Mapping Swine Flu

Pittsburgh-based biochemist created a map on April 21 to track the spread of swine flu. He created the map using the free Google maps service. By April 30 it was viewed 290,000 times and had over 3,000 comments. To create the map Niman used media articles from around the world and for foreign language articles he used Google's translation site.The map has geographic markers with different colors and characteristics like a dot or no dot in the center that show where swine-flu cases have been reported by the international and local media. The markers with dots indicate that the swine flu case was non-fatal. A yellow marker indicates that the case turned out to be negative, a pink one indicates a suspected case and a purple one indicates that the case is reportedly confirmed or probable. By clicking on the markers you can view more details in a box, such as number of deaths. 

Information from: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/30/online.flumaps/index.html

Rate for Music Digital stream

The music collection society, PRS has created a pricing plan for digital streaming music. From 1 July firms will have to pay 0.085 p for each track streamed. This price has decreased from the previous price of 0.22p. According to PRS this new plan will "enable the digital market to grow.'

Companies that want to play or stream music on the Internet are legally obliged to pay royalties to the artist according to the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act of 1988. The radio service Pandora ended its UK stream at the beginning of 2008. In March 2009 YouTube announced that it was removing all music videos to UK users after they could not reach a new licensing agreement with the PRS.

Information from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8068154.stm

New York Times names first social media editor

The New York Times named Jennifer Preston to be their first social media editor. Their job is to: " concentrate full-time on expanding the use of social media networks and publishing platforms to improve New York Times journalism and deliver it to readers."

She will also "help us get comfortable with the techniques, share best practices and guide us on how to more effectively engage a larger share of the audience on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Digg and more" She will also have to constantly be aware of developments in social media.

Newspapers sadly are starting to not be seen as much on paper and more on people's screens.

Information from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/may/26/new-york-times-twitter

Star Trek Inspired Technology

With the remake of Star Trek is out in theaters; The Guardian online looked into how much of the technology in Star Trek is used in real life. 

Today's equivalent of the Star Trek communicator is a flip-up mobile phone.

Kirk signs his daily captain's log on an electronic notepad like a PDA.

The bridge of the Starship Enterprise could only be seen on the view-screen. Today we have flat screen tv's

Uhura had an earpiece. Today we have bluetooth.

The weapon was a hand-held phaser. Today we have a Taser.

Officers checked new environments with tricorders. Today, many HAZMA emergency response teams use chemical detection equipment.

Video-conferences. Today we have it on a bigger scale.

Motion detector doors. Today, we have automatic doors in many places.

Hypospray devices were used to pass medicine through skin without being painful. Today, we have Jet injectors.

Transporters do not exist yet but they might do in the next 300 years. Physicist Dr.Ping Koy Lam and student Warwick Bowen have looked at teleporting test equipment . They had a sucessful test using a laser beam of light disembodied in one location and rebuilt 1 meter away in a second.

Information and Images

from:http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gallery/2009/may/15/star-trek-technology?picture=347310020

New iPod nano has a camera

The new iPod nano has a camera. It's exactly like the current iPod nanon but the screen is wider (I.5:1) and the click wheel and button is smaller. It doesn't have megapixels or storage capacity. The new iPod nano will be avaliable in September.
Information from: http://gizmodo.com/5270339/is-this-the-next+gen-ipod-nano-with-built+in-camera

Millions of Voices heard on Obama's inaguaration

MIT's senseable city lab created a visualization of call activity from all over the world during Obama's inaguaration. Over 138 countries came together. The biggest callers were Canada, Great, Britan,France and Puerto Rico. In the US it was California, Florida, New York, Texas and Georgia.

Information from:http://gizmodo.com/5270200/watch-the-world-lit-up-by-millions-of-voices-during-obamas-inauguration

Link:  http://senseable.mit.edu/obama/index.html

Bring back the Polaroid

In Enschede, the Neterlands a group of Dutch scientists and an Austrian salesman have a goal to reinvent Polaroid's instant film. Since digital cameras have become popular, Polaroid stopped making their film las year. The group of scientists still feel there are people out there who want the Polaroid back (me being one of them) They hope to start production later this year. Mr. Kaps estimates the number of Polaroid instant cameras in circulation at one billion. 30 million film packs were produced in 2007 and 24 million in the beginning of 2008. They are looking for chemicals that can mimic what the Poloroid once did . They are looking for a form of latex that can be coated easily onto a gelatin base to recreate the "timing layer" of Polaroid film which controls the developing process.

Information from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/technology/26polaroid.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Images:http://www.newmediastudies.com/art/daffs-s.jpg

Twitter on TV

Twitter is in the works of becoming a TV series.  The series will be based on the quick status messages. The series will be unscripted. Novelist Amy Ephron will team up with Reveille Productions, the studio behind the American version of The Office and Brillstein Entertainment the studio behind The Sopranos. According to Variety magazine the program will be "putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format." This isn't surprising knowing  the popularity and growth of celebrities using Twitter. Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone says that the company has "a lightweight, non-exclusive,agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely" 

Information from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/may/25/twitter-tv