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02 May, 2014
The tried and tested Qwerty keyboard model has persisted since its first appearance in a typewriter patent application filed in 1868 by US politician, newsman and inventor Christopher Sholes. Curator of Canberra's Australian Typewriter Museum Robert Messenger said challengers come and go but, like it or not, Qwerty is here to stay. He pointed to the emergence of the Dvorak simplified keyboard in the 1930s. Despite boasting faster typing speeds and a more intuitive typing interface - where vowels and consonants were separated on different lines and the most commonly used letters were alternated across both hands - it failed to gain mainstream traction.
Labels:
History,
research,
Sustainability
01 May, 2014
In an exciting move that could turn the console war back in its favor, Microsoft’s Xbox One will soon become the first major game console to be sold in China since they were banned in 2000 due to concerns they melt the brains of children. The ban was finally lifted at the end of 2013, but only for consoles produced in Shanghai’s new free trade zone. It would seem that Microsoft is the first big console maker to set up a production line there
This is an IBM coding sheet, for COBOL. We had them for other languages, too: Pascal, Assembly language, Fortran. You'd use these to hand-write your computer programs. In pencil. Because this was the dizzying heights of "undo" technology: And when you were finished handwriting a section of code - perhaps a full program, perhaps a subroutine - you'd gather these sheets together (carefully numbered in sequence, of course) and send them along to the folks in the data entry department. They'd type it in. And the next day you'd get a report to find out if it compiled or not.
Labels:
History,
ICT Career
BITCOIN NOW ON BLOOMBERG. It’s worth noting that we are not endorsing or guaranteeing Bitcoin, and investors cannot trade Bitcoin or other digital currencies on Bloomberg. Global interest in digital currencies has undoubtedly increased, but these instruments still represent a fraction of fiat currency usage. Reaction from governments around the world to digital currencies has been mixed and the regulatory environment remains very unclear. And while Bitcoin has thus far survived intense media scrutiny, scandal and wild price swings, there certainly is no guarantee that Bitcoin will persevere.
GOOGLE says it has stopped scanning student Gmail accounts for advertising purposes after the practice was scrutinised during a recent court case. Google didn’t place ads inside the apps, which it offered to educational institutions since 2006. However, the company continued to scan the contents of students’ Gmail accounts., gathering information that could potentially have been used to target ads to those students elsewhere online.
For all the talk of the National Broadband Network, the reality is that most Australian homes will be at the mercy of the copper DSL network for at least a few years yet. ADSL2+ has a theoretical maximum download speed of 20 megabits per second (Mbps), which is not too shabby, but you'll only see those speeds if you live next door to your telephone exchange. Many homes would be lucky to sustain a third of those speeds, and it's easy to forget that some people would give their right arm for a solid and reliable 1 or 2 Mbps at home. Don't be afraid to talk to your ISP about tweaking your DSL settings. Also check out the settings on your modem. It requires patience to find the right balance, but if it all goes pear-shaped you can always go back to your old settings. Of course the copper network is a fickle beast, so what is stable one day might not be the next.
30 April, 2014
COMMONWEALTH Bank customers will be able to withdraw cash from ATMs by using their smartphones and without a card from next month. Withdrawals are limited to one transaction a day, up to $200, and customers must first have the CommBank app installed on their smartphones. Customers who want to collect the cash themselves can select the amount to withdraw and the account via the app. Two unique numbers will be issued — an 8-digit cash code and a 4-digit cash PIN.
29 April, 2014
This year, the hype around HDA is exploding. It may be the showcasing of HDA devices at January’s Consumer Electronics Show or the rising anticipation around the release of music legend Neil Young’s HDA-capable PonoPlayer, a triangular orange gadget that has the backing of Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and other notable musos..Just as 4K TVs upscale ordinary HD by interpolating pixels and adding more of them, Sony says its digital enhancement works on the audio to restore missing high-frequency sounds. Its digital remastering engine then remasters your modified track as a DSD and replays it.
Labels:
research
HISTORY is about to repeat itself as the Abbott government embarks on a mammoth project to replace Centrelink’s core IT infrastructure central to the delivery of $150 billion in social security payments annually. Joe Hockey all but gave the green light when he told radio station 3AW last week that the welfare agency’s 31-year-old mainframe system was “in bad shape” and would cost “billions” to upgrade.
Labels:
History,
Sustainability
MICRO-quadcopters will be given the ability to operate intelligently and carry out tasks to assist humans in disaster situations. The Monash Swarm Robotics Laboratory at Monash University, the only lab in the country with an exclusive focus on “swarm’’ technology, is translating the techniques used for ground-moving robots into quadcopters.
28 April, 2014
Microsoft has announced that its Internet Explorer browser has a significant security flaw that affects Internet Explorer versions 6 through 11 — or in other words, every version of Internet Explorer that you’re likely to be using right now. The flaw allows for remote code to be executed by corrupting memory stored within the browser, potentially allowing an external system to take full control of your PC.
Labels:
Critical + Creative Thinking,
Cybersafety
27 April, 2014
TWO Adelaide police officers are behind a new application they say can reduce the time taken to conduct an investigation by 65 per cent and save SAPOL about $21 million per year. The application, my Evidence, is being developed by Senior Constable Jerome Lienert and Senior Constable First Class Tung Tran and does away with separately using paper notebooks, video cameras, audio recorders and still cameras to obtain and record evidence.
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