Feb 25

Motorola Xoom Gets Teardown Treatment

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, motorola, tablets, Today's Chili, xoom

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I seem to remember a time when a new gadget was allowed to exist for a week or so without having someone with a screwdriver go all Alien Autopsy on it with a screwdriver. Those days are long gone, of course, thanks in large part to folks at iFixit.
In this week’s installment, the site got its hands on the Motorola Xoom–the great hope of the Android tablets, which hit shelves this week. First up on the iFixit checklist: an investigation into the “convoluted” process for getting the company to upgrade the thing to 4G.
The discovery: “It looks like the Xoom was specifically designed with this upgrade in mind.” iFixit estimates that the whole process should take a user with the right screwdrivers 10 minutes or less to complete. “Heck, a donkey could probably pull it off in less than two hours.” Fair enough, but with those hooves, using the touchscreen is probably a real pain in the, well, you know.
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Feb 25

Startup Announces Plans to Exclusive Hire Applicants With Asperger’s

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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Huh. Here’s an interesting one. A Chicago-based non-profit startup called Aspiritech (that’s A”Spirit”ech as far as the logo is concerned) has announced that it will be exclusively hiring software testers with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Here’s a quote from the company,

The proof of concept came from Danish company and recent research from Harvard Business School and others showed that the strengths of people with Aspergers and high-functioning autism actually make them superior at software testing. They’re ability to focus, good memory, their high intelligence, their strong technical skills, their ability to detect details and also to stay focused over lengthy periods, really makes them ideal for software testing work. People with Aspergers can become ideal software testers.

According to the theory, the tendency to shy away from social interaction drives people with Asperger’s to the controlled environment of technology. Apparently the children of Silicon Valley employees tend to have the condition at a higher than usual rate.

 

As ZDNet points out, a potential employer is not allowed to ask interviewees about health conditions such as Asperger’s, but most hiring managers are in tune with qualities that may be symptomatic of the syndrome.

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Feb 24

Facebook Pulls Plug on Breakup Notifier

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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Sorry Facebook stalkers–all 3.6 million of you. The popular social network has pulled the plug on Breakup Notifier, a recently introduced that promised to let you know when one of your friends changes their relationship status to single.
After a good round of online criticism (the word “creepy” was bandied about an awful lot), Facebook has apparently pulled the plug on the third-party app. Here’s a note that the site sent to the app’s creator, Dan Loewenherz,
To ensure positive user experiences on Platform, we run routine automated screens that take user feedback, machine learning and various algorithms into account and remove spammy applications. For example, if an application is making an inordinate number of stream.publish calls and receiving a large number of user reports, it may be removed by our automated systems to protect the user experience and the Platform ecosystem.
Facebook has since issued a statement to the effect that it didn’t so much block Breakup Notifier as tweak it, in order to “provide a positive user experience.” Here you go,
We have automated systems in place to ensure apps on Facebook Platform provide a positive user experience, and we’re currently looking into the issue with “Breakup Notifier”. Additionally, we did not block the “Blackmail Yourself” app. Some features were temporarily disabled this week as we worked with the developer to ensure the app complied with all of our policies, but it has been and continues to be accessible.
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Feb 24

Assange Extradition Granted

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili
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Bad news for WikiLeaks’ embattled leader. A British court has confirmed Sweden’s extradition request. Julian Assange’s lawyers have one week to appeal ruling, otherwise he’ll be sent to Sweden where he’ll be tried on charges of rape and molestation, among others, stemming from a trip Assange took to that country last summer.

The New York Times describes Assange’s reaction to the ruling as “impassive.” The three month legal fight, of course, played out shortly after WikiLeaks released somewhere in the neighborhood of 250,000 American diplomatic cables–the latest in a series of major leaks that have made Assange and his site the bane of governments all over the world.
Assange has long denied the charges, at one point referring to the place of his extradition as, “the Saudi Arabia of feminism.” His lawyers have announced plans to fight the ruling. 
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Feb 23

Mark Zuckerberg Comic Hits Shelves

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili
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If you didn’t get enough Zuck in the The Social Network, don’t worry, there’s more Zuck where that came from. The Zuckerberg biography comic book “Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook” should be hitting shelves today.

Bluewater Productions, claims the comic shows a “more balanced portrayal” of Zuckerberg than The Social Network. Jerome Maida, the author, says he tried to give context to a complex figure. Expect more Zuckerberg drama about his bad reputation, aloof public persona, and the people he left hurt on his way to stardom.

This 48-page giant-sized has even been optioned for an animated film, so be on the look out for that next. Check out you local comic book stores and online for your very own Zuckerberg comic book for $6.99. By the way, Bluewater Productions also recently created the graphic novel “Fame: Justin Bieber,” but you can only get it at Walmart.

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Feb 23

This TI Graphing Calculator Runs Doom

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, video games, videos, Weird News

Doom Calculator

Those people who went to school in the 90s are probably more used to having a trust TI-80 series graphing calculator in their backpack than an iPhone or iPad, and the things you could do with a TI calculator and a little bit of time were pretty impressive. It was remarkably easy to start programming games, building text-adventure apps, and of course, programming all of your exam notes into an app you could run from the calculator – after all, your calculator was one of the few things you were almost always allowed to have during a test.
Some TI enthusiasts over at Omnimaga have taken these basics to the next level though: some of the members there have managed to get the classic first-person-shooter Doom to run on a real calculator, and have video to prove it (behind the jump.) 
The game reportedly crashes after 30 seconds of play, but the subsequent posters in the thread note that this is a little odd and something that can likely be fixed. Regardless, it’s impressive enough that the game runs at all, let alone looks this good. 
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Feb 23

Twitter Lets UberMedia Clients like UberTwitter and Twidroyd Back Online

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, twitter

Twitter Bird

On Friday, Twitter revoked API access for UberMedia applications, like UberTwitter and Twidroyd due to policy violations that varied from changing users’ tweets into advertisements and a privacy issue with direct messages longer than 140 characters. Twitter noted that the decision was the result of prolonged content and negotiations with UberMedia, but a step they had to take. 
UberMedia apparently got the picture, because their developers spent the weekend retooling their apps and making adjustments to respond to Twitter’s requests. One of those requests was to change the name of the “UberTwitter” app, which Twitter reportedly said was a trademark violation. The new app is called “UberSocial.” Additionally, developers made other tweaks and changes to the apps and the service back-end. 
When the dust cleared, Twitter restored API access to UberMedia apps yesterday. Twitter still recommends that you use one of the official Twitter clients for Android, iOS, and Blackberry, but for the time being, fans of UberSocial and Twidroyd will be able to use their favorite clients again. 
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Feb 23

Chinese Government Launches Search Engine

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, search, Today's Chili
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The biggest problem with Google? There’s almost too much information there. Wouldn’t the service be better if there were someone on top deciding what you should and shouldn’t see? Perhaps some manner of overzealous government body that surely knows what’s best for you?

The Chinese government has come up with the perfect solution to its on-going fight censorship battle with Google–it launched its own search engine. The Xinhua News Agency has teamed with state-run China Mobile Ltd. to launch Panguso.com. At present, the site has some pretty stiff competition in from Baidu, which currently controls 75 percent of the market.
Still, Xinhua has some pretty big plans. The agency’s president Li Congjun told The Associated Press that he has some pretty big plans for Panguso. “We would like to fully exploit the advantage of Xinhua as an official agency having a large collection of news and information, and that of China Mobile in terms of technology, advanced operation principles and strong infrastructure.”
Some 457 million people in China have Internet access, making it the world’s largest Internet population.
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Feb 23

WikiLeaks: Now Available in Shirt Form

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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One thing WikiLeaks promises not to uncover: your torso. The embattled whistleblowing site has launched its own storefront, where you can chose from 190 different products–most of which are t-shirts and sweatshirts, featuring things like images of Julian Assange’s face, quotes from George Orwell, and the ever-popular “W.T.F.: WikiLeaks Task Force.”
WikiLeaks promises that all proceeds from the tore will help fund the site. Just don’t expect the shirts to make you popular on your next trip to Capitol Hill.

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Feb 22

AMD Will Not Release Smartphone Chipset

Posted in: AMD, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

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AMD has plans that may not sit well with shareholders. The company is telling people not to expect a smartphone chip. However, AMD did admit that a chip for tablets will be coming out shortly.

Unlike Intel and smaller chip makers who are joining the ever-growing smartphone demand, AMD appears to have no interest in them. 

I wonder why AMD does not want to join the popular demand? However, it does take a lot for the company to issue a statement that is against the grain. Though, in the long run I wouldn’t be surprised if the company eventually changes its mind.

Via X Bit Lab

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