The "Stretch Armstrong" of Batteries 

'Flexible' And 'Stretchable' Are Distant Cousins 

Surprisingly enough, there’s a lot of academic research into the digital versus paper maps issue. Paul Clough, Senior Lecturer in the Information School at the University of Sheffield, conducted one of these  studies and found that, aside from the fact that we still like paper versions of things (books, magazines), we trust paper maps more. Whether it’s because of technical difficulties with apps, or fear of running out of battery power, the usability and reliability of paper maps still fare better than digital. Even if you do look like a freakin' tourist if you unfold a paper map on a city street.

Apple Maps Isn't The Only Epic Fail

As you well know, last year's introduction of Apple Maps was an epic failure. Missing bridges, improperly placed landmarks, directions to places that never existed and stranded tourists topped the list of Apple Map fails. A life-endangering situation befell a group in Australia when they were following directions to what they had believed to be Mildura, a vibrant city of 30,000 people in Victoria. Instead, they ended up stranded for 24 hours in a national park in the outback wilderness - in 115-degree heat with no food or water. Turns out that Apple Maps plotted the city of Mildura 40 miles away from its actual location. 

But Apple can't be blamed for last week super-duper-epic-digital-mapping fail: The USS Guardian ran aground on a reef in the Philippine Sea. The Tubbataha Reef is an environmentally sensitive natural park, and the Guardian was navigating through the area without the clearance. When officials informed the Guardian that it had entered a restricted area, and would have to be boarded and inspected, the ship replied: “Take it to the U.S. Embassy.” And then it hit the reef and got stuck.

No one was injured and no fuel oil leaked, but the damage to the reef may be extensive. And the Navy has decided to scrap the $277 milllion ship, cutting it into three parts to remove it from the reef without further damage. Plus, the U.S. is facing huge fines and an investigation from the Philippine government. 

So what's the connection to digital maps?

A few days after the incident, the Navy revealed that the digital maps the Guardian used to navigate misplaced the reef by about eight nautical miles, a little more than 9 miles. The Navy has since advised other ships to compare electronic charts to paper ones before following directions.

Durable And Valuable 

Dr. Clough said in an email to ReadWrite that experts and professionals in certain fields, including military personnel, often value paper more than digital mapping software. His study found that while users liked digital maps for planning short and long distance travel, when it came to traveling on foot, paper was preferred due to its durability and portability. 

Not to say that digital mapping isn't more than good enough for most applications. But it may be a good idea for users to refrain from putting their complete trust and faith in any mapping app. Having a paper backup plan may be a good idea. 

Clough pointed out the irony of the common practice of printing out Google Maps as a convenient backup when navigating. He added, “ I think paper is here to stay for the foreseeable future.”

1. National Mission Forces
2. Combat Mission Forces
3. Cyber Protection Forces

Department Of Offense

Each team serves as an offensive front against potential cyber attacks. The National Mission Force will protect computer networks for infrastructure like electrical grids, telecommunications and power plants from overseas attacks. The Combat Mission Force will provide assistance to the military to respond or implement cyber attacks of their own; and the Cyber Protection Force will add protection levels to Department of Defense websites. (Even though they aren’t DoD, the Department of Justice certainly could have used some protection when Anonymous hacked the U.S. Sentencing Commission twice in tribute to Aaron Swartz.)

With the recent cuts to the Department of Defense’s budget, questions are being raised about where the money to pay these people is going to come from. If the shift happens without adding many new members to the force, possibly by moving people from non-cyber positions to cyber ones, there shouldn’t be a problem. However, if the change requires lots of new people, there could be budgetary issues and Congress may have to get involved. 

Shifting some of its cyber defenses to offensive roles is a different move for the DoD. However, with the rise in cyber crime and cyber warfare, it’s no surprise that the Pentagon is taking this action. The general consensus seems to be that the military has to add cyber attacks to its arsenal of traditional warfare capabilities. Even the current Secretary of Defense seems to think so. In New York last fall, Leon Panetta said, “A cyber attack perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups could be as destructive as the terrorist attack of 9/11.” he added that an attack like that could paralyze the nation. 

Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), said in an email to ReadWrite that cyber attacks are becoming more attractive as a means of warfare because they can be launched from anywhere, and don’t always come from the usual suspects: “Cyber attacks can be launched by groups that may not be aligned with nation states.” 

Are There Enough Cyber Soldiers Available To Meet The Demand?

The demand for skilled and qualified personnel is there, but is there skilled manpower available to fill that need?

Cyber attacks are expensive, dangerous and can hit anyone from the federal government to national banks. Many companies and government agencies will be in a bidding war to get these people on their team. Kaiser says that the demand for professionals in this field ranges from 30,000 to 2 million. According to a report on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” there are currently only about 1,000 qualified people nationwide. 

It’s not just hacking, specialists need to know how to clean networks that have been compromised, how to reverse engineer malware and how to develop offensive capabilities for the agency they work for, among many other things. According to eWeek, experts say training a college grad to protect networks could take as many as 2,000 hours. 

Companies like defense contractor Northrop Grumman are working with universities nationwide to drum up interest in the cyber security field, even going as far as developing high school programs. A spokesperson from Northrop Grumman, Marynoele Benson, said that its efforts are “aimed at filling the pipeline of needed cyber pros across all sectors of industry and the government.” 

Hopefully, the interest in cyber defense will grow more quickly than the incidents of attack. 

Lead image courtesy of  Stuart Monk / Shutterstock. Seal courtesy of U.S. Cyber Command.

While potentially annoying, these kinds of tweets may help predict and monitor how illnesses like influenza are moving across the country. A new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (yes, that's real) from Brigham Young University's Computer Science department has been able to track illness trends by analyzing the location data of tweets referencing illness. 

Location, Location, Location...

The BYU team did not track any certain sickness during this trial, instead concentrating on location data. The ultimate goal of the study was to encourage the creation of a program that health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and even smaller city-based organizations could use to track the progression of any disease across the nation. This would give health officials a heads up if a outbreak is headed their way.  

Other online services track disease too, such Google Flu Trends, which uses search terms and results, as well as data from the CDC to specifically track the flu. Another site, MappyHealth, uses location data from Twitter to track illnesses ranging from pertussis to STDs. While these sites are similar to the work done at BYU, the research team mainly sees them as validation to what it originally thought was possible with tweet tracking.

Associate Professor of Computer Science at BYU and lead researcher Christophe Giraud-Carrier said in an email that the method his research team developed can pick up epidemics up to two weeks before the CDC can. "That kind of lead time would greatly help put the resources where they are most needed and in a more timely fashion."

Those two weeks can make a big difference. The influenza vaccine takes about two weeks to be effective at preventing the flu. If health officials were have that kind of lead time, vaccinations could be targeted at areas that seem to be outbreak locations. 

Why Twitter? 

With all of the different types of social media, why choose Twitter? Tweets are public by default, which makes them easier to monitor. The site provides independent researchers a way to monitor users without having to engage them, require them to remember anything or take a test. No one was asked to turn on the location option for their tweets, so the location data that is gathered should be an accurate portrayal of the country.

The site's terms and conditions when it comes to its application programming interface (API) also made it very easy for the research team to follow tweets en masse: 24 million tweets by 10 million different users were tracked by the research team. 

Location data wasn't gathered from tweets themselves. Only about 2% of users actually tagged their location in their tweets. Researchers found a better option to decipher location: User profiles. About 17% of the tweets monitored had users that provided location data on their profile. While some users had fake locations like "a cube world in Minecraft," 88% of the time the provided location data was accurate and useful because it provided a distribution of geolocated tweets across the country. This correlated with the overall distribution of the overall U.S. population. 

Of the tweets tracked, 15% contained specific location data. This may not seem like much, but Giraud-Carrier explained that this percentage is actually very good: "15% is indeed relatively small. But with over 312 million Americans, it still gives us a lot of people to look at/listen to. The fact that the distribution is consistent with the population is also encouraging. We do not want to overstate what is possible, but there seems to be a critical mass here that should allow useful things to be done."

Giraud-Carrier wants the study to serve as proof of the quality and value of geolocation data on Twitter, adding that social media should be used not only as a means of prevention, but also intervention. 

Image courtesy of Brigham Young University.

That's the conclusion of a new study from UC San Diego, published in the journal Memory and Cognition.

The study started out as an examination of the effects of various emotions on memory.  Along the way, researchers found that people had a really good memory for Facebook posts. They decided to take this find to another level by experimenting the effects of microblogging (like Facebook posts) on memory. 

Facebook Versus Faces and Books

The first two experiments had undergrads from UCSD in two groups. In the first experiment, one group read Facebook status updates and one read sentences from published books. The status updates came from real people’s pages and ranged from “The library is a place to study, not to talk on your phone” to “I am 7,689 days old.”

The book examples were selected from Amazon’s newest releases and chosen randomly. They were equally easy to read, if not better crafted: “Even honor had its limits,” and “How did he end up in this family?” The second experiment tested Facebook memorability against facial recognition. Two hundred neutral faces were picked from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) facial recognition database, FERET.

During testing, each group was shown one hundred blocks of text. Afterwards, they had to perform a test that mixed all of the sentences they saw among new “lures,” or new sentences, and choose which they saw during the test. The same was done for the pictures of faces. They rated their confidence in those choices at the end. In both cases, those in the Facebook group had more confidence than the other group, they were also more accurate in their recollection of messages. 

Two more experiments were done, one that asked testers to link sentences to how much they reminded them of someone they knew, and another that compared Facebook postings to CNN headlines. In each case, the same result rang true: Microblog posts were more memorable. 

Natural Speech Patterns Are More Memorable

Facebook posts are generated by regular people, because of that they are closer to tapping into the basic language capacities of our minds than professionally crafted sentences.  If you use thoughts expressed through microblogs as an example, the natural pattern of human thinking is similar to gossip.

The study claims, “The relatively unfiltered and spontaneous production of one person’s mind is just the sort of thing that is readily stored in another’s mind.” Adding that while published text may be beautifully written or carefully edited, it doesn’t resonate as easily with our memory as naturally-generated information. 

While microblogging isn’t changing anything about our memory, it is giving us an insight into how it works, says Dr. Laura Mickes, a senior research fellow at the University of Warwick and a lead researcher on the project. “I am not sure if microblogging is necessarily changing the way we think," she says via email, "but I do think that the way we microblog taps into the way we have always colloquially communicated with one another.”

Image Courtesy of Shuttershock  

Cisco VoIP phones sit on some 50 million businesses and government office desks across the country and around the world. Take a peek in the Oval Office or on Air Force One, you'll find them there, too. 

VoIP phones use the Internet - instead of a standard phone network - to transmit voice calls, text messages and faxes instead of a standard phone network. Internet phone service is much cheaper than traditional phone service, while the phones are as easy to use as any office phone system. But according to Ang Cui, a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, and Dr. Sal Stolfo, they're also a big potential security threat. And it's not just Cisco phones - all VoIP phones are potentially susceptible to this flaw.

Hardware Flaw Déjà Vu

If the names Cui and Stolfo sound familiar, it's probably because they aren't new to the flaw-finding game. They made a similar discovery last year with HP printers that could be controlled remotely to collect information and attack other networks, due to a flaw very similar to the one they found in the phones. 

This time around, the duo was looking at a bug that shows up in 14 models of Cisco VoIP phones. The vulnerabilities lie in the phone's firmware, specifically in the kernel system calls. Kernels are the core of the operating system and help manage a computer's resources (CPU, memory, apps). Receiving a system call means an application running on the device wants to access hardware on the device, but needs approval from the kernel first. The bug allows hackers to easily bypass the kernel to access a VoIP device's hardware.  

These phones aren’t just phones, Cui explained to NBC News, they are “general-purpose computers jammed into a plastic case to make you think it’s a phone.” Inside that plastic case is a system on a chip (SoC), RAM, flash memory and a network card. Add a microphone and an off-hook switch that activates the microphone when the handset is picked up, and you've got yourself a VoIP phone.

Let Your Fingers Do The Hacking

Cui and another researcher on the project, Michael Costello, demonstrated the hack at the the Chaos Communications Conference in December. The hack requires a plug-in device to insert malicious code (lovingly referred to as "ThingP3WN3r" at the conference demo), but it needs only one phone or device to access the whole network. The fact that this is a physical attack mitigates the danger of this vulnerability. But the amount of time needed to perform this physical attack is just seconds, so even an un-monitored lobby phone could serve as a potential vector for attack. A quick chat with the receptionist outside an office, or a visitors booth with a VoIP phone will do nicely. Once loaded onto the phone, the malware rewrites the onboard software so that the phone is virtually taken off the hook.

Usually, when you pick up the phone to make a call, an LED indicator light comes on or an icon pops up on the screen. The rewritten code disables those indicators and turns on the handset's microphone so that any conversation nearby can be heard and transcribed back to a central server. Which, at this point, is being controlled by the hacker. 

Not Exploited Yet?

In an email to ReadWrite, Cui wrote that he couldn’t say whether the vulnerability has been exploited yet, “I will say that if a competent hacker looked at the code running in these phones, the vulnerability is not difficult to find and is straightforward to exploit.” Cui also claimed that currently no one can tell if a vulnerable phone has been compromised, because there’s no way to look into the phone to see if the software has been tampered with. 

The researchers told Cisco about the vulnerability last Fall in a report. It was acknowledged and within two weeks Cisco had provided a patch to fix the bug. Two weeks later, Cui and Stolfo downloaded the patch and sent a second report to Cisco that it didn't work. There is currently a security alert listed on the company's website with a more detailed account of the flaw. Cisco says it is working on rewriting the firmware and hopes to have a permanent fix ready by January 21. (Cisco did not respond to a request for comment.)

Cui and Stolfo have developed their own fix, called Software Symbiotes, which they plan to demo at the RSA Conference in San Francisco in February. The defensive technology will live alongside executable code or arbitrary software to ensure that it works properly. Symbiotes, according to Cui, will be able to tell whether a system has been compromised, and either stop the malware or turn off the host device altogether. 

Until then, users of Cisco and other VoIP devices should be sure their devices are properly patched, or else watch what they say around the office.

The app lets customers watch TV with a Roku device instead of the standard company-issued cable box. The service won't cost anything extra, but users must be current Time Warner Cable subscribers - there needs to be at least one cable receiver in the home. So at best, the Roku device could be used as an alternative to a cable box for other rooms. 

The app is already available on PCs, iOS and Android devices. Adding Roku to the list seems to be another grudging grudging acknowledgement of the inevitable convergence of Cable TV and streaming Internet streaming TV. 

In an interview with Forbes, Roku CEO Anthony Wood said, "The big picture is that TV is moving to the Internet." While clearly biased in that direction, Wood is on the right side of history here.

As of last fall, some 425,000 households have dumped cable, 169,000 of them ending subscriptions with Time Warner. So maybe the company decided it was time to get ahead of the trend: "Adding TWC TV to Roku provides our customers with the ability to get even more enjoyment and content through their Roku device," wrote Maureen Huff, vice president of Public Relations at Time Warner, wrote in an email to ReadWrite. 

Cutting The Cord... Kinda

Time Warner is far from alone in trying to figure out how to get in front of the Internet TV parade without jeopardizing its existing business model. When it comes to streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV or Google TV, the partnerships you usually hear about typically involve individual channels or platforms like Netflix. However, other well-known providers are doing their version of accepting the Internet streaming revolution. Roku also partners with  DishNetwork, which offers its subscription-based Internet Protocol TV service on the Roku device to enable international programming sans satellite dish. Comcast's Xfinity recently made its OnDemand content available to subscribers using Xbox 360 and TiVo Premiere boxes.

Give Them What They Want 

But the cable and satellite providers remain wary of going too far too fast. That's no doubt why this new deal still requires users to have Time Warner Cable service, which severely limits its appeal. Requiring users to have a cable subscription to watch shows online - as certain partners have tried to pressure Hulu to do, for example - lets the providers test the waters without risk. Or much potential, of course.

The real break doesn't come until the cable/satellite companies begin offering online-only subscriptions that don't require a company-issued receiver. Such a strategy could help them win back subscribers who dumped them for Roku and other streaming services, but might also lead to mass defections.   

The TWC/Roku deal is another tacit admission from a cable giant that times are changing, and it may have to change along with them.  There are no easy, simple answers for the cable/satellite vendors, but they know that their business model is threatened and they're going to have to do something. Deals like this represent baby steps toward a solution, but that's about it. 

See also: Is Cable TV Tuning In Its Own Obsolescence? and Drowning Cable Industry Grabs At Tech Lifeline = Big Mistake?

Image courtesy of Roku. 

A Dumb Beginning

On January 2, 2012, in Scottsdale Arizona, six teenagers smashed in through the front door of the Scottsdale Quarter Apple Store. The armed teens made off with around $80,000 worth of iPads, MacBooks and iPads. Well, three of them did anyway. A taxi driver witnessed the event and followed them. The robbers fired shots at the driver, but missed,and three of them were caught by police shortly after. 

A Dumberer Middle

In September, a video of a car smashing into the facade of an Apple Store in California surfaced as perhaps the lowest point of the year in Apple Store crime. At the Apple Store in the Promenade Mall in Temecula, a blue BMW SUV served as a battering ram to the plate glass window of the store. Three men snatched display models of iPhones. This happened a week before the release of the iPhone 5. While this may seem like a clever move, as the thieves rammed their way out of the store, they left one vital clue behind… the car's license plate. 

We'll Always Have Paris

This most recent robbery at an Apple Store in the Opera section of Paris on New Years Eve ranked much higher on the smart scale. Because police were busy monitoring the festivities on the Champs-Elysées, there weren't a lot of eyes on the back door of the store at 9 pm, as four to five armed men forced their way in. They overpowered a janitor who was leaving for the night and made off with a little over €1 million worth of merchandise. Instead of taking individual items, the robbers grabbed boxes of stock and loaded them into a truck. The whole process took about 40 minutes. 

While it seems like the thieves were taking advantage of the light coverage of the Opera section of Paris, police officials were quick to tell The Telegraph that the New Years Eve party didn't deter from the everyday security of other parts of Paris. They did admit, however, that the crew was well organized, adding "Since the essential bulk of police forces were mobilized to patrol the Champs-Elysées, the thieves clearly profited from the opportunity to make their move." 

Not All Apple Robberies Happen At The Store

Numbers are still being calculated by officials at Apple, but this is likely the biggest Apple heist since November 2012, when $1.5 million worth of iPad minis were stolen in an inside job at JFK International Airport - reminiscent of the movie Goodfellas. 

Officials are viewing video of the robbery before releasing more specifics, according to an update from Le Figaro, the manager of the store will make a statement Wednesday afternoon. 

Image courtesy of pio3 / Shutterstock.com.

Anyone that uses Google to find adult images will likely notice something different when they type in their dirty little specifics: less skin, more filtering. The change isn't that huge, you just have to be a little more specific in what you're looking for. The update to the feature changed the SafeSearch options from "Strict", "Moderate" and "No Filtering" to whether or not to select "Filter explicit content," which seems to correlate to some combination of the old Moderate and Strict settings and filters out most anything that anyone could find objectionable.

Except medical content apparently. A search (research purposes only) for "penis" still yielded results of naked male organs. However, most of them where injured, sickly or replicas made from baked goods - not necessarily sexy. Parents of young children, or those who are really nit-picky about porn in their household can also lock SafeSearch so that no explicit content can ever be seen, even accidentally.

Some Folks Missing Stuff

This seemingly innocent change in the feature has made quite a few reddit users and bloggers pretty upset. The big deal seems to be that there was no mention that this change was coming before it actually happened. Google made the change only to the U.S. site (U.K. site still has the old version of SafeSearch) and went on about its day.

While there still hasn't been an official announcement, ZDNet pointed out that "This default setting, however, does appear to be more reminiscent of the 'Moderate' SafeSearch setting rather than a total overhaul to the system."

You Can Still Find Smut

If this change bugs you beyond belief and don't want to get specific with your Google search engine ICM has some advice. In a press statement, ICM Registry advises searchers to include "XXX" to their inquiry, where the results are expected to be the exact amount of explicit your were expecting to get. The release also includes a plug for its newly launched site, adding: "Of course age appropriate Internet users can best and most quickly find adult content through ICM’s www.search.xxx dedicated porn search engine too, without using the “XXX” trick."

As long as Google doesn't limit our ability to search for the latest "Tard the Grumpy Cat" meme or videos of dogs playing with Christmas ornaments, a few changes to the more-explicit content searches will probably be something most folks can get over.

Besides, other search engines, including Microsoft's Bing, still make it plenty easy to search for porn.

The Navy has long been a Windows-based organization, and adopting a mobile platform that shares an interface and applications with desktop Windows makes sense. However, the Navy has also been looking at the Android and iOS platforms.

Surprise! The Navy Cares About Security

The biggest issue, not surprisingly, is security. What kind of security does a mobile platform need to have to land a sensitive military contract? 

The current Department of Defense standard, Blackberry, just had its new Blackberry 10 FIPS 140-2 platform certified, even before it's been officially launched. FIPS 140-2 is a crucial certification for any device hoping to land a government contract because it means that the device is secure enough to handle encrypted data. 

NIST Guidelines

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) put together a set of guidelines that outlines the standard security capabilities devices must have to be secure enough for use in business and government. Evelyn Brown's article in the NIST Tech Beat Newsletter about the Guidelines on Hardware-Rooted Security in Mobile Devices (PDF), lays out the three security capabilities devices must possess to deal with known mobile device security challenges:

1. Device integrity
2. Isolation
3. Protected storage.

It all boils down to something the NIST calls the "roots of trust." For device integrity, we're talking about a combination of hardware, firmware and software designed with security in mind - along with solid constuction. For the other issues, the key is to create isolation capabilities that keep personal apps and info separate from the organization's data.

Windows Phone 8 A Good Fit?

Windows Phone 8 devices would seem to be a good fit for the Navy. Via email, Greg Sullivan, Senior Marketing Manager at Microsoft, pointed to the phones' information rights management technology (IRM) for data leak prevention, SSL 3.0 encryption and a private application store as features that are attractive to the Federal Government. These features seem to line up pretty well with the NIST guidelines. While Windows Phone 8 does include an encryption feature similar to BitLocker, the full disk encryption found on the desktop implementation of Windows 8, it doesn't have FIPS certification. According to the mobile tech MobileJaw, Microsoft's encryption is backed by TPM 2.0, and is currently seeking certification.

When asked about the possibility of a Department of the Navy contract, Microsoft representatives replied with a polite "We do not comment on specific projects." And a source from the NIST said that, as of right now, they are no plans to work with Windows Phone 8 for the Navy. The Department of the Navy did not return calls or emails.

Still, But when the CIO makes it clear to a group of reporters that the Navy is looking for a new mobile platform, you can be sure that Microsoft - along with Apple, Google and RIM - will be doing everything it can to make a good impression. 

Image courtesy of Shuttershock.

One study measured symptoms of depression and anxiety, the other how the subjects engage in media multitasking, (i.e. video games, texting, apps)  to give researchers an idea of whether a subject was a high, low or medium media multi-tasker. It's important to note that the surveys measured indicators of depression and anxiety, but didn't serve as a clinical diagnosis. 

Participants with high levels of media multitasking were put into one group, those with lower levels in another. The latter group had a median score of 3.66 out 9 on a scale of depressive symptoms. The higher level group? 6.19 out of 9. The study also found that those in the higher range scored a higher median number for indicators of social phobia symptoms. 

While this is the first study of its kind to research the topic of multiple media usage and mental illness, it's not the first that has found a link between internet use and depression. In fact, earlier this year, Sriran Chellappan, assistant professor of computer science at Missouri University of Science and Technology and Raghavendra Kotikalapud, a software development engineer, penned a story for the New York Times about how depressed people use the Internet. Their method of data collection was similar to the Michigan State Study, as were their results. They found that the students with higher levels of depressive symptoms used peer-to-peer sharing (movies, music) more than those without. They also checked their email more often, which led the reseachers to believe this correlated with high levels of anxiety. 

Cause And Effect?                                                                  

There are plenty of questions  left to be answered, and plenty of room for future research. Mark Becker, lead investigator on the study, said in the report that the researchers aren't sure whether media-multitasking is causing depression and anxiety or if people already experiencing mental illness are using media as a form of distraction from their condition.

If media turns out to be the problem, Becker said that potential recommendations could include taking a "media vacation" to see if anything changes. While the direction of causality still needs to be determined, the bottom line is that multi-media consumption does seem to be linked with signs of anxiety and depression. "This could have important implications for understanding how to minimize the negative impacts of increased media multitasking," said Becker in the report. 

As for future research, in an email to ReadWrite, Becker wrote that the biggest challenge is to figure out which is the cause and which is the effect. Controlling a subject's day-to-day media multitasking habits and randomly manipulating it isn't easy, he added. "However, we hope to determine whether doing a task that requires multitasking with media produces a momentary shift in people's mood and/or anxiety. If so, it would provide some indication that media use can play a causal role."

Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle 

Under its previous deal past, Verisign was allowed to raise its rates four times by as much as 7% over the six year term - and did just that, according to CNN Money. Now, any proposed rate hikes will need to be approved by the Commerce Department, and then only in the case of "extraordinary expenses related to security or stability threats." 

Verisign has operated top level domain .com and .net domain names since 2000 and has been maintaining the .com domain name for ICANN for more than 15 years. The licenses held for .net, .gov and .edu domains are separate. This provides Verisign some wiggle room. Even if the company can't raise rates on .com domains, it can hike prices for .net domains by 10% annually until 2017, when that contract expires.

Perhaps much more more important, the new contract gives Verisign the option to request that price hike restrictions be removed if it can demonstrate to the Commerce department that market conditions no longer require them. And that could happen thanks to ICANN's approval of the expansion of generic top-level domains (gTLDs), Verisign has yet another way to bypass these restrictions. If gTLDs get more popular and the intense competition for .com domains appears to wane, Verisign could be able to persuade Commerce that market conditions have changed enough to release the pricing restrictions. 

Site Owners Not Happy

That's one reason the Internet Commerce Association (ICA), an advocate for website owners, has been fighting Verisign throughout this entire process. The ICA claims that Verisign's rate hikes were arbitrary and unnecessary.

It even penned a letter requesting that the U.S. Commerce Department make Verisign charge the same amount for .com domains as it does for .net domains (currently $5.86). After all, the costs involved in .net domains are exactly the same as for .com domains. In a posting on its website, the ICA also claimed that the if the old  agreement with ICANN was extended, the company would rake in more than $1.2 billion in profits over the next six years: "Nice monopoly work if you can get it." 

While the Commerce Department didn't give ICA everything it asked for, the new contract's restrictions are expected to hold down Verisign's profits. After news of the agreement broke, Verisign's stock fell by 13% before the bell. 

Wii and Wii U owners can get the app through the Wii Marketplace. Its layout is simple enough, with recommended channels and favorited ones already on display after you log in. The Wii app looks nothing like the YouTube website, which is a good thing. Despite the tediousness of typing with the traditional Wii console, searching is quick. And things are even better on the Wii U. The new device's second screen  puts all of the description and playback controls in the handset, keeping the main screen clear of distraction. After the video you've just watched is done the next one in that channel's line up automatically starts. 

Not the First TV/Gaming Mashup

This isn't the first such move for Google or Nintendo.  In early November, Google released its own YouTube-centric version of Apple's Airplay, which lets you play videos from your Android tablet on TVs equipped Google TV. In fact, YouTube is available on over 400 million devices, including set-top streaming devices like Boxee, SmartTVs and other gaming consoles. As for Nintendo, Netflix and Hulu have been available on the Wii console for about two years.

So what happened to bring the two together now? 

For one thing, the release of the Wii U is refocusing attention on the Wii platform. And just like the other game console makers, Nintendo is desperate to turn its device into the main entertainment system for the living room. Most homes already have a gaming console holding a spot on their entertainment center. So if you wanted to watch a YouTube video while hanging out at home one night, you don't have to get a new device, just use what you've already got. For Google, the goal is simple, it wants to put YouTube everywhere it can.

TV Change Is Already Here

The way we watch TV is changing, as streaming over the Internet slowly but surely replaces cable TV subscriptions. What hasn't changed much is where we watch. Internet TV viewing may have started in our home offices on our computers but it has migrated in two directions, to mobile devices anywhere and to big screens in the living room.

Matt Darby, product manager at YouTube, said platforms like the Wii put YouTube in a space where people spend a lot of time with family and friends. "Bringing YouTube into the living room gives people a limitless selection of content to watch, alongside traditional broadcast TV," he said. The TV in the living room isn't going away, but more and more people don't want to limit its use to just traditional television fare. Google and Nintendo - along with Apple, Microsoft, Sony and many others want to be the ones to make that possible.

(For more on the convergence of TV and game consoles, see Brian Proffitt's The End Of Cable TV? How Everyone Will Watch Television In The Future.)

Image courtesy of the YouTube blog.

Enter Cyber Monday 

The term "Cyber Monday" was born during the holiday season of 2005, when the U.S. Trade Association's National Retail Federation began to notice that shoppers who had just spent the entire Thanksgiving weekend barreling through crowded stores, were cyber-shopping when they sat down at their work computers on the following Monday. The federation's site Shop.org officially coined the term in 2005 and set up an eponymous site in 2006. 

Obviously, post-Thanksgiving online shopping at work had been going on long before the NRF put a name on it. But it's grown into something bigger and more influential, not only changing the way Black Friday works, but also the way retail stores handle the holiday shopping season. 

Cyber Monday revealed the biggest weakness in the Black Friday concept: brick-and-mortar. What used to be an asset is now hurting this once powerful shopping day as harried workers rebel against early hours and ornery customers fighting over flat screens. Add on the fact that retailers are now expanding Black Friday into Thanksgiving evening, and you've got one messed up system. 

That's why Black Friday is now projected to be only the second busiest shopping day of the year, behind Cyber Monday. Research from Compuware APM pegs total spending on Cyber Monday at $1.44 billion. 

But what about Cyber Monday? Does it even make sense?

In the modern world, it doesn't matter what day it is, wherever you are, you can shop the holiday sales from anywhere as long as you're connected. Most shoppers now have decent Internet connections from home, and as Dan Rowinski pointed out last week, mobile shopping now accounts for about 12% of the purchases made on Cyber Monday. Obviously, you don't need to be back at work to use your smartphone.

Et Tu, Target? 

So what's the future of Cyber Monday in a world where office computers are not required to buy online? Retailers are recognizing this and beating Cyber Monday to the punch by starting sales earlier - both online and in store. The sales calendars don't matter any more, but that doesn't mean retailers won't try to leverage the ideas with sales and deals tied to no-longer-relevant concepts.

Online-only sites like Amazon are morphing Cyber Monday into Cyber Week. They're posting new deals every day leading up to Black Friday or during the week following Cyber Monday to help keep the shopping excitement going longer. Brent Shelton, a spokesman for FatWallet, told the Daily Finance Blog that we should be expecting events like "Cyber Monday II" on December 5. 

Whether it's longer sales online or in store, the retail calendar we follow today won't stand the test of time. And that's probably a good thing compared to getting up at 4am to stand in line at Wal-Mart - or spending your work day on eBay.

Image courtesy of Shuttershock.

Intuit was not named in the lawsuit because it had already been listed in a suit and settlement from September 2010 over a series of similar agreements with other companies (Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel and Pixar) not to hire each other's employees. The current eBay case grew from the 2010 one, but is being treated as a separate suit. 

Competition Doesn't Hurt, But Limiting Opportunity Does

Tech companies are in constant competition when trying to find qualified people to work for them. Acting Assistant Attorney General Joseph Waylan said in the DOJ's press release that the department believes eBay violated antitrust laws by entering into this agreement because it "eliminated a significant form of competition to the detriment of affected employees who were likely deprived of access to better job opportunities and salaries."

By preventing Intuit, or any competitor, from trying to hire their employees, eBay is trying to limit the options for its employees and thus reduce their leverage. This means employees might not be able to negotiate raises or better benefits because there are fewer places for them to go if their requests aren't met. 

Bad Practice, Good Business?

These agreements are illegal, and clearly hurt employees. But it's easy to understand why companies are tempted. After all, in most states, companies are allowed to develop these kinds of agreements directly with their employees, if not with other companies. They see this as a way of protecting an investment. Employers put a lot of money into training employees, not to mention the access given to confidential information and relationships. Non-compete agreements help prevent that investment from benefiting a competitor. 

In California, non-compete contracts between employers and employees is prohibited, except in limited circumstances. That could be one reason for companies to make anti-competitive deals with others in their industry. California State Attorney General Kamala Harris is filing a State lawsuit - separate from the federal one - based on the State's stronger protection against anti-competitive agreements. 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Last week two pink "female friendly" items were introduced -- a laptop and an auto -- both trying to get a piece of the female market in a way that's probably unnecessary. Both are from Japan and only available there for now. 

Tickled Pink 

The Fujitsu Floral Kiss is a laptop that's been "elegantly designed" with a woman in mind. Let's bypass the cringe-worthy name and just get into what makes the computer so lady friendly.  

According to the press release, its smoothed, gold-trimmed top casing features a "flip latch that can easily open the display --even by users with long fingernails." It comes in three colors -- pink, white, if you're feeling tomboyish, "luxury brown." To finish off the exterior design, a pearlized power button, diamond cut stone keys and zirconia adornments are also included. 

An equally delicate mouse is available, no bigger than the palm of your tiny lady hand. Programs in the Floral Kiss include a scrapbooking app, a personalized diary that organizes Facebook and Twitter posts and photos in chronological order, and a daily horoscope. 

Generations after the Dodge La Femme, Honda sees a profit in building for the fairer driver. The Fit She's means well. It does more than throw on a coat of pastel paint and rosebuds. Though one of its women-folk features presumably would benefit everyone: a windshield that filters 99% of ultraviolet rays. The same can't be said for the "Plasmacluster," a gizmo that pumps wrinkle-fighting ionized air through its pink chrome-lined vents. 

Want to guess what colors the She's comes in? Pink, white and brown. Honda says those shades complement eyeshadow. Wonder if it will ever come in smokey-eye? 

It's important to emphasize that these are real products. The Floral Kiss comes with Windows 8 and houses a third-generation i5 core processor, comparable to most laptops on the market. The She's will share the Honda Fit's small and fast body style, gas-sipping mileage and well-equipped interior. 

Pink Computer, Meet Glass Ceiling

It's not so weird to see a woman using something intended for a guy. We do it all of the time with their razors and tools, but seeing a guy driving around in a pink car or carrying a bedazzled computer would raise eyebrows. 

This creates a dilemma for women because these devices are supposed to be tailored to our likes (albeit stereotypical ones), but they can be the very things that keep us from being taken seriously. You're not going to see Melissa Mayer carrying a Floral Kiss into her next meeting, same goes for just about any of the handful of women execs in the tech industry, or any industry. 

First Do No Harm, Then Sell Stuff...

The teams that create these products aren't looking to put women into a pink box; they're looking to make a buck. That's fine, there's no finger-waving here when it comes to that. What's being questioned here is the need for that kind of marketing for something that's supposed to be accessible no matter who you are or what your gender. 

If you're serious about the devices you use and the investment you make in them, you're not going to research one and think, "Is this appropriate for my gender?"  You're going to be looking for what works for you as a person living their everyday life. Memory, processor speeds, weight, miles to the gallon and anything else that resembles the bang-for-your buck, these are the features that matter. Not skin-refreshing air conditioning and manicure-proof latches. 

The graphics processing units (GPUs), usually reserved for consumer and entertainment purposes are the same ones that fuel a machine that could potentially save the world.  No exaggeration: Titan is capable of everything from predicting climate change and weather events (including monstrous hurricanes) to finding cures for Parkinson's and cancer. All because of the same little processor that makes Call of Duty look so realistic. 

Faster, Better, Stronger 

Compared to its predecessor, Jaguar, Titan is faster and 10-times more powerful, while taking up no more physical space. (It does consume about two megawatts more energy). Inside the Titan reside thousands of NVIDIA's latest GPU accelerator, the Tesla K20. Each of the computer's 18,688 nodes holds one of these GPUs as well as a 16-core AMD Opteron central processing unit (CPU). 

Researchers at NVIDIA found that the processors they created were starting to resemble the ones used for simulating physics. The rapid-fire calculation solving done by GPUs resembled the way supercomputers simulated problems using CPUs. By combining the two, the CPU is able to handle creating the problem, or simulation, while the GPU is what does the heavy calculations. This makes complex calculations happen faster and allows them to cover more scientific ground. Added bonus? Combining the industry standard CPU with a high performance graphics processor not only makes the supercomputer faster, it also makes it more energy-efficient. 

Wait, what? It uses more power, how is that more energy efficient?

Power consumption is a big deal for supercomputers these days, and according to Jeff Nichols, associate laboratory director for computing and computational sciences at ORNL, GPU's could hold the key to improving that. "Combining GPUs and CPUs in a single system requires less power than CPUs alone and is a responsible move toward lowering our carbon footprint." While the Titan consumes enough energy to power a small town, one GPU uses eight times less energy per calculation than a CPU. Titan's size and power makes the uptick in energy usage well worth it, it does more with less energy than a supercomputer of the same size running on the standard method of CPU-only use would.

 Skeptics Be Damned 

Steve Scott, CTO of NVIDIA's Tesla business unit told the Washington Post that this isn't the first time CPUs and GPUs have been combined, and that a lot of people didn't think it would make much of a difference. The size and scale of the Titan project made the stakes that much higher: the new supercomputer had to be able to handle six applications in tough areas of research including astrophysics, biofuels and nuclear energy. Scott wanted to prove using GPUs in supercomputers wasn't a stunt. If people see it that way now, at least it's one that worked. 

The goal wasn't just to create the biggest and baddest supercomputer, it was also to create a new standard. Building a supercomputer using components that many people use to play games shows just how far consumer technology has come - remaking not just business tech but also the even-more-complex world of research technology. 

Image Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory .

The site is set up like a pro/con list, with issues and referendums clearly defined and pros and cons from users on either side. It's an open discussion about the issues in the state's political system that gives voters a clear idea of their fellow citizen's views, without all ( or at least most) of the bickering. And here's the coolest part: voters can request to have statements on the user-generated pro/con lists fact checked by librarians from the Seattle Public Library System within 48 hours.

Not Fact-Checkers, Fact Finders

To get the facts straight, librarians at the Seattle Public Library use the typical tools of their trade: news articles, scholarly research, policy analyses and the Washington State Voters guide. Bo Kinney, Special Collections Librarian, says that a lot of this information is freely available to anyone online, but it may be buried within a lengthy article or report. "We are skilled at finding and evaluating the exact information that is most useful to answer a specific question."

Kinney admits, though, that there are some questions the librarians aren't qualified to answer. These are usually ones that require legal research or are based on hypothetical or opinion-based claims. In those cases, librarians will point to research materials that might hold answers, and they can spotlight facts within opinions.

"We're not the final word on what is the truth," Kinney says. "In fact, we expect that users may add additional information beyond what we are able to find. But we think that our efforts will help support informed discussion of political issues." 

This election year is the first time the service will be offered on the site and will carry over to the California edition in collaboration with the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley. 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

What Is Camera Tossing?

Camera toss photography, or kinetic photography, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You set the timer, toss your camera into the air and hope for the best.

It may sound accidental, but done properly, the results can be impressive. So impressive, that the fad has taken on a life of its own. There are several camera toss groups on Flickr, including one with almost 9,000 members. Countless websites, even Wired, have tutorials on camera tossing techniques.

That matters, because there are many different "tossing" techniques that can result in different kinds of photos.

First, keep in mind that height isn't the objective. It's more about arc, rotation and light. The more the camera rotates, the more variation you'll have and the photo could take on a more abstract look.

If you're able to keep the lens focused on a certain point (say, on you) you could get a neat picture of the ground rotating around the subject.

The higher the throw the more ground you cover, the more chaotic the throw, the more erratic the image.

Check out these photos from the Camera Tossing Flickr group pool for more examples of the technique can accomplish.

What Nikon Has In Mind

In Nikon's camera toss patent, a velocity sensor and accelerometer would be used to make snapping the picture more precise. Using speed and positioning, the accelerometer should be able to determine when and at what point in the thrown arc the best photo can be captured.

Nikon's patent also addresses the issue of protecting the camera in case you miss it on the way down - incorporating a collapsible lens and an impact resistant frame. Nikon Rumors has a Web-translated version of the patent with diagrams in Japanese that show the gist of how the technology would work.

If you're itching to throw a camera into the air, you may have to risk your current camera for a while. Although Nikon's patent has been published, there's no news yet on whether or how soon you'll be able to catch an actual camera that uses the technology.

Image credits: Alin S.(top), JohnPaul Golaski (middle) and David Hull (bottom).

Last week, a law student from the University of Texas in Austin leased a printer made by Stratasys, the uPrint SE 3D. He wanted it to create a prototype of a 3D-printable handgun. Turns out Stratasys didn't much like that idea, so it took back the printer, saying the student's lack of a firearms manufacturer's license made what he wanted to do illegal. (For more on this topic, see John Paul Titlow's story on How 3D Printing Is Inflaming The Gun Control Debate.)

A Reuters story , meanwhile, found that the European Union is asking member countries to invest in 3D printing technology to speed up and raise manufacturing output.

So just how hard is it for an average person get access to one and actually start making things? 

Why would you want a 3D printer, anyway? Because you can make just about anything with one. From utensils to iPhone cases and apparently weaponry, 3D printers can create just about anything your imagination (and a quality computer-aided drafting and design - CADD - software) can create. It's like an Easy Bake Oven for computer geeks.

How Much Do 3D Printers Cost?

Until fairly recently, 3D printers were available only to major industries to create prototypes or cheap and functional products. Now, anyone can get do-it-yourself 3D printing kits from sites like MakerBot for about $1,500.

If you want a more sophisticated machine, though, you'll probably have to deal with a sales rep. That's how Stratasys, the company currently embattled with the law student, sell its machines. The company offers leasing programs for its printers that range from $185/month to $299/month. If you wanted to buy one flat out with no leasing, you'd have to pony up about $10,000. Just this year, CNET reviewed three different types of consumer-available 3D printers that you can log on and buy, no sales rep needed, with prices ranging from $500 to $2,000. 

If you don't have a printer of your own, you can still get 3D models printed out through a service, kind of like a 3D version of FedEx Kinkos. Shapeways, a startup in New York, offers this service: just upload your model idea to the site, choose your materials, and Shapeways will give you a pricing estimate. Within a few weeks, the company will print it out and ship it to you. For particularly creative users who are good with software, the company offers product ideas that you can custom design and build.

How Do They Work?

The process these printers create models is fairly simple. Using a design from a CADD program, they turn 3D images into a series of thin, horizontal, virtual layers until a virtual version of what is to eventually be printed is modeled on screen. These CADD designs can be found online, or created by scanning a physical object. Designing complex objects from scratch requires a certain amount of skill and training.

Depending on the machine and the project, different materials can be used to construct the model. For the cheaper machines, plastic or resin is commonly used, while more industrial projects can employ powered metals, alloys or polycarbonate materials. There are even food-grade printers that use chocolate and sugar to create edible models.

Layer by layer, the machine lays the image out on to a heated platform. 3D systems at home printer Cube includes a platform glue that keeps the base of the project steady during printer and washes off with water. Once it's printed and cooled, you'll have a tactile version of something that used to just occupy space in your head. 

If you are itching to print something, but are not particularly creative, a site from Makerbot, Thingiverse can offer up a few ideas. The open-source community has instructions on how to print your own products (like these functional headphones that made tech bloggers drool a few days ago) and provides an overall glimpse into the world of 3D printing and creativity.