangers that exist. It is absolutely essential that we recognise this and actively make contingency planning to minimise undesirable consequences. There is urgency, otherwise advanced civilizations will crash within decades. Over exploitation of resources can be addressed if we have the political will. It needs governments with intelligence to recognise that there are natural disasters, such as the sunspot emissions, that are inevitable. These can strikeat any time, and we must have contingency measures in place.

Featured Image credit: Satellite by PIRO4D. CC0 Public Domain viaPixabay.

Read more here:

How dangerous is technology? - OUPblog (blog)

Merry Christmas. Happy birthday. Happy Darwin Day?

In the long list of observed holidays, Darwin Day may seem like a weird one to celebrate. But as the father of evolutionary thought, our buddy Charlie has given us plenty to consider, and changed everything we understand about ourselves and our world.

Gary Vaynerchuk was so impressed with TNW Conference 2016 he paused mid-talk to applaud us.

While this is a great day to sit back, grab a copy of Origin of Species, and revel in all that humanity has done for science and reason, this post is written to do quite the opposite.

Instead of diving into Darwins discovery of natural selection, Id rathertouch upon how the advent of modern technology has made us dumber. Not in a blatant Darwin Awards aspect, but in a more subtle and possibly more disastrous way.

The internet has only been around some 20-odd years, yet its hard to imagine life without it. I live abroad, but am able to stay in touch with friends and family across theglobe. And in a world as vast as ours, the net has given us instant access to a myriad of information otherwise impossible.

Make no mistake, Im not demonizing the Web, but our dependence on it has asinister side turning our thoughts into a scattered and superficial mess with its constant distractions.

You cant go a minute without checking your textsor see whos favorited your most recent tweet. I, myself, have checked my social media accounts four times while writing this. Being always connected has become almost as habitual as breathing. And yetwe cant rememberhow we got to this point.

As Roman philosopher Seneca put it: To be everywhere is to be nowhere.

Its not the internet thats to blame, however, but our own craving for distraction.

When were constantly distracted and interrupted, our brains cant forge the neural connections that give distinctiveness and depth to our thinking.

In an experiment at Stanford University, it was determined that our thoughts become disjointed with increased distractions and multitasking. As such, were much less able to distinguish important information from the trivial stuff.

You can barely navigate the internet without coming across fake news. I cant recall when the flair for the dramatic became the norm, but when clickbait titles were no longer shiny and new, publishers had to resort to other creative tactics for traffic. Combine this with anyone and everyone having the ability to publish and post online andyou have this new obsession with100 percent misleading news.

While people are quick to blame the publishers, its the millions of people who cant be bothered to pick up a newspaper or find a decent online source. Not to mention those who cant tell the difference between Breitbart and The Associated Press.

If you cant name your two US senators, you are not all of a sudden an expert in governmental proceedings. Yet everyone believes they are. They believe their opinion is on par with facts. This is just one way lies and conspiracy theories routinely gain credibility. Add a bit of bias to the mix and youve got the perfect mathematical equation as to why false new stories are sopersuasive.

Thats exactly why fact-checking doesnt work anymore. As Susan Glasser, former editor of Politico, explains Even fact-checking perhaps the most untruthful candidate of our lifetime didnt work; the more news outlets did it, the less the facts resonated.

But fake news isnt solely damaging to the people its targeted towards. Pizzagate wasnt just a funny name to a fake conspiracy, it motivated a lone gunman to enter a restaurant with a loaded weapon.

Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel wrote that only when we pay close attention to information are we able to associate it meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts and critical thinking.

Unfortunately, we now live in a world where you dont need to think to do anything. Weve become dependent on the internet to collect information instead of looking to ourselves to problem-solve. Everything from news to opinions tolocations are just a Google-search away.

As technology advances and social media algorithms continue to only show things it perceives welike, wewill continue to live in an echo-chamber of ouropinion and those that think exactly like us.

Its up to us as a society to keep ourselves informed and educated, not be dependent upon technology to do it for us.

Read next: Review: Aerix's Vidius HD packs a lot of fun into a tiny drone

Read more:

How technology is encouraging society to be stupid - The Next Web

February 13, 2017 SIAT graduate student Azadeh Foirghani demonstrates the Flex N Feel glove. Credit: Simon Fraser University

Long-distance couples can share a walk, watch movies together, and even give each other a massage, using new technologies being developed in Carman Neustaedter's Simon Fraser University lab.

It's all about feeling connected, says Neustaedter, an associate professor in SFU's School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT). Student researchers in his Surrey campus-based Connections Lab are working on myriad solutions.

Among them, researchers have designed a pair of interconnected gloves called Flex-N-Feel. When fingers 'flex' in one glove, the actions are transmitted to a remote partner wearing the other. The glove's tactile sensors allow the wearer to 'feel' the movements.

To capture the flex actions, the sensors are attached to a microcontroller. The sensors provide a value for each bend, and are transmitted to the 'feel' glove using a WiFi module.

The sensors are also placed strategically on the palm side of the fingers in order to better feel the touch. A soft-switch on both gloves also allows either partner to initiate the touch.

"Users can make intimate gestures such as touching the face, holding hands, and giving a hug," says Neustaedter. "The act of bending or flexing one's finger is a gentle and subtle way to mimic touch."

The video will load shortly

The gloves are currently a prototype and testing continues. While one set of gloves enables one-way remote touch between partners, Neustaedter says a second set could allow both to share touches at the same time.

Other projects also focus on shared experiences, including a virtual reality video conferencing system that lets one "see through the eyes" of a remote partner, and another that enables users to video-stream a remote partner's activities to a long-distance partner at home (called Be With Me).

Meanwhile the researchers are also studying how next-generation telepresence robots can help unite couples and participate in activities together.

They've embedded a robot, designed by Suitable Technologies, into several Vancouver homes. There, it connects to countries around the world, including India and Singapore. Researchers continue to monitor how the robot is used. One long-distance couple plans a Valentine's Day 'date' while one partner is in Vancouver, and the other, on Vancouver Island.

"The focus here is providing that connection, and in this case, a kind of physical body," says Neustaedter, who has designed and built eight next-generation telepresence systems for families, and is author of Connecting Families: The Impact of New Communication Technologies on Domestic Life (2012). He has also spent more than a decade studying workplace collaborations over distance, including telepresence attendance at international conferences.

"Long-distance relationships are more common today, but distance don't have to mean missing out on having a physical presence and sharing space," says Neustaedter. "If people can't physically be together, we're hoping to create the next best technological solutions."

Explore further: Review: High-tech gloves work as advertised

Connected wearables. It's a fancy term for gadgets built into clothing or accessories you wear like a smartwatch or fitness monitor or even a Bluetooth headset.

A 'smart glove' that translates sign language from hand gestures to visual text on a screen and audible dialogue has been developed by a Goldsmiths, University of London student. She's now working on an app to enable real-time ...

(Phys.org)Google has been granted a patent for devices and methods for getting information with one's hands. Their patent is titled "Seeing with your Hand."

Watching 'box-sets' and movies together can improve relationship quality and commitment, particularly in couples who don't share friends, according to research from the University of Aberdeen.

Rice University engineering students are working to make virtual reality a little more real with their invention of a glove that allows a user to feel what they're touching while gaming.

People improve their performance more when they practise with a partner rather than on their own, according to a new study.

Long-distance couples can share a walk, watch movies together, and even give each other a massage, using new technologies being developed in Carman Neustaedter's Simon Fraser University lab.

The Google Chromebook, a type of stripped-down laptop, isn't a practical mobile device for many peoplemostly because it basically turns into an expensive paperweight whenever it can't find a Wi-Fi connection.

Reliability measures of electrical grid has risen to a new norm as it involves physical security and cybersecurity. Threats to either can trigger instability, leading to blackouts and economic losses.

Researchers at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea will be working to develop a new battery, using abundant and readily available seawater.

Microsoft virtual assistant Cortana began holding people to their promises on Thursday.

If you've been dreaming for years about having your own R2-D2 or BB-8, get ready. Just don't expect your new robot companion to do too much, because you might be disappointed.

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

Original post:

Technology puts 'touch' into long-distance relationships - Phys.Org

While Apple is typically very cautious when discussing upcoming products and technologies, the companys interest in augmented reality is hardly a well-kept secret. In addition to some notable hires in the AR space, Tim Cook seems to wax poetic about the potential of AR every single time the topic comes up. While it remains to be seen if Apples interest in AR will ultimately manifest in a pair of AR-powered glasses or perhaps an iPhone with some intriguing built-in AR capabilities,its probably only a matter of time before we see what Apples engineers and researchers have been cooking up over at 1 Inifinte Loop.

Underscoring the degree to which Apple views AR as an incredibly important and powerful technology, Tim Cook, during a recent interview with The Independent, boldly claimed that AR is as big of an idea as the smartphone was way back when.

Im excited about Augmented Reality because unlike Virtual Reality which closes the world out, Cook explained, AR allows individuals to be present in the world but hopefully allows an improvement on whats happening presently. Most people dont want to lock themselves out from the world for a long period of time and today you cant do that because you get sick from it. With AR you can, not be engrossed in something, but have it be a part of your world, of your conversation. That has resonance.

Notably, this isnt the first time that Cook has championed AR at the expense of VR. This is particularly interesting given some calls for Apple to enter the VR space, especially now that other high-tech companies like Facebook, Samsung, Google and others have entered the space. Incidentally, weve seen a handful of reports claiming that Apple will release a pair of AR-powered glasses by 2018.

Articulating why he believes that AR is as big of an idea as the smartphone, Cooks enthusiasm was hard to miss:

The smartphone is for everyone, Cook added, we dont have to think the iPhone is about a certain demographic, or country or vertical market: its for everyone. I think AR is that big, its huge. I get excited because of the things that could be done that could improve a lot of lives. And be entertaining. I view AR like I view the silicon here in my iPhone, its not a product per se, its a core technology. But there are things to discover before that technology is good enough for the mainstream. I do think there can be a lot of things that really help people out in daily life, real-life things, thats why I get so excited about it.

All in all, its starting to look like the next two years may include a few watershed moments for Apple. Aside from Apples ongoing interest in AR, the upcoming 2017 iPhone 8 is starting to look like it will be worth every bit of the $1,000 that Apple will reportedly price it at.

Read the rest here:

Tim Cook: Augmented Reality is as big of a technology as the smartphone - BGR

Kimball Perry The Columbus Dispatch @kimballperry

Governments across Franklin County are sharing technology to prepare for cellphone texts to 911.

"That's all part of the next generation of 911 going on across the country," said William Vedra Jr., Grove City's safety director.

Governments will continue to operate their communication centers that receive 911 calls and dispatch police officers and firefighters, but the technology sharing will help dispatchers across Franklin County receive texts from cellphones.

Instead of each government in the county spending $650,000 to buy and maintain the system to handle texts to 911, just three will do that. The others can get texts to 911, but those texts will be routed through Columbus, Dublin or Gahanna. The other governments will help pay for the text-to-911 systems.

Under the program:

Columbus will share text-to-911 technology with Franklin County and Grove City.

Dublin will share with Westerville and Delaware.

Gahanna will share with a group of agencies most of themfire departments in eastern Franklin County.

Other Franklin County communities such as Worthington don't have the wireless equipment and therefore aren't certified by the federal government to directly receive texts to 911. Instead, those communities will be "nodes" off the larger systems and have texts relayed to them.

Columbus, Dublin and Gahanna will own and maintain the computers, software and equipment that allows them to receive texts to 911. That equipment will, "within milliseconds," Vedra said, reroute texts to 911 to their partner governments' 911 centers.

For example, after implementation, when someone is in Grove City and uses a cellphone to text to 911 for help, the text will go to the system in Columbus and immediately be rerouted to Grove City, where authorities will respond.

The savings come because each government with a 911 communication center won't have to buy the new text-to-911 equipment and software or have to pay to maintain it.

"The technology is such that there's no reason" for each government to buy the same equipment, Grove City Mayor Richard "Ike" Stage said.

Although cellphones are ubiquitous, few 911 centersare capable of receiving texts to 911. In Ohio, three counties do that: Butler, Geauga and Hamilton.

"It could ensure saving a life," saidCecilia Weirick, Franklin County's regional 911 communications coordinator.

A voice call to 911 is preferred, but texts can be made when callers can't or shouldn't talk.Central Ohio's deaf community, domestic-violence victims or those hiding from potentially deadly situations will be better able to silently contact law enforcement.

"It's becoming, as it is in everyday life, a key communication tool," Stage said of texting. "The impact is it's a changing technology, a changing mode of communication."

The technology is being shared because governments expect an exponential increase in texts to 911 that soon also will include texting photos or videos seeking help.

"You as a citizen will not notice anything. You'll probably wind up getting better service," Weirick said.

The text-to-911 system is expected to be implemented by the summer.

kperry@dispatch.com

@kimballperry

Continued here:

Franklin County's 911 centers sharing technology to receive texts - Columbus Dispatch

Forbes

A New Angel Investing Platform Connects Deep Technology And Science Startups With Capital Forbes There are two stories that have come across my radar in the past year that have reinforced many the things that frustrate me about tech startups and venture capital: the well-known story of Stanford-dropout Elizabeth Holmes and the implosion of life ...

Link:

A New Angel Investing Platform Connects Deep Technology And Science Startups With Capital - Forbes

Add to favorites

As we leave the relational-dominated world behind, consolidation and market transformation is clearly coming, says Neo Technologys Emil Eifrem. But who will emerge as the next Oracle or DB2?

Ten years ago, there was no story when it came to databases. SQL dominated.

Fast forward, and interest and innovation around new database approaches has increased. The result: the rapid development of a very diverse set of alternative, NoSQL database models. Overnight, we went from a handful of options to hundreds, as the industry weighed different ways of working with information in different shapes, sizes and forms.

Developers have since tested and introduced dozens of new data models, including key-value, column-family and where my company has made its stand, graph databases. Without a doubt, weve seen relational databases maintain a strong position in the market.

However, weve also seen the emergence of a variety of alternatives to the SQL Servers, Oracles and DB2s ranging from niche to mainstream, with countless options in between. Currently, DB-Engines counts more than 300 different options a huge array of choices that point to a creativity in the marketplace as customers solve increasingly complex problems.

However, in a competitive market that large number isnt going to last forever. Were at a crossroads for database technology. When we look to the future, even just five years out, the world of data looks very different, a natural result of competition in the market as we settle on which databases have the ability to dramatically change business.

So, thats where the market stands with databases. But what happens when we zoom in on graph technology? Obviously, as the creator of Neo4j, Im biased towards that model. However, the figures show that this has seen impressive growth. And despite all of the competition vying for mindshare in the NoSQL space, weve seen graph database technology take first place as the fastest growing category of database of the last three years, according to DB-Engines.

What propels this growth and graph technologys commercial success is the belief that with graph databases the relationships between data are cherished, treated like first-class entities, on a par with the data itself. Those relationships are critical, because as enterprises become more technologically savvy, the value placed on connected data has increased.

The worlds top businesses are looking to connect everything supply chain, CRM, marketing technology, logistics, customers data, payment history, social media posts, and other things we havent figured out are significant yet making the value of these connections rapidly increase.

Organisations around the world realise that, in terms of data, a connected enterprise is more effective, and far more profitable, than the disconnected one. Graph and NoSQLs first years have been marked by rapid growth, but I believe that in 2017 and the years beyond, graph technology will become an enterprise standard for every Fortune 500 company.

Things have changed. The question is, is your organisation grasping the opportunity that change offers or not?

Go here to read the rest:

Graph Technology A Data Standby By For Every Fortune 500 Company - Computer Business Review

A few years back, there was a lot of talk about Tesla potentially using a metal-air/li-ion hybrid powertrain to enable a longer range and faster charging in future vehicles. Theres no doubt that the company worked on such a system since they applied for several patents related to the tech, but that was mainly back in 2010 when they were still very much in the heavy development work for the Model S.

At this point, it looks like Tesla is very committed to li-ion batteries and metal-air doesnt seem to be on the map anymore, but the company was recently granted another patent related to emerging battery technology.

A metal-air battery uses a metal as an anode just like a li-ion battery, but oxygen drawn in from the environmentis used as the cathode.

It enables a much lighter cell and therefore, it offers apotentialto achieve a greater energy density. In EVs, it means a potentially greater range.

Tesla had previously filed patent applications for a hybrid system that could use both a li-ion battery pack and ametal-air battery pack, which would act as a zero-emission range extender.

Several companies are working on similar technologies, but it has nevermaterializedin a commercially available electric vehicle yet.

On January 31, Tesla was granted another patent for the technology. This one is about charging a metal-air battery. Heres the abstract from the patent application:

A method for charging a metal-air battery pack at the maximum possible rate while maintaining an ambient oxygen concentration below a preset concentration is provided, thereby minimizing the risks associated with generating oxygen during the charging cycle.

It was first filed in 2010 when Tesla first started applying for metal-air patents, but it was then modifiedin 2013 when Tesla started being granted patents for the technology. Now it was finally granted a few weeks ago:

Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel is listed as one of the inventors of the new patented technology.

Of course, Tesla has open-sourced all its patents back in 2013 and therefore, any company can use this one like the others as long as it is with the goal of making electric vehicles.

The company still files for patents though not as often as it used to but with the goal of protecting itself from being blocked by some other corporation trying to patent to same technologies.

Also, its noteworthy that the fact that it was granted a new patent on metal-air doesnt mean that Tesla is any closer to incorporating the tech into its vehicle line-up.

There are problems with metal-air battery technology that need to be solved in order for it to be used in electric vehicles, especially life cycle and cost. In the patent (see in full below), Tesla asserts that the new charging method addresses some of the issues, like managing the supply of air during the charge cycle.

Maybe we will one day see a breakthrough and the patented tech will become useful or maybe the energy density of li-ion batteries is improving too quicklyfor metal-air to matter any longer.

Original post:

Tesla obtains patent for charging metal-air battery technology that could enable longer range - Electrek