Facebook's not-a-phone gets not-a-commercial

Facebook, like Microsoft before it, chose to pitch their new Home interface as people-centric rather than app-centric like Apple, has released a commercial of sorts in hopes of selling the idea to the masses. And... I'm not really sure what vibe they were going for, but I found it somewhere between the original Palm Pre lady and Google give-us-all-your-stuff early efforts on the creepy scale.

If you like Facebook and aren't opposed to them getting all up in your information in exchange for socially sorted communications and connections, I don't know how this commercial helps make you feel better about giving them that level of trust. If you're scared of Facebook and don't want their tentacles anywhere near your life or loved ones, I don't know how this commercial helps move you from that opinion.

In the demo, as in the ad, we see people swiping between between beautiful photographs of gorgeous moments. A quick look at my, admittedly neglected timeline shows a bunch of meme pics and drunken mobile shots I'd sooner never see again.

I like a lot of the design work their team put in, and like I said before the event, I think the idea of Facebook face-hugging Android and injecting it with their xenomorph DNA is tactically smart, but even the best of experiences can suffer from the worst of intentions.

Bottom line, the idea of all these social and search giants giving me the services equivalent a lobster dinner, and then expecting me to put out because of it, is still a deal breaker. I'm still happy to pay for my dinner at this point.

Sadly, there's no unlike button.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/QuFqTotV-1Y/story01.htm

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The Evolution of Indian Army's ICT Infrastructure | idrw.org

SOURCE: MILITARY AEROSPACE

The Indian Army is set to trail blaze along the information pathway asit transforms into a netcentric force Communications are critical for all military operations. During the world war era, Armies used to rely on primitive systems and even send messages using pigeons to deliver important orders. Modern Armies use high-tech satellite systems, ultra high bandwidth optical fiber cables, radio based mobile adhoc networks and cognitive radio technology to make sure that all personnel in the battlefield are aware of the battle situation and function as a cohesive whole. Communications have become the greatest battle winning factor after soldiers and weapon systems. Under the netcentric doctrine being followed by most modern Armies, communications are perceived as the most important combat power enhancement factor.

The world has witnessed a strange role reversal as far as the relationship between Defence Forces and Communication Technology Providers is concerned. In the fifties and sixties, Defense was the most important and perhaps the largest user of communications. Communications technologies were developed keeping in mind Defence requirements. The Internet started out as the DARPANET in the US which was later adapted for civilian usage. Similarly the CDMA cellular technology was originally developed for Defence forces to avoid interception and jamming by enemy Electronic Warfare agencies. However, in the nineties, explosive growth in the sheer volume of civilian communications led to a new business model and thus the information revolution. This made service providers as the prime focus of the communications industry. In an intense,market driven economy, Defense requirements have today taken a backseat. Defense forces, all over the world are being increasingly forced to look towards Commercial-off the-Shelf (COTS) technologies to fulfill their requirements. While this is a winning situation for the industry, which is now able to service both the commercial and Defense sectors using similar technologies, this has often led to long delays in short listing of technologies for Defense usage and delayed fructification of important Defense projects. The Indian Army?s communication network infrastructure is looked after by the Corps of Signals. In the last two decades, the ICT infrastructure within the Army has undergone a paradigm shift mimicking the telecom growth in the country. The Army boasts of its own secure national converged network called the Army One Network. While details of the network are not widely known, this network is fault tolerant to meet military specifications and includes redundancy and recovery mechanisms for automatic traffic re-routing. The Army also operates its own cellular network in J&K providing carrier grade cellular facilities to soldiers involved in counter insurgency operations. The Army?s satellite nodes are spread throughout the length and breadth of the country and provide communication facilitiesin remote and difficult areas like the Siachen glacier. The Army is also developing several hundred kilometers of optical fiber cabling to provide high bandwidth communications to support the exponential growth of communication traffic.The Directorate General of Information Systems(DGIS) develops applications for the Army.

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The DGIS provides IT and ITES verticals, starting from software applications which manage the clothing requirements of Army jawans till complex decision support systems. The DGIS has equipped Army units and formations with necessary IT resources to usher in Army wide

automation and assist operational information gathering and exploitation. Though nascent in implementation, almost all systems which will host Army wide information systems are in the pipeline as per a sound roadmap.

Going State of the Art

As in the commercial world, the Army is also now witnessing the network-application ?meltdown? with applications driving network growth and network capacity in turn leading to increase in application complexity. Accordingly, today the Indian Army is on the verge of replacing a large number of existing ICT systems with the state ? of ? the ? art. The Army?s? old workhorse network is called the Army Radio Engineered Network (AREN). This indigenously conceived system for the field formations was launched more than three decades ago and is on the verge of being replaced by the Tactical Communication System (TCS). TCS, valued at more than `10,000 Crores is India?s first ?Make? program. Government owned Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in the public sector will join the race for prototype development with a Ministry selected Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Company. Led by L&T, the SPV includes Tata Power SED and HCL Infosystems Limited. It is the first-ever program wherein three major private sector companies have formed a consortium together to provide indigenous solution for strategically important acquisition of the Army. As is the trend worldwide, TCS is envisaged to have a large percentage of COTS technologies, albeit customized and hardened for usage by the Army in the tactical battlefield. It is envisaged to use state of the art technologies like mobile adhoc networks and emerging 3G/4G cellular technologies. As a paradigm switch, TCS would link the forward most soldier to the high capacity national networks and carry critical voice, video and data for the digitized battlefield of the future. The Army is also set to transform its backbone network called Army Static Switched Communication Network (ASCON). ASCON was evolved to integrate the telecommunication infrastructure of the hinterland with the tactical communication networks. It is a digital, fully automated,secure, reliable communication system based on microwave radio, optical fiber cable and satellite equipment. Value added Services such as fax, telex, data transfer were also available to defence users on this network. Currently the existing ASCON network is being expanded and undergoing a technology upgrade. Simultaneously, BSNL is developing a Pan India backbone that shall be fully owned by the Army. Called project NFS (Network for Spectrum) the OFC network will be laid over 60,000 km to provide connectivity for 129 Army, 162 Air Force and 33 Naval stations. It is being built by BSNL in lieu of the commercial mobile spectrum vacated by the Defence services.

Expanding Network

The Army is also planning to expand its integral cellular network to ther parts of the country in a phased manner. Priority is being decided for the rollout of the ext generation cellular networks of the Army. The network will be expanded into areas of the northern and eastern parts of the country in the next few years. While adding critical tworking and infrastructure capabilities, the Army is constantly upgrading its cyber posture. Recently, the Army unveiled plans to complement ICT with Electronics and Cyber apabilities. Labeled ICTEC, (Information Communication Technologies Electronics and Cyber), the new paradigm envisages to integrate electronic warfare and cyber aspects with information and communication architecture from the ground up achieving full spectrum dominance. The recently concluded DEFCOM seminar deliberated on these aspects. The Indian Army is set to trail blaze along the information pathway as it transforms into a netcentric force. As it develops new capabilities, the Army is ensuring that its personnel are fully trained to handle the challenges of next generation information warfare. At the Military College of Telecommunications

?As it develops new capabilities, the Army is ensuring that its personnel are fully

trained to handle the challenges of the information war looming on the horizon?

Engineering, located at Mhow, near Indore in Madhya Pradesh, the Corps of Signals trains its information warriors in next generation warfare amidst global standards. Specializing in network control operations, network planning, electronic warfare and cyber security, personnel are being trained in specialized technical fields. The Army which trains its own engineers at the diploma, graduate, post graduate and doctorate levels is ensuring that its key personnel are fully prepared to meet the challenges in deployment, maintenance and exploitation of planned ICT infrastructure in military operations.

Source: http://idrw.org/?p=20522

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The Engadget Interview: HTC President of Global Sales Jason MacKenzie

Shortly after Facebook's big reveal this morning, we caught up with HTC President of Global Sales Jason McKenzie and spent a few minutes with him discussing the First. As expected, he was pretty excited about this collaboration between his company, Facebook and AT&T. Jason revealed to us that HTC's strategy involves ultimately catering the First to hardcore (or at least frequent) users of the social network, whereas a device like the One will be more appealing to those who aren't interested in staying constantly connected. Interestingly, HTC seems to have put Facebook in the driver's seat here, as the First will not only come pre-loaded with Facebook Home (and its firmware optimizations), but no sign of Sense anywhere. It's certainly a departure from HTC's usual branding efforts, so it'll be intriguing to see exactly how well the device sells on AT&T. We have our full interview with Jason below, so take a few minutes to get the First scoop.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC, AT&T, Facebook

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/dHOvgRdObZo/

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Rising hopes about jobs propel consumer sentiment in March

Reuters ? ? ? 4 hrs.

Consumer sentiment jumped in the second half of March by a record amount as Americans discounted the effects of government spending cuts and saw more healing in the labor market, a survey released on Friday showed.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 78.6, up from 77.6 the month before.

That was well above the median forecast of 72.5 among economists polled by Reuters and a record upward revision from a preliminary reading of 71.8 in mid-March.

Analysts had fretted that the so-called sequester, a package of across-the-board government spending cuts of $85 billion that went into effect in early March, would drag on the economy and dampen sentiment.

But consumers seemed to have brushed those worries off, survey director Richard Curtin said in a statement, and the swell of sentiment in the second half of the month more than erased the decline of the first half of March.

"Consumers have discounted the administration's warning that economic catastrophe would follow the reductions in federal spending, and consumers have renewed their expectation that gains in employment will accelerate through the rest of 2013," he said.

"If the late March results are replicated in the months ahead, however, the economy may finally gain enough upward momentum to significantly reduce the unemployment rate."

The survey also saw the largest proportion of homeowners reporting recent increases in home values in more than five years, with gains expected by more homeowners than any time since the March 2007 survey.

The survey's barometer of current economic conditions rose to 90.7, its highest since January 2008. It was also up from February's 89.0 and above a forecast of 87.8.

The survey's gauge of consumer expectations rose to 70.8, revised up from a preliminary 61.7 and up from February's 70.2. Economists had forecast 62.0.

The survey's one-year inflation expectation fell to 3.2 percent from February's 3.3 percent, while the survey's five-to-10-year inflation outlook was at 2.8 percent versus 3.0 percent.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a22a89a/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Ceconomywatch0Crising0Ehopes0Eabout0Ejobs0Epropel0Econsumer0Esentiment0Emarch0E1C9140A0A0A4/story01.htm

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DIY theremin goggles marry the art of noise with steampunk style (video)

Sometimes annoying just isn't annoying enough. For DIY enthusiast and self-described "maker of awesome" Sarah Petkus, the incentive to irk was merely a happy by-product of her latest goggle design. The steampunk-ish effort, chronicled on Petkus' blog Robotic Arts, combines some artfully arranged scrap metals with an integrated optical theremin that lets the wearer manipulate an incredibly unpleasant tone just by waving their hands and adjusting the amount of light fed into the sensors. Since the volume control and speaker are housed inside the eyepieces, the goggles are little more than a head-mounted accessory. But that shouldn't stop cosplay types (or sociopaths) from strapping on a set and tweaking the nerves of unfortunate passers-by. That's if Petkus gets around to selling the "eyewear." For the public's sake, we hope this inventive mod remains a one-off. Head past the break for a video demo of this cringe-inducing, gesture-controlled cacaphony.

Filed under: Wearables, Alt

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Via: Adafruit

Source: Robotic Arts

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/28/diy-theremin-goggles-steampunk/

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With an Arched Bookshelf You're Never At Risk of an Avalanche

Designer Ivan Zhang has the perfect solution for anyone who's tired of angling the last book on a shelf so the rest of them don't perpetually fall over. Instead of some space-wasting bookend, he's simply added graceful arching shelves to this piece which tasks gravity with keeping them all standing. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/C3YYi3lQPM0/with-an-arched-bookshelf-youre-never-at-risk-of-an-avalanche

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Not All States On Board With Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Certain groups of people would rather not associate with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bodega owners who don?t want to hide their cigarettes from view; movie-theater proprietors who like to charge an arm and a leg for enormous sodas; and, apparently, all the mayors in Alaska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

Since 2006, when Bloomberg birthed the idea for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition out of New York's Gracie Manor, the group has actively sought out new members to help fight gun violence. It made news this past week when it?announced?a $12 million ad campaign to push gun-control efforts and to target senators who are wavering on the issue. To date, nearly 1,000 mayors from across the country have signed the coalition's?statement of principles, but those five states remain holdouts.

?There are a couple of factors,? Mark Glaze, the coalition?s director, said in an interview. ?First, it?s [that] there are just more mayors in a couple states than others. But, of course, ideology plays a role. In Western states there is a higher percentage of gun ownership and lower percentage of gun crime, so it can be a tougher sell.?

But if the coalition is trying to get membership from all 50 states, there is still hope. Glaze notes that already about 100 Republican mayors have signed on, and that plenty of rural Republican states are represented. For states like Utah, Idaho, West Virginia, and North Dakota, one is better than none.?

?I think there is a real fear of being associated with it, and that you might be thrown out of office if you sign up,? said Dana Williams, the only mayor in the entire state of Utah to join. ?Even if it?s illegal weapons, it?s such a political hot potato, plenty of people would rather not participate in the discussion.?

Williams, a guitar-playing California transplant, is the mayor of Park City, known as the home of the Sundance Film Festival and the most liberal city in the state. It?s definitely an outlier. And while many of his constituents are on board, the life of an outlier mayor does not come without harassment. He sent National Journal a number of e-mails to prove this point. Here?s one:

The fact that YOU are the only Mayor in Utah on this anti-gun list makes me sick! Are you taking money from Bloomberg? Do your finances need to be investigated? Do the people in ParkCity know you support this DICTATOR? Get OFF his list and prove you are a Patriot for the Constitution!

For Mayor Nancy Chaney, the one mayor from Idaho on board, all the nasty e-mails in the world can?t make her regret signing up last winter. And yet, the decision to sign up was not an easy one for Chaney, whose town of Moscow is home to the University of Idaho.

Her city is one of the most liberal in the state, but it is still part of northern Idaho. For geographical context, her hometown is just two hours south of the proposed site of The Citadel, a planned community for survivalists with plans for its own automatic-gun factory.

In 2007, shortly after Chaney took office, the mayors coalition approached her about joining up. She declined, telling them she felt like a more credible mayor of a north Idaho community without adding her name to the list.

But during her tenure, Chaney has witnessed enough gun violence in her sleepy little town to change her mind. In 2007, a sniper killed three victims and himself, and in 2011 a university professor shot one of his grad students (who was also a former lover) 11 times.

?Those things shouldn?t happen in communities like this,? Chaney?said. ?I decided it was important to articulate my stance on this?. And a person who has access to lethal force ought not to win every argument.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/not-states-board-bloombergs-mayors-against-illegal-guns-111025641--politics.html

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