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TED Talk 2014 | Ray Kurzweil: “Get ready for hybrid thinking” video now playing. Read full article here TED | Two hundred million years ago, our mammal ancestors developed a new brain feature: the neocortex. This stamp-sized piece of tissue, wrapped around a brain the size of a walnut, is the key to what humanity has become. Now, futurist Ray Kurzweil suggests, we should get ready for the next big leap in brain power, as we tap into the computing power in the cloud. related reading: TED | main TED | TED blog video YouTube channel related reading: TED | “Hacked: The speakers in session 8 of TED 2014″

Australian IT project failures spark new ICT governance standard. 65 to 85 per cent of IT projects fail to meet their objectives, run significantly late or cost far more than planned, says Minter Ellison partner Paul Kallenbach. Photo: Stephen Morton The frequent failure of major IT projects across the country such as the Queensland Health payroll debacle has spurred Standards Australia to release an updated standard for IT governance. The 24-page long standard was developed by the Standards Australia Technical Committeeand aims to guide leaders during major IT projects.

"The standard was prepared due to continuing failures of major IT projects to deliver expected value. The aim was to bring home the need for action from boards and senior business executives who are responsible for the overall governance of the organisation," said Standards Australia chief executive, Dr Bronwyn Evans. "If organisations want to obtain maximum value from their investment, governance of IT projects should not be left to the IT department alone.

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Big Ideas & Innovation. Digital Humanities Now. Texting affects ability to interpret words | News & Events. By Jennifer Myers A study done by Joan Lee for her master’s thesis in linguistics has revealed that university students who text more are less accepting of new words. Photo courtesy of Joan LeeResearch designed to understand the effect of text messaging on language found that texting has a negative impact on people’s linguistic ability to interpret and accept words. The study, conducted by Joan Lee for her master’s thesis in linguistics, revealed that those who texted more were less accepting of new words. On the other hand, those who read more traditional print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers were more accepting of the same words. The study asked university students about their reading habits, including text messaging, and presented them with a range of words both real and fictitious. “Our assumption about text messaging is that it encourages unconstrained language.

Lee says that for texters, word frequency is an important factor in the acceptability of words. Centre for Forensic Linguistics Texting Study. Texting affects ability to interpret words. Research designed to understand the effect of text messaging on language found that texting has a negative impact on people's linguistic ability to interpret and accept words. The study, conducted by Joan Lee for her master's thesis in linguistics, revealed that those who texted more were less accepting of new words.

On the other hand, those who read more traditional print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers were more accepting of the same words. The study asked university students about their reading habits, including text messaging, and presented them with a range of words both real and fictitious. "Our assumption about text messaging is that it encourages unconstrained language. But the study found this to be a myth," says Lee. Lee suggests that reading traditional print media exposes people to variety and creativity in language that is not found in the colloquial peer-to-peer text messaging used among youth or 'generation text'.

Net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7008.pdf. Experts Divided Over Internet Changes to Language. Since the first web browser appeared on computer screens in 1994, the Internet has radically changed global communication. With instant access to messaging and email, the ability to circulate commentary and opinion has revolutionized the way people communicate.

This has had an affect on language and writing, but people still debate the scope of these changes, and whether or not they're for the better. Eleanor Johnson is a professor in the English and Comparative literature department at Columbia University who attributes a growing misuse of language to the explosion of electronic communication. "I think that text messaging has made students believe that it's far more acceptable than it actually is to just make screamingly atrocious spelling and grammatical errors," she said. Johnson says that her students, over the past several years, have increasingly used a more informal English vocabulary in formal assignments. "For instance, using the word 'preclude' to mean 'precede.' Technology Leadership: paradox.

“In the end, what’s at stake is not only the quality of life our children might enjoy, but also the quality of the culture that they will inhabit.” (Eisner, 1999) In order to unpack the philosophy of technology, we need to have some knowledge of the past, consider where we are in the present and give thought to the future. It may be helpful to begin with a definition of technology. Some authors argue the term “technology” was not introduced until the 19th century when the term was added to names of prominent institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to the 19th century people spoke of the “mechanic arts” or “invention” or “science” in contexts where they would use “technology” today. The term “technology” is believed to come from Greek origins where “techne” referred to art or craft knowledge.

Technology as multi-stable with trajectories· The structure of technologies is multi-stable with trajectories. More Sites about the tetrad of effects: Disruptive technologies articles and insights. Internet Rumors - Why You Should Never Share False Rumors ThatsNonsense.com Blog. October 23rd, 2012 Article 2 of our 2-part blog It seems that on the Internet, clouded in the anonymity that it provides, we can become far too ignorant towards the consequences that our online actions can have.

Online rumor spreading is a perfect example. That is, the willingness of many to blindly accept and thus circulate baseless, unfounded and often brazenly false rumors across cyberspace. Why so many are willing to help spread such falsities across the Internet – when in the real world they would likely be more sceptical – is a fascinating question with no easy answer. But one possible reason why so many rumors garner so much viral success is that many do not realise the possible consequences of their actions, possibly because those seemingly innocuous actions take place behind the apparent safety of a keyboard.

Every false rumor has some kind of detrimental effect, and this article is designed to highlight those potential consequences that you may not realise exist. Dunne & Raby. Hertzian Tales Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and Critical Design Anthony Dunne The MIT Press, 2005 From the book jacket: "As our everyday social and cultural experiences are increasingly mediated by electronic products? From "intelligent" toasters to iPods? The cultural speculations and conceptual design proposals in Hertzian Tales are not utopian visions or blueprints; instead, they embody a critique of present-day practices, "mixing criticism with optimism.

" Very little has changed in the world of design since Hertzian Tales was first published by the Royal College of Art in 1999, writes Dunne in his preface to this MIT Press edition: "Design is not engaging with the social, cultural, and ethical implications of the technologies it makes so sexy and consumable. " The MIT Press --- Amazon UK. Dunne & Raby. The Habitable Planet Unit 5 - Human Population Dynamics // Online Textbook. Human population has grown very slowly for most of its existence on earth. Scientists currently estimate that modern human beings (Homo sapiens) evolved roughly 130,000 to 160,000 years ago.

Many threats, from diseases to climate fluctuations, kept life expectancy short and death rates high in pre-industrial society, so it took until 1804 for the human population to reach one billion. From that point forward, however, population growth accelerated very quickly (Table 1). Through the early decades of the Industrial Revolution, life expectancies were low in western Europe and the United States. Thousands of people died from infectious diseases such as typhoid and cholera, which spread rapidly in the crowded, filthy conditions that were common in early factory towns and major cities, or were weakened by poor nutrition. By the mid-20th century, most industrialized nations had passed through the demographic transition. Figure 8. Source: 2004. Figure 9. Figure 10. Top of page. Abstracts - Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics. New Electronic Technology Applied in Flexible Organic Optical SystemAndre F. S. Guedes, Vilmar P. Guedes, Simone Tartari, Mônica L.

Souza, Idaulo J. Cunha(Pages: 1-4) The synthesis and application of new organic materials, nanostructured, for developing technology based on organic devices, have been the main focus of the scientific community. The Internet as Social System: Applying Margaret Archer's Theory of Morphogenesis to Hypermedia CommunicationDee Pratt(Pages: 5-9) While there is a growing recognition amongst information and communication technology (ICT) researchers that computer systems are designed for and situated in social practices, the Internet tends to be viewed as an artefact, with the focus being on its technical and material aspects.

Near Real Time Discovery and Conversion of Open Source Information to a Reward MatrixMark Rahmes, Kathy Wilder, Harlan Yates, Kevin Fox(Pages: 10-15) A wireless network with a mesh topology works reliably and offers redundancy. CES postscript: The touch laptop, like it or not | Microsoft. The laptop was reinvented at CES. Or maybe I should say there was a vigorous attempt to reinvent the laptop. Because we won't know how successful touch has been until next year this time. Intel's CES booth -- still a large presence in the CES Central Hall -- had one basic unmistakable message: touch has arrived. Windows 8 convertibles, detachables, touch-screen laptops, and just plain tablets from Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba, Sony, and others blanketed Intel's booth.

And just to make sure the touch message was crystal clear, Intel issued an edict to PC partners during its CES keynote: all next-generation ultrabooks based on its "Haswell" chip must be touch. What does that mean to consumers? Your next laptop will likely be touch, whether you like it or not. And based on what I saw at the Intel booth (and other booths, like Samsung's), this is how it will break down: Detachable: These are essentially tablets with well-integrated keyboard docks.