Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook really wants you to use your real name. The company’s name policy is clear and unequivocal: you should be using the name on your Governement ID. Maybe, if your name is Robert, you can go by Bobby on the social network, but that’s about it. While this is a longstanding policy, Facebook hasn’t been able to enforce it as thoroughly as they’ve wanted. It seems like they’ve found a way to determine who’s using a fake name: they’re going to ask your friends.

This weird decision for Facebook was spotted by Twitter user @chapeaudefee, and it shows you a friend and asks you, “Is this your friend’s real name?” You get four options, and only four options (there’s no option to close the popup): “Yes,” “no,” “I don’t know,” and “I don’t want to answer.” It’s a intimidating tactic, and it doesn’t make you feel warm and fuzzy about Facebook. What Facebook doesn’t realize is sometimes a pseudonym on the internet is not only safer, but the smart decision. But that doesn’t fit in with Facebook’s business model, which is to become the identity for the internet. It can’t do that if s0me people aren’t who they say they are.

Most Facebook feature rollouts happen incrementally, so you might not see these popups if you log on today. But if you do, and you tell Menlo Park my real name isn’t “Princess,” remember: snitches get stitches.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook allows users to delete search history, Facebook disables facial recognition in the European Union,

If you’re a secretive person in the UK, you might want to stay away from Nestle candy for the next few weeks. Nestle’s new marketing campaign, called “We Will Find You,” has embedded six GPS trackers in in candy such as Kit Kat bars in an attempt at a Willy Wonka-style promotion. The difference is in the movies, you saw your Golden Ticket when you unwrapped a bar. In real life, when you open one of the winning candy bars, you won’t know until Nestle tracks you with the embedded GPS activated when the chocolate is unwrapped. So, if you’ve bought Nestle candy, there could be a very determined PR representative tracking you down. On the bright side, once he or she finds you, you’ll receive a check for £10000, or about $16000.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: QR codes on rooftops used to advertise on Google Earth, GPS brogue shoes guide you to your destination,

If you were modeling an autonomous seafaring drone after an aquatic animal, the you’re probably considering creatures like the shark, the barracuda, and the jellyfish. But it turns our that the Bluefish Tuna is an extremely efficient swimmer, and a perfect model for submarines. The BIOSwimmer, built by Boston Engineering and funded by the Department of Homeland Security, is a unmanned underwater vehicle designed to resemble a tuna, in a process called biomemetrics. Its main defense purpose will be inspecting assets in harsh situations: ascertain whether pumps are working in oily water, inspect harbors and piers for bombs and explore flooded ships, and other security missions.

BIOswimmer is battery powered, and it’s remote controlled from a laptop. There’s some pretty powerful processing going on under the hull as well, and it can be equipped with several different kinds of payloads (usually sensors.) I, for one,  wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of whatever this fishy robot deals out.

Take a look at the tuna-esque submarine in the beginning part of this video.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Creepy marketing campaign “will find you” with GPS-equipped candy bars, Google says iOS Google Maps in App Store hopefully “before Christmas”,

There are over 90000 people waiting for a transplant kidney in the United States, so it’s rather disheartening when you learn that last year, 2600 kidneys were harvested and subsequently discarded. Sure, some of those organs might not be suitable for transplant, but at least some of them were perfectly good kidneys. In an expose published by the NYTimes, they reveal an anecdote about a kidney from a fit 36-year-old man which was thrown away because a nationwide computer search failed to come up with a match. Remember, there are over 90000 people waiting for a transplant. Medical experts think that over half the kidneys discarded could be used, and they blame it on an outdated computer matching program.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Algorithm predicts wayward drivers, Algorithm sniffs out graffiti artists,

Artist’s rendition of microwaves changing the spin of an electron

In a stunning scientific achievement that could open the way for Moore’s Law to continue indefinitely, Australian scientists have created the first working quantum bit out of a single atom in silicon. The next step is to put two of these quantum bits together to form a logic gate, which opens the path for supercomputers to operate on a quantum processor.

In a paper published today in Nature, the team details how it was able to control both the spin of a single electron. The electron in question was bound to a phosphorus atom. The scientists used a microwave field to control the electron, which was implanted next to a silicon transistor. The atom was precisely placed  by Dr. David Jamieson through a process that makes even high-precision electronics like smartphones seem like they were put together with wood glue.

As team leader Dr. Andrea Morello noted, “This is the quantum equivalent of typing a number on your keyboard… Our technology is fundamentally the same as is already being used in countless everyday electronic devices, and that’s a trillion-dollar industry.” Whoa. Can’t wait until the iPhone 36 comes out with a quantum processor emitting microwaves.

Image courtesy of Tony Melov

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: LG Quantum Windows Phone 7 Now Available Through AT&T, Quantum dot lasers could offer 25Gbps in data communication,