Juxi's log

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anybody here using Foursquare already? Location is supposed to be "the future" (this time)

• Foursquare is now being widely touted as the app which will, after years of anticipation and prediction, mark the beginning of "life as a game" computing. Whatever you do, wherever you go, you will be scoring points, earning "medals", and be in, at the very least, social competition with other users around you.
• Privacy seems to be very low down their priorities. In theory, if every user knows the risks, this is fine. But they just don't. It's being targeted at 18 to 25-year-olds. Facebook was forced in the end to change its default privacy settings due to public concerns. Foursquare should do the same. Some people are even checking in when they're at home. Think of the implications. It's crazy
• Recruitment is a form of stalking, I suppose. But I can now see the negative implications of Foursquare in the real world.
• Ten days ago Foursquare reached the two-million-users landmark, just three months after it had reached the one-million mark. A week earlier, the company received $20m in venture capital from a who's who of Silicon Valley luminaries. It appears the trajectory for Foursquare is only upwards. But as the critical mass of Foursquare users swells and intensifies over the coming months and years, the concerns over privacy are likely to magnify. In June, Webroot, a Denver-based internet security firm, surveyed 1,645 users of "geo-location-ready mobile devices", including 624 in the UK: 29% said they shared their location with people other than their friends; 31% said they accepted a friend request from a stranger; and, yet, 55% still said they were worried about their loss of privacy.

Tags: tech technology INF fun privacy geo location social networks

• Darpa-backed electrical engineers at the two schools released the stunning results: a shape-shifting sheet of rigid tiles and elastomer joints that can fold itself into a little plane or a boat on demand.
• In Darpa’s dreams, this work will eventually lead to everything from morphing aircraft to self-styling uniforms to a “universal spare part.”

Tags: INF robotics smart materials darpa transform technology

• So let's recap here: ubiquitous uniformly-powdery lunar soil can be very efficiently fused using microwaves. That sounds very similar to technologies used in 3D printing,

Tags: moon construction technology space printing rapid manufacturing

Tags: cubesat uk technology payload competition

• TED, Microsoft showed off its "virtual human" technology, named Milo, designed for the company's hands-free Xbox 360 motion controller called Kinect at TED Global in Oxford. Milo is built to react to people's emotions, body movements, and voice, allowing players to interact with the virtual character.

Tags: virtual human microsoft fun science AI technology INF

Tags: tech cloud computing stack open source INF technology

useful for space?

Tags: open source hardware standard licensing technology

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