Wednesday 14 October 2015

Week 3 [12-18.10.2015] Technology

Read an article at http://www.bbc.com/news/technology  and present it here. Encourage its discussion.

27 comments:

  1. Uber is lawful (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-34549700)
    As usual, some taxi association tries to sue Uber, because they are ousting them out of business.
    This time the taxi company tried to claim that the smartphone is in fact a taxi meter, which would be illegal in private hire vehicles, but the court has decided otherwise. Their argumentation was that "they do not depend on GPS signals or include the app's other new-tech characteristics to calculate fares."

    Taxi companies and taxi drivers all over the world hate Uber and are trying to sue them in every possible way. Uber having support from Google has the best lawyers at hand, hence they were able to defend themselves in every case so far.
    Taxi drivers in Warsaw decided to take on Uber, but rather than in court, they decided to do it in the streets, organizing a strike event blocking the whole city and paralyzing city communication for a whole day.

    I understand that taxi drivers don't want to lose their jobs, but the world is constantly developing whether one wants it or not. Uber is ousting taxis because it's just superior in every way. Technology advances, ways of commuting are getting smarter, don't block it, but adapt to it.

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  2. Apple lost trial and has to pay $234m for patent infringement (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34559232).

    University of Wisconsin sued Apple for using patented microchip without permission for $862m, but court lower the sum to $234m, saying that Apple did not act willfully. The microprocessor which used that patent is placed in Apple flag models, iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus. Apple doesn’t want to comment trial it only said it would appeal. Company’s annual revenue in 2014 was $182bn.

    Honestly I have mixed feelings about whole case. The same University sued Intel over same patent in 2008 and settled it out of court. On the one hand protecting patent is legal way of act, but it is strange that same university won against giant IT companies twice for large amount of money. On the other hand even though $234m seems unimaginable (for me) it is only 0,12% of Apple last year annual revenue, supposing it did it on purpose the fine does not seems to be problematic for it at all.

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  3. I've found article about teaching robots how to fall more gracefully. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34549065
    It's sounds unnecessary and it's a very short article, but have you seen "Pacific Rim" movie?
    If in the future we will use gigantic robots to defend our planet or to terraform other planets. Yes, that's it! We don't want to lose millions of dollars only because our robot don't know how to fall. It can accidently destroy a large building or so. What's then?
    We should learn more about this algorithm and probably donate this project.

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  4. One of the articles which interested me is http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34315119.
    Topic in the article is presented very briefly but I think that this technology is very promising, a few years ago, drones were used only by the military. Now, every major mass event has made with help of video camera mounted on drone. All this things brings to mind scenes from the movie „Terminator”, but it gives us an amazing potential.What it was difficult for a man, now may be quite trivial. The best example is problem described in this article. when we sitting in an office or home we can plant trees in the place which for us is currently unavailable. In my opinion is amazing.

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  5. I've found article about fake reviewer's in Amazon shop http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34565631.
    Amazon noticed that some people offer fake review for sellers. An example of the user is "John Does" that offering positive five star review for a seller's products for 5$. Many retailers buys opinions to authenticate their products. I heard that similar situatation is in Polish Allegro. In addition to fake buying fake reviews sellers also simulate fake sale. For example, we can see that the product bought 30 times when it really bought less. It's hard to detect any false moves. Amazon and Allegro can only prevented single incidents.

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  6. Drone flies over sea to deliver Singapore Post package - http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-Deliver packages by drones seem to be a good idea but I think only when place of delivery is near of us and road to target goes around .On the other hand I see many disadvantages of drones like that it can't take too much packages and somebody must control drone ,or that somebody can intercept our delivery . Think about how many drones in air and people that controls it , should be to delivery packages that one truck can take at once.

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  7. This is quite funny article about paying with a ring http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34452756. It's an interesiting idea for women when they can pay with their jawellery and don't worry about searching for wallet in their bottomless handbag. It's easy to access and wearing it doesn't affect you in any way. This example only showes how the technology is progessing and how people are still looking for new ways of making everyday life easier. In a short period of time I expect that we won't have to take enything with us while going out except our clothes.

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  8. The most interesting article for me is
    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34399888

    Imagine that long car journeys are not tiring. Choose the target place and while travelling you can do anything, for example sleep and rest or read a book. Travel will become comfortable but would it be safe?

    In my opinion, it will take a lot of time before the program will be able to predict all the possible situations on the road.Without that sometimes the car might not know what to do. Besides That the idea is still fantastic!

    An example of how the autopilot system works :
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yCAZWdqX_Y

    Wouldn't you be affraid to entrust your life to a computer program?

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  9. Here you have an article about technologies:
    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34315122
    The topic of it is: The robots that talk to each other and other tech news
    So there are few topics in this short video. I will start with the talking robots. It's not sort of a bot that You can talk to, or not a robot that talks to a robot. This is the case of robots that communicate and they cooperate. So we have a little flying helicopter that flies over the second robot. His job is to draw a map with how to move and not to fall down for the second robot, which looks like a little spider, they communicate, and work together, to make the spider robot get out of the "maze".

    In my opion it's very interesting. They are studies on robots that do everything in one entity. Here we have a case of single responsibility robot - one draws the map, second is analysing the data and moving through the maze. Would you think that it would find it's place in our world ? Is machine apocalypse upon us ? :)

    There is also a topic of driverless truck in Germany, moved but itself and that topic had like 3 seconds in this video. Why ? It's very interesting, maybe it's not good for people that drive trucks, because they might lose their jobs because off driveless trucks. Shame, that we have no information about how those trucks drive, is it safe to drive with them on the same road ?

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  10. "Amazon targets 1,114 'fake reviewers' in Seattle lawsuit" - http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34565631
    According to the above article Amazon took legal action against 1114 people who posted fake reviews on Amazon website. Dishonest sellers bought the positive comments. Such actions are unfair and misleading buyers.
    Amazon has taken legal action to ensure that all sellers have equal opportunities and to protect the buyers. In addition, the company doesn't want to lose the good reputation of the brand.
    Personally, I think that it is very good that Amazon is trying to do something with these unfair practices. The Internet is extremely comfortable to shopping, but the buyer can be easily misled.

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  11. That is one of the symbol of our world today http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34565631
    Problem with fake account start probably at the same time when first account were created. It's very hard to detect which account are real and which are fake. In this article 1,114 reviews on Amazon were fake. This is very confusing when you want to buy something and when you look in seller reviews you found that much people recommend this seller, and after buy you found that there is a problem with a thing you buy. I think that who is writing a fake reviews or pay people to this should be prosecuted and punished.

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  12. “Intelligent Machines: Do we really need to fear AI?”
    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32334568

    It’s a big topic, but very interesting. The first thing that this article focuses on is law. We have not any acts that regulate AI, intelligent robots, we don’t know who is going to take the responsibly for actions done by AI.
    As Prof Calo said “Criminal law requires intent and these systems don't do things wrong on purpose”, we can’t accuse a robot, because a program implemented in that “piece of metal” can’t have motives (currently) to kill or harm anyone, it only performs actions given from his creator or owner.

    The second thing is the time. Most of scientists say that it will take many years to create an AI that will be able to think like a human, “we can't really see (now) anything - it is just a fog”. I don’t agree with this. IMHO People who say that it will take about 30, 40 years to create AI compared to human brain are wrong. They think that technology progress is linear, but in fact its exponential. The first thing proving this is the Moore law – “the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years”, that applies to RAM and many other electronic parts. The second proof reference is Ray Kurzweil’s book “singularity” (there is also a translated version “nadchodzi osobliwość”). I really recommend to read this, it’s about AI and technology progress and what will probably happen in future.

    The third problem is the control. Will we be able to control the AI or will the AI control us? Even Stephen Hawking thinks that creating a real AI could be dangerous.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6CyXHWz_k

    And the book is currently available on allegro (polish version), English pdf version is somewhere in internet ;)

    IMHO - In my humble/honest opinion

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  13. Robot chef - as good as a restaurant?
    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34544741
    I think it's a very good idea for big restaurants where sometimes one person have to do many things at once. This robot should make chef work easier and faster so it's also a good news for clients waiting for meal. In my opinion, times where robot replaces human are coming.

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  14. The most interesting article for me is
    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34452756.
    In today's times, such a gadget, which you can pay it a lot easier. Before a woman finds a wallet in bag, it's having such a gadget, paying for purchases would be a pleasure, and life has been facilitated.

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  15. I think , that Google Books is very good idea . Parts of books , which were shared by Google Books could help us to decide if it is valuable and really interesting for us before buying it. It is not only profitable for readers but authors too . We could accidentally encouter on the book, which interests us and using Google , we can order it to our home .In my opinion , claiming Authors Guild to court is unfounded , becouse they earn on this project too .

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  16. The article at http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32019258 shows an increasing interest and general recognition of e-sports, which will soon (if it hasn't happened already) compete with regular sports in terms of viewership, sponsorship, and the overall business worth.

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  17. For me it's very interesting article is http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zy234j6 . Steve Jobs will be remembered by everyone. He was American businessman and best known as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple. I think we should remember him what he did for the world.
    And here's a few of the things that Steve Jobs said:
    1) “We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”
    2) “Quality is much better than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”
    3) “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

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  18. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34565631

    Amazon targets 1,114 'fake reviewers' in Seattle lawsuit
    I'm glad that amazon decided to do something with unfair vendors. Fake reviews are a problem, not only on Amazon, but also on allegro, ceneo and ebay. It is sad what sellers can do for money.

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  19. Michał Stankiewicz18 October 2015 at 21:32

    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27743920

    Couldn't see that one here and I think it's important to know about that even though it's not the most recent fact. In the recent years we can see that the electric cars are getting more and more popular, the number of hybrid cars is growing and so is the progress in all the technologies connected. First prototypes of electric cars appeard many years ago, then we could see a downfall in the interest in the usage of electricity for transportation. It was somehow connected with the difficulty of the technology access - many companies worked on their own solutions, most of the wanted to keep them secret and that created a growing difficulty in all kinds of its development. Another important case was that there was a strong lobby of the petrol-producing companies. It is nice to see, that we are slowly making progress there, step by step closer to making the electric cars a standard, as they would be more enviroment friendly and the streets would be less noise poluted.

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  20. Karolina Adamiec18 October 2015 at 22:20

    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34424843

    Being controlled by electric shocks... Well, that's interesting, funny and frightening at the same time. Interesting, because it can really help disabled people in their everyday life (well, maybe not on this level of this device's advancement, but maybe someday...). Funny, cause you can really see that some stickers on your body can force you to make some movement. Frightening, cause.. well, cause somebody can force you to do what he wants just by one tap on phone screen.
    When you imagine development of such technology, you can see plenty of ways which it can go. First thing - helping people, okay... Then you think about Orwell world... Maybe they could plug us all to such devices and control us? We are worried about our security and privacy almost everyday, and we can see that such technologies threaten our freedom. It's creepy that you can control someone else's body... Fortunately, it will never happen during our lives (at least I hope so).

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  21. I'd like to discuss the same case as @Hubert above. I had some fun with implementing my own AI lately, I've also been up to date with most news related to artificial intelligence, and I think that for sure it will take much more time to implement something even half-capable of human brain. It's much easier to focus on one given task/objective, and make AI being able to "replace" human in that one particular thing, rather than implement something that will be able to act properly in everything. It requires much time, knowledge, and gigantic data sets, as AI mostly is based on things it learned in the past, so making a robot that could replace human would require constant connection with other robots, so all of them could learn the same things and approaches, greatly improving data set.

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  22. I chose an article regarding apple (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34559232) because it is now a very popular company. Let's face it, who among us did not have the iPhone in your hand? and who of us wondered how many people, scams, work and ideas need to produce such a small device? Due to the fact that I am interested in new technologies, I read a lot about the famous company like Apple, which is why this article does not surprise me anything. Compared to fraud, which allowed the company to me much more shocking is the process of creating each iPhone. About used by apple fraud can write long, and still I did not write anything, because it is a company for which it's all about profit. The financial penalties that they have to pay are very small in relation to the company's income, because Apple still does not draw the conclusions. It seems to me that the issue of fraud apple is widely known and no longer shocking to anyone who knows a little on new technologies.

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  23. I chose an article about Google books scannig (http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34555412). I think that is a great information for all people that cares about evolution human race. I think that knowledge should be available for everyone for free. Patents are slow down human civilization. I think public access to books, movies, paintings etc. will move our civilization to extremely growing up.

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  24. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34528753
    I chose an article about World Solar Challenge race, which takes place in Australia. The event involves solar fueled cars, which I think are quite promising. The race began yesterday (Sunday) and will last approximately 4 days until winning cars reach the finish line.

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  25. 'Whale' finance fraud hits businesses (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34570713)
    Scam emails were usually sent to a very large number of people and only the small fraction believed in them. I read somewhere in the Internet a post from some user that he had got an email from some person from west coast Austria who wanted to deposit a large sum of money on his account and he needed all sort of information like this user's account number, login, password, security number etc. It may seem strange that anyone could believe in such a story (Austria doesn't have connection to the sea), but scammers intentionally make such nonsensical stories to choose a few naive victims.

    Article shows that this time scammers started conducting more sophisticated attacks. Apparently they thought that it's more profitable to target companies with a lot of money than normal people. Scammers send emails to company workers pretending to be their bosses, asking for an instant money transfer. Solution for the problem is simple. Companies should invest in security, using secure communication channels (encrypted email) and educate their workers.

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