Hasta La Gadget!

Ah, it looks as though we are staring down at the possibility of a Minority Report future – where crimes can be “predicted”, and the perpetrators brought to justice even before anything has been committed, truly bringing new meaning to the adage “prevention is better than cure.” Word has it that researchers at the University of Virginia have shown how tweets on Twitter can be an indicator of select crimes before it happens, assuming the right analysis is applied. In short, what you tweet could prove to be potentially damning evidence against you in the future.

In a research paper that was published in the scientific journal Decision Support Systems in March, analysis of geo-tagged tweets could come in handy when it is used to predict anywhere from 19 to 25 kinds of crimes. Most of the time, such crimes include the likes of stalking, thefts and selected of assault.

The results are nothing short of surprising, especially when you take into consideration that no one in the right mind would want to tweet about their upcoming crimes in a direct manner, at least according to lead researcher Matthew Gerber of the university’s Predictive Technology Lab. Gerber also mentioned that tweets that do not have a direct link to crimes might actually hold information about activities that are more often than not associated with them, sharing, “What people are tweeting about are their routine activities. Those routine activities take them into environments where crime is likely to happen. So if I tweet about getting drunk tonight, and a lot of people are talking about getting drunk, we know there are certain crimes associated with those things that produce crimes. It’s indirect.”

The study saw Gerber and his team analyzing tweets from the city of Chicago that have been tagged to select neighborhoods. These are measured by individual square kilometers as well as the city’s crime database. Will it be used as a tool in fighting crime down the road? Hopefully the algorithm gets it right the first time around though.

Twitter Could Help Predict Crime , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Cellphones, Computers, Twitter,

After being available to tablets and smartphone for a while, high DPI displays have made their way to laptops, and now to desktop computers. As you can imagine, producing a large display panel with this kind of pixel density is difficult, but as always, manufacturing improves, prices go down and we are at a point where it is possible to find 4K displays that are not completely cost-prohibitive. This monitor […]

Dell UP3214Q Review (UltraSharp 32 4K Monitor) , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Computers, Reviews, 4k, Dell, Dell Reviews, monitors,

Airbnb must have been sick and tired of being on the receiving end of grievances from cities that claim how the business model of short term rentals among its customers are not only illegal, but are also a ‘drain’ on the community. This has led to Airbnb doing away with over 2,000 New York City listings which have yet to offer a quality, local experience to guests (do remember that Airbnb intends to target the “premium hotel experience” as according to what they shared last month). Airbnb has yet to clarify on what this listing removal means, but it happened after the state Attorney General filed an affidavit that supports a subpoena for Airbnb customer info. In that particular filing, it touts that 67% of NYC rentals happen to break the law through the act of subletting a whole apartment without having the official tenants present. Not only that, the 17 hosts who are allegedly the biggest abusers of this system has been named and shamed.

Airbnb still loves their Shared City initiative, citing that cities such as Amsterdam, Hamburg and Paris “have embraced home-sharing and Shared City is our effort to do even more to make cities around the world even stronger.” Airbnb believes that this would make neighborhoods “better places to live, work and visit.” We do wonder what Airbnb will do on the legal front to go up against what they’re facing at the moment.

[Press Release]

Airbnb Removes 2,000 Plus New York City Rental Listings , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Computers, airbnb,

Thunderbolt is one of the connectivity options offered primarily on Apple’s computers. It’s Apple’s alternative to USB 3.0 and is supposedly much faster at 20Gbps at its current iteration. However thanks to a recently leaked slide obtained by the folks at Chinese website, VR Zone, it seems that Intel is working on a next-gen Thunderbolt specification that will significantly boost data transfer speeds.

As it stands, Thunderbolt 2 transfers at 20Gbps, but according to the leaked slide, the next version of Thunderbolt which is apparently codenamed “Alpine Ridge” will be able to double those speeds to 40Gbps. Users will be able to send the data through a variety of ports such as DisplayPort 1.2, USB 3.0, and HDMI 2.0.

In terms of power consumption, you would think that being able to transfer more data at faster speeds would take up more power, but it seems that Intel has not only managed to figure out a way to increase transfer speeds, but also decrease power consumption at the same time. Assuming the slide is the real deal, power consumption will allegedly be decreased by 50%, making it faster and more efficient at the same time.

There will also be adapters for the plug that will ensure backward compatibility, so fret not if you have Thunderbolt 2 devices and were worried it might not work with it. Intel’s Thunderbolt “Alpine Ridge” is expected to see a release in 2015 alongside the company’s new CPU, “Skylake”, assuming that the rumors are true.

Next-gen Thunderbolt To Offer 40Gbps Transfer Speeds , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Computers, Rumors, Intel, thunderbolt,

What do you think if there was this particular position or vacancy that opened up, allowing you to watch adult rated material simply because it is your job to do so? I do wonder what kind of career advancement one would be able to enjoy in this line of work – do you get to watch other categories of adult material? Chances are it would be a more supervisory role instead, I suppose. Chinese civil servant Chunqi Liu, who happens to be a former policeman, has been employed by the government to watch up to 330 clips of porn each day.

Where does Liu come in? Well, for instance, local authorities who plan a midnight raid on an illegal DVD store that has been set up in an alley somewhere, selling such prohibited materials, would require Liu to jump into action since he would then need to go through all the discs.

The 59-year-old former policeman claimed that this job has taken its toll on him, as he has ended up physically ill, not to mention losing his appetite for days while causing his marriage to be on the rocks. I suppose if one were to actually be in such a position, then there has to be some sort of counselor on deck to help him sort out his issues.

China Hires Porn Censors , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Computers, porn, social hit,