Indian HR Ministry brings $35 low cost computing device to reality

It's been reported that India has succeeded in delivering the lowest-cost computing device - which might even drop to as low as $10 per unit!

Finally a low-cost computing-cum-access device has been unveiled by HRD minister Shri. Kapil Sibal. The price is this device is expected to be around $35. However, HR ministry is aiming at bringing down the cost of this device to $20 and ultimately to $10. IIT’s and other Technical Institutions are setting up research teams to cover wide range of issues and capability enhancements to achieve the ultimate goal of bringing down the the cost of this device to $10.

I, personally am quite proud to see this happen, and I will tell you the reason why – While the private entities and corporates had given up on this idea, professors and experts from IISc & IIT’s went ahead and devised this concept. While B.tech & M.Tech students were guided to produce the motherboard and other key components.

Even though this device has been unveiled today, the development & research is currently on-going on at various different levels connected with HR Ministry. The ministry is quite confident of bringing down the cost of this device further.

Ultimately the goal of such devices is to spread education in Rural India, by offering such devices with educational courses / materials embedded inside them.

Read more at - 'Indian HR Ministry brings $35 low cost computing device to reality'

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The next hacking frontier: Your brain?

In this intriguing post from Wired they ask whether the trend in brain-wireless interfaces may not create a market for... wait for it.... Brain-Hacking! Well, read on......

"Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they’ll try to take over your brain"

In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair or even use Twitter — all without lifting a finger. But as neural devices become more complicated — and go wireless — some scientists say the risks of “brain hacking” should be taken seriously.

“Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future,” said computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington. “But if we don’t start paying attention to security, we’re worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we’ve made a big mistake.”

Hackers tap into personal computers all the time — but what would happen if they focused their nefarious energy on neural devices, such as the deep-brain stimulators currently used to treat Parkinson’s and depression, or electrode systems for controlling prosthetic limbs? According to Kohno and his colleagues, who published their concerns July 1 in Neurosurgical Focus, most current devices carry few security risks. But as neural engineering becomes more complex and more widespread, the potential for security breaches will mushroom.

For example, the next generation of implantable devices to control prosthetic limbs will likely include wireless controls that allow physicians to remotely adjust settings on the machine. If neural engineers don’t build in security features such as encryption and access control, an attacker could hijack the device and take over the robotic limb.

 Read more - 'The next hacking frontier: Your brain?'

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The sinister powers of crowdsourcing

Here's a post From NewScientist that looks at some of the 'darker' sides to crowdsourcing... a taste of how this phenomenon will be appropriated?

So far crowdsourcing has been associated with well-meaning altruism, such as the creation and maintenance of Wikipedia or searching for lost aviators. But crowdsourcing of a different flavour has started to emerge.

Law enforcement officials in Texas have installed a network of CCTV cameras to monitor key areas along that state's 1900-kilometre-long border with Mexico. To help screen the footage, a website lets anyone log in to watch a live feed from a border camera and report suspicious activity. A similar system called Internet Eyes, which pays online viewers to spot shoplifters from in-store camera feeds, is set to launch in the UK in 2010. An Iranian website is offering rewards for identifying people in photos taken during protests over June's elections.

Crowd chilling

Some people have declared those examples chilling. Now Jonathan Zittrain, a Harvard University law professor and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, says the next step may be for such efforts to get web users to help out covertly.

Read more - 'The sinister powers of crowdsourcing'

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The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

This is a video - a TEDtalk India - with Pranav Mistry. Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data - including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop." In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.

For the video, see here -  'The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology'

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Chips in brains will control computers by 2020

Here we are.. a glimpse of the future.. when dictating is dead, and replaced by 'thinktate' - the art of mentally transferring your thoughts to the computer. Sci-fi? Well, not really - according to Intel's new chip design:

By the year 2020, you won't need a keyboard and mouse to control your computer, say Intel Corp. researchers. Instead, users will open documents and surf the Web using nothing more than their brain waves.

Scientists at Intel's research lab in Pittsburgh are working to find ways to read and harness human brain waves so they can be used to operate computers, television sets and cell phones. The brain waves would be harnessed with Intel-developed sensors implanted in people's brains.

The scientists say the plan is not a scene from a sci-fi movie -- Big Brother won't be planting chips in your brain against your will. Researchers expect that consumers will want the freedom they will gain by using the implant.

"I think human beings are remarkable adaptive," said Andrew Chien, vice president of research and director of future technologies research at Intel Labs. "If you told people 20 years ago that they would be carrying computers all the time, they would have said, 'I don't want that. I don't need that.' Now you can't get them to stop [carrying devices]. There are a lot of things that have to be done first but I think [implanting chips into human brains] is well within the scope of possibility."

The beginning of a microchip future.... for the sake of progress.

Read more at - 'Chips in brains will control computers by 2020'

HAL's bells: IBM makes 'thinking computer' breakthrough

Not there yet...but the tech-boffins are scurrying to get closer to the Tech-Holy-Grail... here's the latest over at IBM:

Scientists say they've made a breakthrough in their pursuit of computers that "think" like a living thing's brain - an effort that tests the limits of technology.Even the world's most powerful supercomputers can't replicate basic aspects of the human mind. The machines can't imagine a wall painted a different colour, for instance, or picture a person's face and connect that to an emotion.

If researchers can make computers operate more like a brain thinks - by reasoning and dealing with abstractions, among other things - they could unleash tremendous insights in such diverse fields as medicine and economics.A computer with the power of a human brain is not yet near.But this week researchers from IBM are reporting that they've simulated a cat's cerebral cortex, the thinking part of the brain, using a massive supercomputer.The computer has 147,456 processors (most modern PCs have just one or two processors) and 144 terabytes of main memory - 100,000 times as much as your computer has.

The scientists had previously simulated 40 per cent of a mouse's brain in 2006, a rat's full brain in 2007, and 1 per cent of a human's cerebral cortex this year, using progressively bigger supercomputers.The latest feat, being presented at a supercomputing conference in Portland, Oregon, doesn't mean the computer thinks like a cat, or that it is the progenitor of a race of robo-cats.The simulation, which runs 100 times slower than an actual cat's brain, is more about watching how thoughts are formed in the brain and how the roughly one billion neurons and 10 trillion synapses in a cat's brain work together.

Read more at - 'HAL's bells: IBM makes 'thinking computer' breakthrough'

Age of cyber warfare is 'dawning'

 Although not 'new', at least it is now being officially stated that the world's nations are prepared for future cyber wars:

Cyber war has moved from fiction to fact, says a report.

Compiled by security firm McAfee, it bases its conclusion on analysis of recent net-based attacks.

Analysis of the motives of the actors behind many attacks carried out via the internet showed that many were mounted with a explicitly political aim.It said that many nations were now arming to defend themselves in a cyber war and readying forces to conduct their own attacks.

While definitions of what constitutes cyber war are not shared, it was clear that many nations were preparing for a future in which conflict was partly conducted via the net."There are at least five countries known to be arming themselves for this kind of conflict," said Greg Day, primary analyst for security at McAfee Europe.

The UK, Germany, France, China and North Korea are known to be developing their own capabilities.

Read more at 'Age of cyber warfare is 'dawning''

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Cloud computing: Threat or Menace?

Jamais Cascio over at Open the Future has written an insightful post on how more companies are going hot for cloud-computing:

It turned out that, like many big computer industry players, this company is making its play in the "cloud computing" field.

("Cloud computing," for those of you not up on industry jargon, refers to a "a style of computing in which resources are provided “as a service” over the Internet to users who need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure." The canonical example would be Google Docs, fully-functional office apps delivered entirely via one's web browser.)

Lots of big companies are hot for cloud computing right now, in order to sell more servers, capture more customers, or outsource more support. But there's a problem. As the company I was working with started to detail their (public) cloud computing ideas, I was struck by the degree to which cloud computing represents a technical strategy that's the very opposite of resilient, dangerously so. I'll explain why in the extended entry.

But before I do so, I should say this: A resilient cloud is certainly possible, but would mean setting aside some of the cherished elements of the cloud vision.

Read more at - 'Cloud computing: Threat or Menace'

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Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S.

Is the era of the American Internet ending? It is according to the New York Times:

Engineers who help run the Internet said that it would have been impossible for the United States to maintain its hegemony over the long run because of the very nature of the Internet; it has no central point of control. And now, the balance of power is shifting. Data is increasingly flowing around the United States, which may have intelligence — and conceivably military — consequences.

American intelligence officials have warned about this shift. “Because of the nature of global telecommunications, we are playing with a tremendous home-field advantage, and we need to exploit that edge,” Michael V. Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2006. “We also need to protect that edge, and we need to protect those who provide it to us.”

Indeed, Internet industry executives and government officials have acknowledged that Internet traffic passing through the switching equipment of companies based in the United States has proved a distinct advantage for American intelligence agencies. In December 2005, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency had established a program with the cooperation of American telecommunications firms that included the interception of foreign Internet communications.

Read more at - 'Internet Traffic Begins to Bypass the U.S.'

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'Space Cube' could be world's smallest PC

The computer always was a 'space-age' device: now it's heading back, yet as a teeny-weeny cube:

Shimafuji Corporation has developed the Space Cube, a 2x2 inches PC designed for use in space to control various electronics and manage an "interstellar computer network."

First, the Space Cube´s metal chassis is "utterly rock solid," enabling it to withstand cosmic encounters. As might be expected, it has very low power requirements, running on just 5 watts.

Inside the tiny computer, there´s a CPU with a top speed of 300 MHz, and 16 MB of on-board flash memory - low by today´s standards, but impressive for its size. The PC runs on a Linux OS from a 1GB CompactFlash card that fits into a slot in its side. The Space Cube´s hard drive is a 64MB SDRAM card, and it also comes equipped with a LAN port, USB port, Ethernet port, and a VGA monitor connector. A pair of jacks even accommodates speakers and headphones.

In addition to the normal computer features, the Space Cube also has some more unique characteristics. It has a SpaceWire port, which is an extremely thin socket that serves as an interface used by NASA, ESA, and JAXA, the space agencies of the U.S., Europe, and Japan, respectively. When the Space Cube goes into space, it can link up to each agency´s systems, where the SpaceWire acts as a common interface for linking together different kinds of devices.

Read more at - ''Space Cube' could be world's smallest PC'

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Channel 4's new website to inspire social change

The Guardian reports on how Channel 4 and social networking website Bebo have created a campaigning project 'aimed at inspiring teenagers to use the web "as a canvas for social change"' - is this just another social networking site/gimmick?

Battlefront profiles 19 young people, including knife crime campaigner Alexander Rose, giving a platform to a range of social issues and providing free tools such as blogs badges and discussion forums.

Another campaign by Troy Kennedy aims to persuade Coca-Cola to use its vast corporate infrastructure in the developing world to distribute condoms in the battle against the Aids epidemic; while Zoe Draper hopes to encourage a healthy body image among teenagers in the UK.

Matt Locke, Channel 4 commissioner for new media education, said TV had "polarised political action" into something that either needed to be led by a rock star with a wristband or a direct action campaign.

"On the web there are lots of ways to co-ordinate change. We wanted to show teens how to get involved and make those changes happen in your life, showing what those campaigns need," Locke added. "This is really about teens teaching other teens about these issues."

Read more at - 'Channel 4 and Bebo launch Battlefront website in bid to inspire young people'

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Computers to merge with humans

BBCNews has this recent post on the subject of human-machine interface, both positive yet with a caveat:

By 2020 the terms "interface" and "user" will be obsolete as computers merge ever closer with humans. It is one prediction in a Microsoft-backed report drawn from the discussions of 45 academics from the fields of computing, science, sociology and psychology.

It predicts fundamental changes in the field of so-called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). By 2020 humans will increasingly interrogate machines, the report said. In turn computers will be able to anticipate what we want from them, which will require new rules about our relationship with machines...

...Boundaries between humans and computers will become blurred over the next decade as devices are embedded in objects, our clothing or, in the case of medical monitoring, in our bodies...The ever-present network will channel mass market information directly to us while disseminating our own intimate information.

However, the report also warns that this coming 'era of so-called hyper-connectivity' 'will mean a growth in "techno-dependency". This ever more intimate relationship between humans and computers will be a double-edged sword'.

Read more at 'Computers to merge with humans'
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Mini-laptop sweeps through schools

The Guardian discusses the new PC trend at schools in the UK is the mini-laptop.... the one you can put inside your lunch box! The article writes that 'It weighs less than a bottle of Coke, is smaller than an A5 pad and is so cheap the odd one left on a bus wouldn't break the bank':

The computers, inspired by attempts to design a cheap laptop for the developing world, are being plugged into school networks, then given to pupils to take home in their satchels to do their homework. Ministers have backed a pilot scheme in which the laptops are sold to year groups in eight schools; 1,600 pupils are taking part, with parents contributing to the cost of the computers, and discounts for children who receive free school meals.

RM, the company supplying the Minibook computer to schools, sold out its first order of 6,000 within weeks, and is now projecting school sales of 30,000 by the end of the year. They are attracting the attention of IT teachers, and with them a multimillion-pound market in school computing so far dominated by Microsoft, the Goliath to RM's David.

Read more - 'Mini-laptop sweeps through schools'
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The carbon footprint of the British IT industry

Now here's an interesting intervention on the carbon debate - and it involves computers! IFTF's Future Now has a post called 'Servers and SUVs' that discusses how the global IT sector is responsible for about 2% of human carbon dioxide emissions each year:

British environmental group Global Action Plan has released a study [pdf] of the carbon footprint of the British IT industry. They argue that "servers are at least as great a threat to the climate as SUVs or the global aviation industry:"

"Computers are seen as quite benign things sitting on your desk," says Trewin Restorick, director of the group. "But, for instance, in our charity we have one server. That server has same carbon footprint as your average SUV doing 15 miles to the gallon. Yet, whereas the SUV is seen as a villain from the environmental perspective, the server is not."

The report, An Inefficient Truth [actually, "The Inefficient Truth"-- ed.] states that with more than 1 billion computers on the planet, the global IT sector is responsible for about 2% of human carbon dioxide emissions each year – a similar figure to the global airline industry.

Also - from Smartmobs - how 'A web-based service carbonhero.net uses GPS phones to track the modes of travel and deduce carbon emissions of the phone owner, then transmits the carbon footprint to the device’s owner'


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Youngsters 'prefer TV to family'

It's official! BBCNews reports in 'Youngsters 'prefer TV to family'' that children spend little time with their parents, and much more time watching television than reading books:

Research accompanying the government-backed Booktime literacy project shows that youngsters spend little of their spare time with adults.

It says that, in some families, shared meal times are only 17 minutes per day.

A survey of 1,800 families suggested it was a struggle for UK parents to find more time to read with children.

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Laptops may damage male fertility

In yet another blow to the wi-fi and computer industry experts are now saying - again - that men who use laptop computers could be unwittingly damaging their fertility....

According to a recent BBCNews report titled 'Laptops may damage male fertility':

Balancing it on the lap increases the temperature of the scrotum which is known to have a negative effect on sperm production, researchers found.

Coupled with the rising popularity of these computers - about 150m people use them worldwide - much more research is needed say the US authors.

The State University of New York findings appear in Human Reproduction.

The moral is - be careful where you balance!

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Innovations in Computing

A couple of new 'news' stories recently broadcast are of interest here. First, there is Microsoft's 'looks like a normal coffee table' PC:

After years of covert development, Microsoft says it will release a computer that uses the tabletop as its high-resolution display, recognizes objects placed on the surface and skips the traditional keyboard and mouse in favor of fingers on the screen.

The company envisions a variety of uses. In one example, people place a card on the table to call up a virtual stack of digital photos from a computer server and then rotate, resize and spread them across the table using their hands. In another, diners split a tab by dragging icons of their meals to their credit cards.

Read more in 'Microsoft Surface brings computing to the table'

Secondly, BusinessWeek has a piece on 'Dawn of the Ultra Mobile PC' which talks about the race to bring out the latest gizmo devices:

It's an ultracompact computer with a twist. Palm is positioning the sleek clamshell device, which will sell for $499 after a rebate, as an alternative to carrying a larger, conventional laptop. It offers a nearly full-size keyboard, a 10-inch display, and comes with a selection of applications including a word processor and spreadsheet. But Hawkins believes it will be most useful when people also carry smartphones, like Treos or BlackBerrys (RIMM), and transfer e-mail to Foleo when they're in sit-down mode. "It's a companion to your phone and companion to you,"

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Telehealth systems in the UK

CNet News in 'U.K. health service plans 'telehealth' rollout' posts on plans for the U.K.'s National Health Service to deploy so-called "telehealth" systems in homes around the country:

The telehealth devices would probably be targeted at elderly and seriously ill people. It's not clear exactly which features the devices would include, although it's likely they would be equipped with sensors and possibly cameras. Patients might be able to take their own blood pressure and upload the results to the NHS systems, for example.

Granger said that existing security levels in hospitals are on a par with those of the best banks, but uncertainty remains over the security levels that will be supported by telehealth systems.

"Are we going to do that with hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers and voluntary workers who work in people's homes? Maybe, maybe not," Granger told the symposium.

Another NHS computer screw-up, one wonders??

Connecting the digital home

BBC Click has a piece called 'Connecting the digital home':

This year's CES - the world's largest consumer gadget show - boasts a wealth of new kit which aims to make it easier to access digital media around the home - and in particular on TV screens.

Ideas on what should be at the centre of it all vary, from PC-based media centres, digital video recorders or even video game consoles