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Psycho Siri: the virtual assistant is angry at Apple parody

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Technology - General
Sunday, 05 February 2012 02:04

One of the most important news of the iPhone 4S is the inclusion of a virtual assistant, named Siri , who is able to process natural language and "understand" what we are proposing. For example, if we ask if we need an umbrella, Siri assume we are looking for weather information, in fact, your chances are quite spacious and we will take a cable to the point when reminders, text messages, take notes or search the web. With so many options, taking into account the dynamics of operation is to "talk" to the phone, there have been few parodies and jokes that circulate on the Internet ( Robin Williams included) and have starring Siri.

The last of the parodies that have come to the network represents a somewhat irascible Siri who ends up becoming a psychopath who wants to eliminate a couple of individuals who have found an iPhone 4S and intend to take off some extra money from their sale. Psycho Siri, which is the name of this parody is very well done as the authors have inserted special effects and have looked quite the production of this short film that is less than five minutes.

Nathan McMurry and Andrew McMurry are the authors of the video that Siri mad and wants to eliminate the protagonists to those pursued and dares to say things like:

It is useless to run and hide

Luckily this is all fiction and, fortunately for those owners of an iPhone 4S, Siri has no dark side sleeper or at least I hope so.




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The NBC pilot responsible Revolution, the new JJ Abrams and Eric Kripke

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Technology - General
Saturday, 04 February 2012 22:25

On the one hand we have JJ Abrams , creator of Lost, Fringe, Alcatraz, Person of Interest ...: on the other side we have Eric Kripke responsible for Supernatural. The two have combined their creative genius to develop Revolution, a futuristic drama and post-apocalyptic with great action.

The NBC, which is going through a slump from which it seems impossible to leave, has decided to give it a try to the project by commissioning the pilot ahead of the season 2012-2013. That if Kripke previously had to rewrite the script. As the creator of Supernatural script handles the JJ Abrams and his sidekick Bryan Burke has been awarded the post of executive producers.

The official synopsis of the series is nothing exceptional: in a world where all energy sources have mysteriously stopped working, and where technology serves only to collect dust, a group of survivors try to reunite with their loved ones. Episodes of Revolution, if it comes to getting green light will last one hour.

So we have an ensemble cast, a mystery, a post-apocalyptic world and a people search. I guess we will see an America devastated and chaotic. Big cities are abandoned and destroyed by pillaging, vandals and nature. The situation brings out the best and worst of people. Some people will take advantage of the situation, using brute force and the weak submit to gain control of natural resources. Others will fight on the side of justice and goodness. Sure you see gangs, militias, lone heroes and groups of survivors who are protected in small towns relatively safe. Any lover of science fiction has seen this type of situation billion times. I'm not complaining, I know you told rightly, balancing dose of drama and action, making good use of special effects and with a charismatic cast of believable characters skin can have a good series at hand.

Will it work? The truth is that I hope NBC anything, they were able to set aside 17th Precinct and bet Grimm , left us Community but began issuing Are You There, Chelsea?, play hide and seek with Awake but surprised Smash with the pilot. Revolution may have a future in the chain of peacock, an unpredictable place.

Photo: Aceshowbiz




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Children prefer to robots

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Technology - General
Saturday, 04 February 2012 20:14

According to a study by Latitude an Australian technology research children prefer the robots at times and educational game about teachers or parents. According to the study of robots can cover the gap between play and learning, understanding emotions of young people and better suit your needs.

The research was funded by Lego Learning Institute , the department of studies on creativity, learning and development on the premises of educational fun. He also participated Synthesis Project a consultant on the Australian exchange inspirational ideas from the community.

The work was conducted with a sample of 348 children ages 8 to 12 years, schools from around the world. They were asked how their lives would imagine if there were robots in homes and schools participating. The sessions with the boys started with a series of demographic questions about their habits and technology, then they were asked to create a short story from a few triggers that researchers prepared. The results were obtained from an analysis of narrative and images, analyzing the shapes of the robots and special attention to the relationship with humans and have the activities to be undertaken with them.

For children the robots are more like humans than for adults, far from super robot-ray lasers, turbines and other technologies, almost two thirds of respondents to imagine a humanoid robot. These robots would not difficulty communicating with them and their intelligence would not be different from an adult, would not have them programmed intelligence traits. For boys this would enable the robots are good friends and colleagues, but this friend would come loaded with extensive knowledge in all subjects. So is that for boys, the source of information would become a pair that can be related and not an authority figure (and teachers).

We played football in the playground with my friends. In class [the robot] wrote for me and helped me think. [...] When we got home I prepared the meal and helped me with homework. Creating books for me and play with me. Keep my secret, I can tell anything and know advise me.

In this imagined world, humans interact with the robots as if they were people, not left in a secondary role. For this reason many kids put their creations in an aspirational, intelligent, fun, good friends and try / are treated with respect, somehow come to replace it in the imagination that once was the teacher-friend, someone with whom they could have fun and learn without losing respect. These responses reflect not only the powers given to the robots surely be evidence of absence of father figures in the formative moments.

These friends futurists can easily assume the role of teacher in education . According to the vision of children to be aware of the feelings of humans, robots can see when a child is suffering the anguish for not learning something when this happens, they can create fun alternatives so that knowledge can be absorbed as a set. The robot may help children with homework and would not be cheating, because surely prepare a way of learning in the process. There is no rigid methodology as in schools, the robots can streamline the learning process while maximizing creativity.

Contrary to what one might have imagined before seeing the results, when reviewing the reasons why children would want to have a robot, the views were partners. The number of children who want a robot to play is virtually the same as those I want to learn.

According to research conducted by Latitude, the technology could reach the youngest of three fundamental aspects:

  • Rate personalized learning for each student: The boys are willing to learn but the gap between students often results in lost enthusiasm. Technology can generate classes tailored to each student.
  • Creativity for boring exercises address: Children recognize what are the exercises that do not have to think better (calligraphic exercises or memorization) and tend to block or make half-hearted, with a fun approach can stop this from happening.
  • The technology has infinite patience: As the youngest, humans have personalities and it is fatigue, limited patience and discomfort. Not always in a good mood, they can hear or are watching what happens. The technology change is relentless and not afraid of this generation, a program is always ready in the best way to understand their feelings and needs.

Children recognize the robots a human essence, the attributes they value you are awarded as a patient personality characteristics, funny, intelligent, and so on. But crossing them with technological performance, enhancing the features for the possibilities of the machine such infinite patience. So is that their creations are at an advantage when competing for the role of beating fellow friends, parents or teachers. Kids can be displayed as they are in front of a machine is intelligent but without the fear of challenges, weary or be judged.

The research study seems essentially a fun, yet useful to understand how children interact with technology. Lets look at how that has changed the educational process rethinking the place that will give the robots, applications for tablets or computers in general.

Photos: Latitude , GiselaGiardino




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Instagram, controlled the ecosystem for the user experience

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Technology - General
Saturday, 04 February 2012 19:02

Few doubt the success it is having Instagram, one of the applications available for IOS in which users can share images in a easy extredamente after having applied various filters. For some time there is a question that has not had a clear response on the part of those responsible: when will Instragram to other platforms?

So far we have only had some small talk and information. Some time ago said that Instagram had two developers working on the application for Android, but we have not heard more about it. The latest rumors have been indicating that the application could officially before Windows Phone, so what would be a good thing for this platform that is slowly gaining some users. But again, nothing is official.

Thus the only way in which outside developers can build applications around this popular image sharing service is very limited. There is access to a development API, but is very limited and has no functionality for user registration and the publication of new pictures. With this all you can do is read the data with which to build applications that can not be very interesting for end users. And it seems that this position will not change Instragram recently an application developer for Windows Phone has contacted officials to see if he could have access to a more open APIs, but has met with a resounding no.

Unfortunately Instagram has taken the position of not providing load capacities to its API at this time. The reason for this decision is cited in the site to developers and because they want to "fight the spam and low quality photos." Although I agree that it provides a load API has nothing to do with the fight against spam and iPhone users can certainly take pictures of shit too, is their playground and their rules.

Bil Simser's developer, is quite right in what he says. Users, using the official application can take pictures that are very bad, but from my point of view the reason for fighting spam if it could be valid. Anyway, he says, he is their playground and those are the rules. I have no wish Instragram Duad that the most counterrevolutionary ecosystem that has been created around its application, which is not necessarily all bad. Obviously it is a shame that both users of Android and Windows Phone can not use this service until they decide to launch an official app. It seems that every step they take is very thought, make it very calmly and with good reason, since the risk of launching an API that is being misused can be very harmful. Can you imagine what would happen if that API is used to upload photos to the tool of pornography? The spirit of Instagram automatically die.

In any case, it would not hurt that created access to a complete API for developers certain that together we could grow up and go to expand in a more natural way. Simser But as they say, is their playground and their rules. And they are completely respectable.




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