On Sites Like eBay, Strangers No Longer Seen as ‘Just Like You’
COLUMBUS, Ohio – An anonymous stranger you encounter on websites like Yelp or Amazon may seem to be just like you, and a potential friend. But a stranger on a site like eBay is a whole different story.
A new study finds that on websites where people compete against each other, assumptions about strangers change.
Previous research has shown that people have a bias toward thinking that strangers they encounter online are probably just like them. (more…)
Microsoft BizSpark startup uses Windows Azure to put keyword search control into the hands of humans rather than algorithms.
REDMOND, Wash. — April 3, 2013 — One of the biggest fears for website developers is that their visitors click an internal search button on the site, can’t find what they’re looking for and leave frustrated. Because every failed search can mean a lost opportunity for business owners, elicitwas founded to help people find what they are looking for within a website.
The founders of elicit are all serial entrepreneurs who met when working together at various startups. Brothers Eric and Adam Heneghan are the co-founders of Giant Step, a digital marketing firm; Jeff Froom is an application and interaction developer; and Chip Aubry is a software architecture expert. While working at an interactive marketing agency, they formed the idea for elicit based on feedback from customers. (more…)
New Microsoft-commissioned study also highlights dangers for those that use counterfeit software.
REDMOND, Wash. — Although some computer users may actively seek pirated software in hopes of saving money, the chances of infection by unexpected malware are one in three for consumers and three in 10 for businesses, according to a new study commissioned by Microsoft Corp. and conducted by IDC. As a result of these infections, the research shows that consumers will spend 1.5 billion hours and US$22 billion identifying, repairing and recovering from the impact of malware, while global enterprises will spend US$114 billion to deal with the impact of a malware-induced cyberattack.
The global study analyzed 270 websites and peer-to-peer networks, 108 software downloads, and 155 CDs or DVDs, and it interviewed 2,077 consumers and 258 IT managers or chief information officers in Brazil, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Researchers found that of counterfeit software that does not come with the computer, 45 percent comes from the Internet, and 78 percent of this software downloaded from websites or peer-to-peer networks included some type of spyware, while 36 percent contained Trojans and adware. (more…)
The email resembled the organization’s own employee e-newsletter and asked recipients to visit a website to confirm that they wanted to continue receiving the newsletter. Another email carried an attachment that said it contained the marketing plan the recipient had requested at a recent conference. A third email bearing a colleague’s name suggested a useful website to visit.
None of these emails were what they pretended to be. The first directed victims to a website that asked for personal information, including the user’s password. The second included a virus that launched when the “marketing plan” was opened. The third directed users to a website that attempted to install a malicious program. (more…)
Get Up and Do Something is source for optimal health
Mike Peterson believes that the best way to bring about changes in health behavior is to take an approach that’s fun, positive, and motivational.
So the website he developed and runs with the health promotion master’s students at the University of Delaware is “not about ‘guilting’ people into doing things — it’s about playing to their better angels.” (more…)
Teaching future educators how to read and write in a new way
Rachel Karchmer-Klein, an associate professor in the University of Delaware’s School of Education, is teaching future educators to read and write multimodal texts, which includes everything from literature on a Kindle or iPad to information on a website.
“With traditional texts we teach students to read left to right, top to bottom, but electronic text is different because it contains multiple modes,” Karchmer-Klein explained. (more…)
A joint effort of citizen scientists and professional astronomers has led to the first reported case of a planet orbiting twin suns that in turn is orbited by a second distant pair of stars.
Aided by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website, a Yale-led international team of astronomers identified and confirmed discovery of the phenomenon, called a circumbinary planet in a four-star system.
Only six planets are known to orbit two stars, according to researchers, and none of these are orbited by distant stellar companions. (more…)
Join the Great ShakeOut on October 18, 2012, to prepare
The Central Virginia Seismic Zone, it’s called, and it sometimes shakes everything in sight.
As long ago as 1774, people in central Virginia felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from intermittent larger ones. A magnitude 4.8 quake happened in 1875.
Then last year, on August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 quake hit the same region. Several aftershocks, ranging up to magnitude 4.5, occurred after the main tremor.
Will there be another such quake in the mid-Atlantic region? (more…)
