Intel is reportedly on the cusp of delivering something that consumers around the world have been wanting for a long, long time.Kelly Clay at Forbes reports Intel is going to blow up the cable industry with its own set-top box and an unbundled cable service.Clay says Intel is planning to deliver cable content to any device with an Internet connection. And instead of having to pay $80 a month for two hundred channels you don't want, you'll be able to subscribe to specific channels of your choosing.
Could neuroscientists be the next great architects?
ARCHITECTS HAVE BEEN talking for years about “biophilic” design, “evidence based” design, design informed by the work of psychologists. But last May, at the profession’s annual convention, John Zeisel and fellow panelists were trying to explain neuroscience to a packed ballroom.
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The late-afternoon session pushed well past the end of the day; questions just kept coming. It was a scene, Zeisel marveled—all this interest in neuroscience—that would not have taken place just a few years earlier.
Zeisel is a sociologist and architect who has researched the design of facilities for Alzheimer’s patients. Architects, he explains, “understand about aesthetics; they know about psychology. The next depth to which they can go is understanding the brain and how it worksand why do people feel more comfortable in one space than another?”
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New neurons continue to be born throughout life, particularly in the hippocampus, the part of your brain that processes new information on its way to being stored as long-term memories. This means that your capacity to add new memories and learn new skills can continue to expand. And how fast these cells are added seems directly influenced by the richness of our interactions with our environment. When Gage introduced these findings to architects at the American Institute of Architects’ 2003 convention, he pronounced an idea that is still sinking in: “Changes in the environment change the brain, and therefore they change our behavior.”
The Ubuntu operating system has been adapted to run on smartphones.
The Linux-based software will allow users to run desktop apps on their handsets, allowing them to double for PCs when docked to monitors.
The code will initially be released as a file which can be installed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone, replacing Android.
Some analysts question whether consumers really want the power of a fully fledged computer on their phone.
Even so, Ubuntu's founder, Mark Shuttleworth, said he was in talks with manufacturers for devices to be sold with the system pre-installed within the year.
While he acknowledged the innovation would likely be limited to “enthusiasts and hobbyists” at first, he said it signalled a wider shift on the horizon.
“It's quite incredible that we're at this point when the power of the phone is crossing over that with baseline processing power of basic laptops,” Mr Shuttleworth told the BBC.
“We're taking advantage of that so for the first time in history you have the full consumer PC platform available on a phone.
The degree to which people's activities are uncoordinated is the degree to which their society is poor. The degree to which people's activities are coordinated is the degree to which their society is wealthy. The other factor is productivity. But without coordination, productivity doesn't mean squat in a complex economy.
It's the same as collective intelligence. All systems repeat patterns. It's the same as the example of the the open source computer system that solved the mystery of the complex protein in two weeks. In that case the “wealth” that was created was an understanding of that protein. And it was created by coordinated activity.
Genetic Engineering and the GMO Industry: Corporate Hijacking of Food and Agriculture
“I recognized my two selves: a crusading idealist and a cold, granitic believer in the law of the jungle” – Edgar Monsanto Queeny, Monsanto chairman, 1943-63, “The Spirit of Enterprise”, 1934.
When rich companies with politically-connected lobbyists and seats on government-appointed bodies bend policies for their own ends, we are in serious trouble. It is then that our democratic institutions become hijacked and our choices, freedoms and rights are destroyed. Corporate interests have too often used their dubious ‘science’, lobbyists, political connections and presence within the heart of governments, in conjunction with their public relations machines, to subvert democratic machinery for their own benefit. Once their power has been established, anyone who questions them or who stands in their way can expect a very bumpy ride.
We hope you enjoy this special New Year's issue of the Supporter, complete with an impressive piece of holiday ASCII art by FSF member Chris Webber. As you can hopefully tell, that's a gnu toasting the new year with Gavroche, the adorable goblin mascot of the GNU MediaGoblin project that so many of you generously supported this year.
All of you care about free software, and our job at the FSF is to make your voices heard. In 2013, our goal is to turn up the volume and reach more people than ever before with the message that all software can and should be free. To make this possible, we want to raise $350,000 by January 31st. If you've been following the progress bar on our homepage, you know we're about halfway there. Can you help us reach our goal?
