REDMOND, Wash., and SAN MATEO, Calif. — Nov. 22, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. has announced the acquisition of California-based video discovery technology company VideoSurf Inc.
Founded in 2006, VideoSurf offers a back-end computer vision technology that “sees” frames inside videos to make discovering content fast, easy and accurate. Over time, Microsoft will integrate this technology across its entertainment platform to augment the Xbox 360 ecosystem and evolve search and discovery of entertainment content on Xbox LIVE. (more…)
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Tracking military targets? The University of Missouri’s College of Engineering has an app for that.
Engineers from the MU College of Engineering, with funding from the U.S. Army/Leonard Wood Institute, have enhanced popular smartphones to be able to find and track targets. In addition, the engineers have developed ad hoc networks so that soldiers can relay smartphone information without using the internet. (more…)
*Twitter and LinkedIn Mobile Audiences Doubled in Past Year*
LONDON, UK, 21 November 2011 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of mobile social media usage across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) from the comScore MobiLens service. The study showed that the audience for mobile social networking in the EU5 region grew 44 percent in the last year with 55.1 million mobile users in the EU5 accessing social networking sites or blogs via their mobile devices during September 2011. (more…)
In a recent Town Hall meeting with staff in Information Technology Services (ITS) and IT partners from across campus, Yale’s Chief Information Officer Len Peters pointed out some of the technological changes that have taken place in the past 10 years — listing facts that might make some of today’s students think he was talking about an ancient world.
Just a decade ago, he noted, text messaging and smart phones weren’t being used on campuses (although nearly 70% of students had cell phones), and less than 30% of students had some form of wireless computer setup. (more…)
*Glass dry erase: the Eco-friendly way to make your work life easier*
As a professional in the corporate realm, I’m always amazed at the amount of tools at our disposal that we don’t take advantage of. Take Eco-friendly glass whiteboards for example. These glass dry erase boards are similar to their traditional whiteboard counterparts—just swap the chemical coverings of traditional dry erase with a durable, recyclable surface that wipes clean quickly without ghosting or staining.
Glass dry erase boards will not only last the life of the wall that’s holding it up at your school or corporate office; they also take on many responsibilities when it comes to making your work life easier, for example: (more…)
*Project to use 2 million PCs to crunch numbers, compress 100 years of research into just one*
LA JOLLA, CA and ARMONK, NY – IBM’s Watson computing system broke new ground earlier this year when it defeated two celebrated human competitors on the Jeopardy! game show. Now, The Scripps Research Institute is hoping to do something equally novel but more critical to human health with part of the prize money from that tournament: Find a cure for drug-resistant malaria. And it’s asking for the public’s help.
To that end, Scripps Research and IBM are encouraging anyone in the world with a personal computer to join World Community Grid, a sort of “supercomputer of the people” that will crunch numbers and perform simulations for “GO Fight Against Malaria”—the project that Scripps Research and IBM have launched at https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org. (more…)
*Roundtable Q&A: North Carolina student Miranda Hill and former teacher Jennifer Tyndall discuss their experiences with the Microsoft IT Academy and winning recognition in a global competition.*
REDMOND, Wash. — The 21st-century workplace is driven by information technology, and in today’s competitive job market, employers are seeking candidates who can hit the ground running with IT skills in place.
The Microsoft IT Academy provides a complete IT education solution to help students gain the skills they need to be successful in college and career. The program helps drive employability, digital literacy and 21st-century workforce development for students. At the same time, educational institutions are provided with the structure for a program that has the instant recognition and credibility of the Microsoft brand. (more…)
*Do Not Track Approach Balances User Preferences with Personalized Web Experiences*
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – 17 Nov 2011: To address rising concerns about privacy on the Web, W3C has published two first drafts for standards that allow users to express preferences about online tracking:
Tracking Preference Expression (DNT), which defines mechanisms for users to express cross-site tracking preferences and for sites to indicate whether they honor these preferences.
Tracking Compliance and Scope, which defines the meaning of a “Do Not Track” preference and sets out practices for websites to comply with this preference.
These documents are the early work of a broad set of stakeholders in the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group, including browser vendors, content providers, advertisers, search engines, and experts in policy, privacy, and consumer protection. W3C invites review of these early drafts, which are starting points of work to come. W3C expects them to become standards by mid-2012. (more…)
