Internet Use/New Technologies
10 June 2014
Computer simulating 13-year-old boy becomes first to pass Turing test The Guardian
A "super computer" has duped humans into thinking it was a 13-year-old boy to become the first machine to pass the Turing test, experts have said. Five machines were tested at the Royal Society in central London to see if they could fool people into thinking they were humans during text-based conversations.
08 June 2014
Internet of Things: it's all coming together for a tech revolution The Observer
Imagine if your kitchen scales could advise you about nutrition or if your lavatory could tell you to see a doctor. The Internet of Things is making these ideas possible, but at what price?
05 June 2014
The weird Google searches of the unemployed and what they say about the economy Washington Post
If you really want to know how the economy is doing now, just Google it.
04 June 2014
The Internet spent a whopping 2.4 billion hours watching 'competitive video games' last year Washington Post
... According to a report released yesterday by the market research firm IHS, people watched 2.4 billion hours of video games in 2013 -- almost double the year before.
Facebook patent reveals plans for children to join the social network The Guardian
Facebook is working on a way to allow children under 13 years old join the social network.
30 May 2014
Porn viewing linked to less grey matter in brain The Guardian
Less grey matter is found in the brains of men who watch large amounts of sexually explicit material, a study has found. The research, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, could not determine if porn actually caused the brain to shrink, however, and the authors called for more study on the topic.
Research Links Piracy to Internet Addiction and Deviant Friends TorrentFreak
New research from Tennessee Tech University shows that certain forms of online piracy are linked to Internet addiction related problems. In addition, the research shows that high school students who pirate are more likely to have deviant or criminal friends.
28 May 2014
The Google Car Takes a Step Away From Boring New York Times
Google is making the leap from semi-autonomous to completely autonomous cars. But what exactly does the search company plan to do with them?
21 May 2014
Too Much Information? Facebook, Google Face Backlash Over Logins - Consumers Worry About Broadcasting Their Habits, While Businesses Are Conflicted Wall Street Journal
Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. are battling to be the gateway through which users connect to websites and mobile apps. But users and businesses may be losing interest in such "social login" services.
Time to embrace the Internet, Iran president says Reuters
Iran should embrace the Internet rather than see it as a threat, President Hassan Rouhani has said, in remarks that challenge hardliners who have stepped up measures to censor the Web.
15 May 2014
10 things we learned from Pew Research's Internet of Things report The Guardian
It's been fashionable to drop the phrase "Internet of Things" in tech circles for some time now, but what does it really mean? And just as importantly, what will its effects be in the years to come?
13 May 2014
Study Finds Being Ignored on Facebook May Lower Self-Esteem New York Times
Social media promises to make people feel better about their lives and promotes the ability to connect with others and share wonderful moments. Yet according to a new psychology report, when people are ignored on social sites, the rejection can have adverse affects.
08 May 2014
Yahoo's Marissa Mayer: Our Mobile Traffic Will Soon Pass Desktop Wall Street Journal
Yahoo's mobile users will soon outnumber its desktop users, a shift that will put pressure on the aging Internet portal to make money from smartphones and tablets.
07 May 2014
Internet well on way to 3 billion users, UN telecom agency reports United Nations
Releasing new statistics today, the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) announced that by end 2014, there will be nearly three billion Internet users - two-thirds of them from the developing world - with mobile-broadband penetration approaching 32 per cent.
05 May 2014
Online video and advertising: Media firms are making big bets on online video, still an untested medium The Economist
"The internet is the great leveller," pronounced Mark Thompson, the boss of the New York Times Company and former director-general of the BBC. "Video used to be the sole preserve of broadcasters." No longer. Mr Thompson took the stage on April 28th in a Manhattan warehouse pulsing with about 500 guests, to show off his newspaper's video vigour. It is launching 14 online "channels" and creating short shows inspired by its newspaper columns. One, called "Verbatim", features comedians mocking court proceedings. Its website will also host videos produced by advertisers.
01 May 2014
Cisco invests in UK internet of things startup Evrythng The Guardian
British internet-of-things startup Evrythng has secured a $7m Series A round, including investment both financial and in-kind from US networking giant Cisco.
30 April 2014
Social Media in Afghanistan Takes On Life of Its Own New York Times
Afghans have long been resistant to central authority -- as the United States has found to its frustration -- with Afghanistan divided along tribal, cultural, religious and linguistic lines. Its mountains and valleys have stood in the way of communications breakthroughs that have unified other societies.
23 April 2014
WhatsApp grows to half a billion users CNET
Messaging app WhatsApp now reaches 500 million people each month and is growing fastest in Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, the company said Tuesday. Collectively, the application's users are sharing 700 million photos and 100 million videos on a daily basis.
21 April 2014
Friends, and Influence, for Sale Online New York Times
Whoever said, "Money can't buy you friends," clearly hasn't been on the Internet recently. This past week, I bought 4,000 new followers on Twitter for the price of a cup of coffee. I picked up 4,000 friends on Facebook for the same $5 and, for a few dollars more, had half of them like a photo I shared on the site.
16 April 2014
Social media used to recruit new wave of British jihadis in Syria The Guardian
In a basement beneath the Strand in London, just metres from the cafes of Somerset House, two academics sit hunched over their laptops.
14 April 2014
UK buying more legal and illegal drugs online, survey finds The Guardian
More drug users are buying their drugs online - including so-called legal highs as well as illegal drugs such as cannabis and MDMA - because they say the quality is better, there is more choice and it is more convenient, research has found.
12 April 2014
In France, a Move to Limit Off-the-Clock Work Emails New York Times
Given France's 35-hour workweek, generous vacations and persistent, if not altogether accurate, reputation for indolence, it may come as a surprise that the French are only now considering limits on the work emails and phone calls that come at all hours of the day and night.
08 April 2014
New USB plug promises to turn frustrated users’ world upside-down The Guardian
After almost two decades of trying and failing to plug in USB connectors the right way up first time round, computer users' difficulties may be coming to an end.
07 April 2014
Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say Washington Post
Claire Handscombe has a commitment problem online. Like a lot of Web surfers, she clicks on links posted on social networks, reads a few sentences, looks for exciting words, and then grows restless, scampering off to the next page she probably won't commit to.
06 April 2014
Google and the flu: how big data will help us make gigantic mistakes The Observer
As Google's attempt to predict the spread of flu by using search terms shows, lots of data can cause plenty of confusion
