Posts Tagged ‘first’
A's fan to use robot for first pitch
Author: Antonio Pierce
A's fan to use robot for first pitch
OAKLAND, Calif. — From some 1,800 miles away in Kansas City, Mo., 13-year-old Nick LeGrande threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Yankees-Athletics game Wednesday night. Into the glove of A's reliever Ryan Cook, in Oakland. It was all made …
Read more on ESPN
Microsoft's Robot Touch Screen Lets You Palpate a Brain
The robotic system behind the curtain pushes back with a pressure that reflects the physical properties of virtual objects on the screen. A granite block in a 3D playground is harder to move than a wooden block, while plastic beach balls are light and …
Read more on IEEE Spectrum
These mini robot scouts can aid rescuers with 3D thermal imaging
When wildfires strike, they can sweep across massive swathes of land at incredible speeds. When their rampant progress brings fires into populated areas, firefighters quickly find their hands full trying to keep the fire at bay, while simultaneously …
Read more on DVICE
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First hangout with Google Specs
Author: Brittany Turner
First hangout with Google Specs.
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Mysterious death of Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, possibly solved after 45 years
Author: Antonio Pierce
The mysteries surrounding the death of Yuri Gagarin — the first human to ever travel into outer space — may finally have been solved thanks to fellow Russian cosmonaut Alexey Leonov. Gagarin’s death in 1968 was the result of a plane crash, but just how he came to crash has been subject to conspiracies and speculation for decades. Previous theories have suggested that while piloting a test flight Gagarin made a poor maneuver or blacked out. But according to Russia Today, Leonov was there that day, and he’s finally spoken out to say that he believes a supersonic jet knocked Gagarin’s plane into a tailspin that he couldn’t recover from.
Why Leonov didn’t speak until now underscores why the cause of Gagarin’s crash was covered up….
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Facebook reveals government data request numbers, is first to include national security stats
Author: Margo Tipton
Facebook lawyer Ted Ullyot revealed in a post tonight precisely how many user-data requests it receives from government entities, and that it’s negotiated the ability to include national security-related (FISA and National Security Letters) inquiries in the report. Until now, the companies that receive such requests, whether through the recently uncovered PRISM program or not, have not been able to say anything about them, or report how many there are. Still, the stats it’s able to release aren’t specific, and include all requests from the last six months in a range, said to be between 9,000 and 10,000, covering between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts. We still have no official reports on what those inquiries cover, how wide reaching a single one can be or what information has been passed along. Facebook however, is quick to point out that these cover “only a tiny fraction of one percent” of its 1.1 billion active user accounts.
Along with Microsoft and Google, Facebook has publicly petitioned the government to let it be more transparent about the size and scope of the requests it receives, and Reuters reports tonight that “several” internet companies have struck an agreement to do so.
For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) – was between 9,000 and 10,000. These requests run the gamut – from things like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat. The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.
Developing…
Source: Facebook
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2013 MacBook Air First Look!
Author: Matthew Wilson
TimeToBuyApple.com: http://full.sc/OP2r2K (a thelatestech website) Facebook Page: http://facebook.com/thelatestech At today’s WWDC keynote in San Francisco, …
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Mattel first edition Great Mazinga Shogun Warrior Jumbo Machinder Great Mazinger
Author: Markus Smith
Robot by Pierre Boogaerts First Book on Space Toys Futurepolis France 1978
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Mechanical Planet Space Robot Tin Windup Toy Red Robot Retro Vintage Sparking
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Microsoft Debuts Crowdfunding Program For Student Laptops, Offers Office 365 Free To First 10K Participants
Author: Antonio Pierce
Microsoft is introducing a new pilot project today called ”Chip In,” which sees the Windows-maker offering to help students crowdsource laptop purchases ahead of next school year. Students with a .edu email address can crowdfund laptop purchases of qualifying devices through the official Microsoft online store, and Microsoft will subsidize 10 percent of the purchase price itself, plus offer free copies of Office 365 University edition to the first 10,000 students to sign up for the program.
The Chip In promotion begins today and goes through September 1, so essentially spanning the entire summer for higher education students. The full list of eligible laptops includes 15 Windows PCs from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Microsoft. The Surface Pro and Surface RT are both included in the list, as are some marquee Windows 8 devices from third-party partners like the Lenovo Yoga and Asus Taichi. Microsoft’s 10 percent discount is automatically applied to the pricing of all those on the list, which you can see here.
While it’s intended for students, U.S.-based faculty and staff are also eligible to participate so long as they have a valid .edu address. To participate, choose a computer, create a profile page using your FB account and request that friends and family chip-in to help meet your funding goal. If you fulfill your goal, Microsoft sends out a promo code you can redeem to complete the purchase. There’s even a provision that allows you to put any amount earned above your goal (should a device go on sale or get a price cut) toward other devices and items in the Microsoft Store. If you fall short of your goal, but raise at least $ 499, you can still use those funds toward a device as well. If you don’t meet that amount, your contributors won’t be charged.
This goes above and beyond the usual back-to-school promotions and is actually a pretty good idea in terms of letting students leverage the good will of relatives and friends who might want to give them a graduation/off-to-college gift but can’t fork up enough for a new laptop all on their own. It might be slightly annoying seeing a lot of inbound requests from students begging for notebooks, but on balance it seems like a good idea, and a smart way for Microsoft to get more people on Windows 8.
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Tags: Crowdfunding, debuts, first, Free, Laptops, Microsoft, offers, Office, participants, program, Student | 
No Comments »Surface Pro launches in Japan on June 7th, packs 256GB for the first time
Author: Mark Jeffries
Microsoft’s Surface Pro started shipping in the US back in February, but its rollout elsewhere has been sporadic, and a 256GB model non-existent — until now. Japanese customers lusting after the Intel Core i5-powered hybrid will be able to claim one on June 8th, priced at 99,800 yen ($ 975) 128GB of storage. The new 256GB iteration will premiere on shelves there for 119,800 yen ($ 1,175), and customers there will be able to adorn it with the Touch Cover for 9,980 yen ($ 100) and tactile key Type Cover for 10,980 yen ($ 110). Better still, Microsoft will toss in its pressure-sensitive pen (and Office 2013) for all the versions as well — just in time for you to finally do something useful with it.
Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Microsoft
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Good To Know: Ants Will Carry Little Signs For You If You Dab Them With Pee First (The Signs Not The Ants)
Author: Jack Schmidt
This is a video from Smarter Every Day showing how you can get leafcutter ants to carry little signs for you by peeing on them. The urine, which contains salt, make the little bits of paper desirable for the ants to drag back to their colony and use to grow their fungal food. It reminded me of how you can get my roommate to drink urine by mixing it into the orange juice container.
Hit the jump for the video.
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The Fairphone, World’s First Ethically Sourced Smartphone, Opens Pre-Sales To General Public
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Netherlands-based hardware initiative Fairphone began around three years ago as a project designed to highlight the use of conflict minerals in the construction of consumer electronics, and then evolved three years later into a full-fledged hardware startup, with the aim of turning its knowledge into action with the building of an ethically sourced, built and distributed smartphone. Now, it’s opening up pre-orders to the general public, beginning with customers in Europe.
The Fairphone needs 5,000 pre-orders in order to begin production, and retails for a total of €325 ($ 436). That price included taxes, however and what you get for that is an unlocked, 4.3-inch smartphone running Android 4.2, powered by a quad core processor. It has an 8 megapixel rear camera, and a 1.3 megapixel front facing shooter, with dual-SIM trays for easy carrier switching and international travel.
As a smartphone, the Fairphone seems capable enough, but it’s the manufacturing process that’s really core to the concept of the device. The phone itself is made using materials from a completely transparent supply chain – Fairphone is looking at the provenance of each mineral used to make each component, the people who build each part and the processes evolved and their social and ecological impact, and will make all of that information available to buyers and the general public. The idea is to flag stuff that’s being done poorly, highlight ways to make changes, in both the short and long term, and also build a collection of best practices that can be shared with the rest of the industry.
Fairphone initially had opened sales only to the over 16,000 people who signed up to express interest when it initially announced the project, giving them first crack at the initial pre-order run. It seems like the percentage of those that were actually willing to put their money down on a device and contribute to the initial fund was much lower, however, which has prompted the expansion of sales to anyone in Europe who might want to contribute.
The Fairphone is being transparent about the sales process, too; thus far, it has managed to sell 2,333 phones through pre-orders, with 20 days left in its campaign. Hopefully broadening the buyer pool will spark more interest, because the project stands to be able to shed a lot of light on what for many is a completely invisible or poorly understood process.
