Technolotics #36 – A Dose of Genius

Technolotics - An antique show about technology

[audio https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/36_technolotics.mp3]

Listen: Episode 36
Watch: Youtube

Notes

A Dose Of Genius

• Dramatic increases in the numbers of students using “smart pills” to increase
  • concentration,
  • focus,
  • wakefulness
  • and short-term memory.

• Adderall,
  • used to treat attention-deficit disorder.
  • Sales up 3,135 per cent in the last 4 years.
• Provigil
  • used to treat narcoleptics, who fall asleep uncontrollably.
  • Sales up 359.7 percent in the last 4 years..
• These “brain steroids” are cheaply available, with those having legitimate perscriptions selling or giving away the pills to their friends.

• Study published in an international biomedical and psychosocial journal noted that 7 million Americans used bootleg perscriptions in 2002 and 1.6 million were in the student age group.
• In May, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America issued its annual attitude-tracking study on drug use
  • it concluded 2.25 million kids of middle school and high school age are abusing stimulants.
  • This represents 1 in 10 students in that age group.

• These represent the first geneneration of brain pills, memory drugs may soon be on sale pending the results of clinical trials.
• Four US companies are racing to bring drugs for Alzheimer’s patients to market.
• Researchers expect those drugs to slowly filter into use by a population sick of forgetting what they meant to buy at the shops and students looking for an edge.
• One new drug boosts the activity of glutamate, a key neurotransmitter that makes it easier to learn and encode memory.

• For the future:
  • Will business see it as a way to get more out of the average worker.
  • Certainly in jobs where mental endurance matters it will creep in, especially as those who take them at school move into these roles.

• What about the side effects?
  • Cleaner student accomodation.
  • Strattera — the ADHD medicine can result in liver failure
  • a form of Adderall was pulled from its markets as a result of sudden unexplained deaths in children with cardiac abnormalities.

• How long before it becomes common over here?
  • Points race and pressure to succeed placing greater pressure on students.
  • Will those who cannot attend grind schools use these drugs to keep up?

Links

• Original Article from Washington Post

The Last Radio

• The GNU programmable radio
• Capable of grabing most of the electromagnetic spectrum

• Most devices that use wireless communications utilize single purpose radios which operate over a narrow band of frequencies.
• A general purpose radio that can be reconfigured offers greater flexibility and economy of scale.
• Imagine being able to recieve or transmit any kind of signal using one device.

• Eric Blossom & Matt Ettus teamed up to develop a HDTV reciever.
• While they have yet to decode HDTV they have gone on to build the a software-defined radio.
• The system consists of the:
  • Universal Software Radio Peripheral, or USRP motherboard
  • the daughterboards that allow it to transmit and recieve over various parts of the electomagnetic spectrum.

• The device is already being used to track shopper movements within a closed area using triangulation of the GSM signals.
• Blossom is working on a passive radar system which will use ambient radio waves to track flying objects up to 50 km away.
• System opens up vast possibilities for researchers and amateurs, Ettus is selling the kits from his website starting at $550

Links

• Wired News
• Ettus.com

Netvibes Ecosystem

• Popular WEb2.0 online desktop / portal netvibes have launched Netvibes Ecosystem
• The ecosystem is a cleverly designed one way mirror of RSS content, widgets created with the netvibes API, and flash content
• You can alter how netvibes works, subscribe to feeds created by users, add a clock, games etc
• With integrated POP3 mail, mouseover feed preview, and built in RSS viewer, Netvibes is rapidly becomming a top notch alternative to separate RSS feed viewers

Links

• Netvibes Ecosystem

Gesturtek outdo the Wiimote

• New camera software from Gesturetek should enable X360 and PS3 to replicate all the functionality of the Wiimote and more

• Gesturetek showed off their Software development kit at E3
• It is used to program for the as-of-yet unannounced XBox 360 camera.
• This is not a slightly better EyeToy which could only identify motion and direction.
• The SDK allows for the identification and tracking of a single person’s face.
• It also tracks limbs in 3 dimentional space.
• It can in fact identify and track individual fingers.
• This allows for very sophisticated gesture recognition if the hype is to be believed.

• The SDK is also being ported to the PS2 and PS3 and should be ready by the end of the summer.
• The question is – will software support the peripheral?
  • Writer makes the point that Nintendo Wii is all about the controller.
  • Game makers have no incentive to incorporate gesture control into their games.
  • It’s much easier to churn out generic sequels to popular titles.
  • Those that do might do so poorly.
  • Nintendo on the other hand incorporate gesture recognition by default.
  • It’s the unique selling point of the Wii.
  • For developers it is much more likely to be fully incorporated into games for the Wii.

• Gesture games are hugely popular, Guitar Hero allowing air guitar afficionados everywhere to strut their stuff.

• If the system works then it would be nice to see other uses of it.
• no more seaching for the remote control, simply control every device in the room via gestures.

Links

• About.com

Short Stories

Google Spreadsheets

• Googleblogger – Spreadsheets for everybody else
• Will not replace advanced corporate functions
• But – multiuser / post online / all basic functions – fine for home / small business use
• Only major feature missing = charts

Google Browser Synch

• Google have launched a tool for those of us forced to skip from Desk to desk
• Google browser synch lets users carry their settings with them
• bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords are kept up to date
• handy, but do you trust google with this info?

NSA Lawsuit will go ahead

• Judge rules that the lawsuit against the NSA over their illegal wiretapping can go ahead

• Lawsuit filed by the ACLU in Detroit and the Center for Constitution Rights in New York in January.
• Claim was that the wiretapping violated American’s rights to free speech and privacy.
• Plaintiffs asked the judge in March to declare the wiretaps illegal.
  • The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires a visit to a secret court to authorize spying within the United States.
  • The NSA had not done this, making their wiretaps warrentless and illegal.

• Government filed a motion saying no court can consider the issues as it may harm national security.
• Judge said she will hear the government’s motion only after proceeding with the hearing on the plaintiff’s motion to declare the spying illegal.
• The Justice Department has yet to respond to the legal challenge.

• Link:: Boston.com

Hitch – iPod to iPod without PC

• Finally – rip to and from portable devices without a PC

• Link:: Sima Products

Media Pimp

Gareth

• Man vs Flash
• Observer Chris Morris Special
• The Amen Break Video
• The Establishment – Ultimate Peter Cook Fan Site
• Amazing RC Piloting
• Powers of 10

Francis

• Search for content with a particular tag on flickr, youtube, del.icio.us,technorati, feedster, newsvine, reddit and tailrank, all at the same time on Tagfetch.com
• Make your own lcd projector
• Make google maps the easy way with Google Map Maker
• Prison Break begins on RTE 2 on Tuesday night.