How Robots Are Going To Replace You In The Office

Face-to face meetings are important. According to Harvard Business Review, they help management teams root out negligence, increase productivity, provide a positive competitiveness, and deepen relationships with colleagues.

So it's not surprising that Americans took 427 million business trips last year.  According to the Global Business Travel Assn., the bill for all this traveling to provide face-to-face contact between clients and companies was $228 billion.

Bloomberg Businessweek's Drake Bennet thinks there is a better, and cheaper, alternative to business travel: telepresence robots.

Bennet reports that the worldwide market for telepresence robotics is expected to grow from $556.1 million in 2010 to $13.1 billion in 2016.  Robots that can be controlled from any location could be responsible for everything from office security and surveillance to holding remote meetings and virtual collaboration.

"On snow days we'll have well over half the guys on VGos [robots]," says Tom Ryden, cofounder of robot-maker VGo Communications. "They'll stop and chat with each other, robot to robot. You'll be walking down the hall and see two guys just chatting away, and they're both in some other location.'"

Only a few robot models are currently available -- and they are already in high demand. VGo Communications quickly sold out its first production run of 100. Another company, Anybots, currently has an order backlog of a month and a half.

Android Activations Visualized: See The Stunning Rise (VIDEO)

In case you had any doubts that Google's Android operating system has been on an impressive rise, the developers of the platform have just released a video featuring a visual representation of that growth.

From October 2008 to January 2011, the video follows Android activations around the world with a technicolor display of spurting spikes of light, that only get bigger as time goes on. Google says they now activate 350,000 Android devices each day, which comes to close to 10 million per month.

Watch the full video below:

Best and Worst Cell Phones

Nokia ranks best among 16 brands of cell phones rated by GoodGuide, while BlackBerry was rated the worst. The ratings were released exclusively to WalletPop's Consumer Ally and will be online in their entirety this week.

Consumer Ally has teamed up with GoodGuide, whose experts have rated more than 65,000 consumer goods -- including food, toys, personal care and household products -- using factors that include concern for the environment, personal health and social responsibility, as consumers begin increasingly to consider those in addition to price.

GoodGuide's ratings also include a brief explanation for each category, though the user can drill down into each score for more detail. The health score measures a product's potential health impact on consumers.

The environment score is based on the impact of the product in question and the company's overall policies and practices. The society score evaluates social impact, which can include treatment of workers, workplace diversity, community involvement and corporate ethics.

The cell phone ratings mark GoodGuide's first foray into consumer electronics, and its experts tested hundreds of cell phones from 16 different manufacturers.

The complete cell phone ratings, which will include all best and worst products, are due to be published by Thursday. But in a WalletPop exclusive, below are the top five best and worst brands (averaging their GoodGuide scores):

5 Best Cell Phone Brands

1. Nokia (7.6)
2. Palm (6.6)
3. Motorola (6.4)
4. Sony Ericsson (6.2)
5. Pantech (5.9)

5 Worst Cell Phone Brands

1. Sharp (4.6)
2. Casio (4.5)
3. Garmin-Asus (4.3)
4. LG (4.1)
5. BlackBerry (3.3)

When the complete ratings are published, they'll also include information on the methodology used to rate cell phones, which we've summarized below.

Social Scores

Social scores were assigned to cell phone manufacturers by enhancing GoodGuide's standard indicators of corporate social performance. These scores also included an additional indicator identifying issues specific to the electronics industry: supply chain responsibility, specifically whether minerals used in a phone are sourced from conflict areas.

Environmental Scores

Scoring cell phones and phone manufacturers on environmental performance presented problems because few companies disclose information about their production practices or phone attributes. Reviewing manufacturer websites, GoodGuide determined that more than 90% of the phones on the market make no environmental claims whatsoever.

Health Scores

Health scores were not assigned to cell phones by GoodGuide due to a lack of scientific consensus whether cell phone use poses a significant health risk. All products rated by GoodGuide comply with the current FCC standard governing electromagnetic field radiation. For users that want to take precautions and limit their radiation exposure, GoodGuide ratings provide filters that make it easy to identify phones with the lowest emissions.

Google unveils payment platform for online content

 

Google will take a 10-per cent share of revenue from subscriptions managed through “Google One Pass,” less than the 30 per cent charged by Apple

Google unveiled an online payment platform for publishers on Wednesday, a day after Apple launched a subscription service of its own for newspapers, magazines, music and video.
Google will take a 10-per cent share of revenue from subscriptions managed through “Google One Pass,” less than the 30 per cent charged by Apple.
The new payment system for online content was announced by Google chief executive Eric Schmidt in a speech at Humboldt University in Berlin.
Lee Shirani, director of business product management for Google Commerce, said publishers who opt to use Google One Pass to charge readers for digital content can set their own prices and terms.
“Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password,” Shirani said in a blog post.
“Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers don’t have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices,” Shirani said.
Google said publishers can offer readers a variety of options including full subscriptions or even single articles for purchase.
“With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them,” Google said.
“We’ve been working with publishers for some time now to help them find ways to engage their readers, attract traffic to their sites, and make money online,” said Carlo D’Asaro Biondo, Google vice president for Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“By working with the publishing industry and experimenting with a variety of products, we can come up with tools to help journalism thrive online.”Google said its launch partners include German publishers Axel Springer AG, Focus Online (Tomorrow Focus) and Stern.de.
Others include France’s Le Nouvel Observateur, and Spain’s Prisa.
Google’s US partners are Rust Communications, publisher of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, Media General, which operates 18 television stations and 21 daily newspapers, mostly in the southeastern United States, and Bonnier Corp., publisher of Popular Science.
Google said Google One Pass is currently available for publishers in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States.
Google’s announcement comes a day after Apple unveiled a subscription service for digital newspapers and magazines purchased through its online App Store.
While newspapers and magazines have been searching for new ways to charge for digital content and make money from mobile devices, Apple’s 30-per cent cut of each subscription purchased through the App Store raised some eyebrows in the struggling publishing industry.
Apple’s subscription service was first offered with The Daily, a digital newspaper for the iPad tablet computer launched earlier this month by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp

Can you believe it....Computers powered by poop....

Today almost everything runs on electricity. We use electricity to run trains, cook, lighting and so much more. Thus it is very important that people are able to know where they can get all the required electricity. People are able to tap energy from alternative sources of energy to help relieve the common sources of electricity.

Many companies are trying their best to try and cut down their electricity consumption. A good example would be Google. Google consumes a lot of energy. Google searches require the same energy that an 11 watt bulb requires when it's on for an hour. So one can be able to estimate how much energy is required for the Google servers and all other equipment to run. Thus Google has tried to cut their energy costs by developing advanced cooling methods and using energy saving techniques.

Others companies are also following the same trend. For example HP. It presented a paper to the 4th international conference on energy sustainability that describes how HP plans how they will use manure of cows to power their data centres. The title of the paper is design of Farm Waste-Driven supply Side Infrastructure for Data centers.

The manure that would be used will be from midsized dairy farms. Electricity will be derived form it by putting it through an anaerobic digester. The heat that is derived from this process would be used to power the turbines of the data centers cooling system. The electricity that is derived from this process will be used to power the data center. The temperature of the anaerobic digester would be regulated by the waste heat that is generated by the data center. This process ensures that there is maximum efficiency. This process also produces enough energy to be able to run the dairy farm. Thus one not only saves power use by the data centers but also the dairy farm.

According to HP, a dairy farm with about 10000 cows produces approximately 200000 tones of manure in a year. The manure produces methane gas. According to research this gas is more detrimental to the environment than carbon dioxide. The manure also pollutes the environment by polluting the rivers and streams. Thus HP using this manure to produce electricity will greatly improve the environment as it gets rid of this pollutant.

Other than reducing pollution, this process will also help boost the economy of the farms. The farms will be able to use this same electricity to run their farms and also earn huge chunks of money by selling the manure to be used elsewhere to produce the electricity. The farms can earn approximately two million dollars annually from selling the power that they produce.

UFO LANDING... CHECK IT OUT

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Cheat With Science: How to Suss Out a Lie

If you want to be a good spy, con artist, or poker player, you have to be able to lie. If you want to be a great spy, con artist, etc., you have to be able to tell when other people are lying. The theory goes like this: A person’s brain works harder when they’re dissembling than when they’re speaking the truth, and this extra cognitive load has physical manifestations. Here’s how to read the tells.Observe the pupils Lying causes physiological arousal, so look into a person’s eyes: A fibber’s pupils often dilate right after they tell a tale. (This involuntary response is why many poker players wear shades.)


Stage a reading People reading a statement they know is false skip words or read more quickly. Test suspected liars by making them read alternate versions of their stories.


Watch for saccades Blinking isn’t a tell, but an unfixed gaze might be. A liar’s eyes may bounce all over a scene instead of fixing and focusing.

WOWWWWW.. CHECK OUT THESE NEW INVENTIONS...

Bladeless Fan     Dyson fans use Air Multiplier technology to draw in air and amplify it. With no blades or grille, they are safe and easy to clean.   Two Way Toothpaste   Two way toothpaste is ideal for those who get angry with their partner for squeezing the toothpaste from the front.    Infinite USB     Innovative USB plug designed to act as a USB hub when plugged in.   Sixpack Bottle Carrier     It can safely transport up to six beer, soft drink, or water bottles. Greenbo Rail Planter     Simply place your Greenbo planter on your railing, deck or fence. State of the art unique design assures its secure fit and stability.   Innovative Sewing Needle     With a bit of pressure, the loop eye of Big Eye Needle expands to the size of a button hole - making threading a cinch!    Butter Stick     Butter on a stick from Japan will make a great addition to any kitchen. Upstanding Toothbrush       When the toothbrush is set down, it will sway momentarily until it reaches a balanced position - just like a tumble doll.

Giant Solar Blast Headed for Earth

The biggest solar blast in four years erupted late Monday, and it’s sending jets of charged particles right at Earth. The spray will spark bright auroras when it hits the magnetosphere in the next 24 to 48 hours.
A cluster of sunspots called Active Region 1158 unleashed the flare at 8:50 p.m. EST, Feb. 14 [1:50 a.m. UT, Feb. 15]. It was categorized as class X2.2, meaning it’s the most powerful flare since December 2006. The sunspots have continued to let loose smaller flares and may still be active now.
As Spaceweather.com notes, the sunspots didn’t even exist one week ago, and now cover a swatch of sun wider than Jupiter.
NOAA forecasters estimate a 45 percent chance of geomagnetic activity on Thursday, Feb. 17, when the bulk of the radiation hits Earth’s magnetic field. The December 2006 storm was powerful enough to disrupt GPS systems.

Should the new storm prove as powerful, it could be a preview of what’s expected this year and in 2012, as the sun reaches an expected maximum in its natural cycle of activity.
There is, however, a silver — and green, and yellow, and glowing — lining to the flares. In higher latitudes, where the sun’s ion spray is pulled by Earth’s magnetic poles, collisions between solar particles and atoms suspended in our magnetosphere produce photon sparks. Together these form the aurora borealis, or northern lights, and it looks like Earth is in for quite a show.
What’s more, though a full moon often outshines the auroras, this storm may be so powerful as to mix moonlight and northern lights in one spectacular swirl. So look up! And if you take pictures, send us your best shots. If we get enough, we’ll create a reader gallery.

A flare emerges from the sun in this ultraviolet-light image of the solar surface. (SDO/NASA)

Via Spaceweather.com

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Hack Your Brain And Become A Speed Reader

There are way more books than there is time to read them, but speed reading can help you get an edge.

Here's a brief introduction how to turn your brain into a speed reading machine.

First, there are three methods of speed reading:

• Skimming is the one you're probably most familiar with. Simply look for visual clues as to what might be the most important text and read that.

• Meta guiding involves visually guiding your eye using some sort of pointer in order for the eye to move faster along the length of a passage of text.

• Basic speed reading involves putting yourself in the right relaxed environment and simply reading faster. With practice you'll notice a marked improvement in your ability.

Moving on, we found some reading habits that Mind Tools suggests you break in order to achieve maximum speed:

• Stop reading word by word. Try to view blocks of words as a whole, the same way you would look at a picture. Practice expanding the number of words you can view at a time.

• Stop "hearing" the words as you read them. This is called sub-vocalization, your inner voice reading to you. It slows down your reading. Unfortunately the only way to stop doing this is by force of habit. Before you sit down to read, tell yourself you will not hear the words. And if you're reading blocks of words, you shouldn't be able to "hear" them anyway.

• Stop reading linearly. A book isn't a TV show you need to watch from beginning to end. As you read, scan headings and bullet points. Find the bolded items. These likely deserve most of your attention.

There are innumerable classes that you can take and software you can practice with in order to become a faster reader. There's a lot of dodgy-looking stuff out there, but start by checking out Reading Dynamics, the program endorsed by John F. Kennedy.

How To Send Text Messages That Automatically Delete After Just A Hour

Tiger Text, the startup that lets you delete your text messages after a set period of time, is releasing an enterprise version of their product today, TechCrunch reports.

The new version is called TigerTextPRO and will give companies control over text messages sent on employee cell phones. It creates a network within your company so all texts remain private, providing extra protection for businesses who want to keep their communications secret.

Pricing varies depending on how many people are in your organization, so you'll have to contact TigerText's sales team to get started. After that, you can download the app for iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry.

The current consumer version of TigerText lets you specify a range of time for deleting your text messages. You can also have them removed as soon as they are read. We'll walk you through it to give you an idea how it works.

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The Motorola Atrix Is A Great Android Phone, But Not Much Of A Laptop

Here it is: The Atrix 4G, the phone Motorola and AT&T are touting as "the world's most powerful smartphone."

Aside from the dual core Tegra 2 processor, the Atrix stands out for being able to power a separate laptop that runs entirely off the phone.

We've only had the Atrix for a day, so we won't have a full review until next week. In the meantime, here are our initial thoughts:

• The phone itself is snappy. Apps launched almost instantly, much quicker than Android phones we've used in the past. We like that.

• The graphics look great. Motorola included a demo of the racing game Need For Speed Shift that looks gorgeous on the phone's 4-inch screen.

• 4G service isn't ready yet. The Atrix is one of AT&T's first "4G" phones. More specifically, it runs on the HSPA+ network. Even though our demo unit said we were connected to HSPA+, we experienced speeds similar to 3G. We'll have to wait until AT&T finally announces where and when HSPA+ speeds will be available to truly test it out.

• The laptop dock feels like a waste. We can't think of a single practical use for it. The $500 add on is essentially a shell with a keyboard and screen that must be docked with the Atrix in order to function. It feels like Motorola added it just to prove they could get a laptop to run off a phone's hardware. As one of our colleagues put it: "It seems like they're on to something, but aren't there yet."

Our snap reaction after one day of use: The Atrix will quickly become the best Android offering on AT&T. (Not that it has much competition yet). It's no iPhone, but AT&T customers will finally have a solid alternative.

Amazing Optical Illusions...!!!!

                                                                                

                                                                              

                                                                          

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