Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category

Masshightech.com: Website revamped, coverage broadened

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

mht_websiteVisit the Mass High Tech website and you may notice a few minor changes to the homepage — a second navigation bar, a highlighted topics coverage box and an abbreviated section highlighting our print edition.

MassHighTech.com has kept its bones but added a face lift to help visitors navigate the broad coverage we include on our website. The homepage redesign complements Mass High Tech’s shift from weekly to bi-weekly themed print issues — a change implemented last fall.

The second navigation bar running across the website’s width in blue allows visitors to see the topics we cover most often through daily web briefs and reported stories, such as People, Education and Training, Finance, Internet, Life Sciences, Software, Energy, Envirotech, Robotics, Defense and Hardware. See the full list of news categories.

Each day, we feature one or more articles, either as breaking news or in-depth reported news, in the top center spot of MassHighTech.com. It’s one more step in our ongoing work to keep readers up to date on the news that breaks every day in the New England innovation economy.

“Inside Masshightech.com”, the box below our featured daily article, highlights topics often covered in our print issue themes — Meetings & Conferences, Real Estate, Education and Training, Cleantech, Life Sciences, Law and Finance. Here, you’ll find some daily news that falls into these categories, but you’ll also be treated to the more indepth articles our reporters track on a biweekly basis, at least.

If you’re a print subscriber, or like to read our biweekly issues online, you still have that option. The “From the Print Edition” section displays the cover image of the issue and a taste of a few articles. A click on the image or “More stories from the print edition” will give you the full table of contents for the issue.

Other recent initiatives MassHighTech.com has taken on include a digital edition, designed to deliver the print edition every other week sans paper; an improved calendar of community events; and links to our Signature Programs — Women to Watch, High Tech All Stars, Tech Citizenship and Tech Forums.

The aim of our revamped homepage is to show you, and any newbies to the site, what type of news we cover. So, please, take a look around and let us know if we’ve done our job. We appreciate any feedback.

Bill Gates is better than you at Twitter

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

By Jim Connolly

Jim ConnollySo, want to know how to gain 10,000 followers per hour on Twitter? Just post six tweets in that time, and be named Bill Gates.

Yes, Mr. Microsoft has found a home on Twitter, and it’s not even one of those email scams where some friend tells you to just send an email to Microsoft and they will send you ten bucks. But money does matter in a Gatesian tweetosphere. He’s using Twitter to promote his new website, The Gates Notes, and the various charities and social initiatives that he and his foundation support, including an effort to get aid to Haiti.

Gates’s early posts include exchanges with celebrity maker Ryan Seacrest. Roughly 24 hours after his first post Bill had more than 236,000 followers.

Want to know who he’s following himself? If you have to ask, you probably don’t belong to that select array of 40 people and groups. Well, there’s Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical and Seacrest. Don’t forget President Obama, Queen Rania of Jordan and George Stephanopoulos. Then there are a dozen or so charitable organization and a half dozen Microsoft initiatives (including Bing. Guess he’s not following anything from Google). On the news side, he’s tracking the Economist, the New York Times, Time and others. No MHT? Dang!

“I” tops list of words on Spreadshirt t-shirts

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Boston-based Spreadshirt has released its list of words most frequently printed on its customizable t-shirts for 2009.”I” leads the pack, likely due to people making I-♥-whatever t-shirts. “You” comes in at No. 2, weirdly enough, but there’s no info on whether or not the pronoun in paired with swears or general insults or what. “Obama” comes in at No. 3 in a year when all kinds of people have had all kinds of things to say about the president, and evidently a lot of them are being committed to t-shirt.

The rest of the word category gets free-associative after that: “Coach,” “birthday,” “ever,” the F-bomb.

Obama heads up the list of names, followed by Chuck (for seemingly endless Internet meme Norris), Chris (for Washington Redskins tight end/blogger Cooley and at No. 9, “Rex,” which, depressingly, I can only presume refers to Jets coach Rex Ryan.

Penny Arcade Expo: Even bigger in Boston than it is in Seattle?

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

By Todd Bishop, TechFlash

TechFlashLooks like the expansion of Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) to Boston won’t qualify as a mere token version of the show for East Coasters. Penny Arcade artist Mike Krahulik, posting as his alter-ego, Gabe, reported last week that PAX East is looking like it will be “as big if not bigger” than PAX in Seattle, based on pre-registrations.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this about the first year of PAX East, but if pre-registration keeps going like this we will probably have to cap attendance just like we did this year in Seattle,” Krahulik wrote.

The addition of the Boston show was designed to help satisfy demand for the show, commonly described as a Woodstock for video-gamers. PAX, which started in 2004 in the Seattle area, sold out the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in September this year, with an estimated 70,000 people in attendance.

PAX East is scheduled for March 26 through March 28 in Boston, at the Hynes Convention Center. See this page for registration details.

OLPC shows off XO 3.0 tablet concept

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

One Laptop Per Child has unveiled its latest concept of a future XO laptop, the XO 3.0.

The 3.0 is more of a tablet than a laptop, and it’s $75 projected price undercuts OLPC’s as-yet-unrealized $100 goal for the first XO by $25. The tablet would feature a screen courtesy of ex-OLPCer Mary Lou Jepsen’s display technology startup Pixel Qi.

The tablet looks pretty fancy, but it’s just a concept with a target date of 2012. Last month, the Cambridge-based nonprofit killed plans for its similar-except-foldable XO 2.0. Also, founder Nick Negroponte told Forbes, “”We don’t necessarily need to build it. We just need to threaten to build it.” So you might not want to hold your breath.

UNH study: Twitter, Facebook don’t affect grades

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

UNH social media study

Jackie NoblettTweet this: kids addicted to social networking still do well in school.

A study of more than 1,100 University of New Hampshire Students by its Whittemore School of Business showed there is no link between heavy use of Twitter, Facebook or any other social media Web site and their grades. Some 63 percent of heavy users of social media, defined by UNH as spending more than 61 minutes per day on such sites, received straight As or As and Bs for a semester, compared to 65 percent of light users, or ones that use social medial less than 31 minutes per day.

Poor students also tend to be poor students, even without spending time on YouTube or MySpace. Some 37 percent of heavy users got Bs and lower in their classes, compared with 35 percent of light users.

The findings shouldn’t surprise most techies — collegiate distractions are not unique to the Internet age, and one’s Facebook addiction is another’s PBR vice. Yet gadgetry does not necessarily make people any smarter either. Only 26 percent of students said they use social media for educational reasons. Tweeting exam answers to a classmate doesn’t count.

GE makes Rudolph obsolete

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

General Electric’s Global Research division has taken its latest technologies and applied them to Santa’s sleigh. GE researchers have taken out the old sled/reindeer/magic-based system and added OLEDs, carbon-fiber composites and ceramic materials, RFID, medical sensors, sodium batteries, and a 500 GB holographic CD.

Seems like a big investment considering he’s been getting it done without it. Click the interactive feature above to check out the upgrades.

Raytheon develops battlefield iPhone app

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Raytheon's iPhone appBulletflight might take the cake, but Raytheon’s One Force Tracker would certainly be in the running for least likely iPhone app.

The New York Times reports the Waltham-based defense giant is developing two iPhone apps: One for situational awareness in a battlefield, and one for air traffic control. One Force Tracker maps the positions of enemies and friends in real-time, and allows for secure communication including photo and video transmission. The app could also be used by police, firefighters and other first responders.

The air traffic control app would be used to train air traffic conrollers.

Raytheon announced the app at the 2009 Intelligence Warfighting Summit conference in Tucson yesterday.

MIT team pays cash for balloon coordinates to win DARPA Network Challenge

Monday, December 7th, 2009

MIT’s entry has won the DARPA Network Challenge, which had teams using the Internet to find 10 red balloons placed around the country, from Portland Ore., to Katy, Texas, to Christiana, Del.

The MIT team cleverly outsourced the search to … everyone, more or less, in a convoluted pyramid scheme that paid cash to the finder of a balloon, the person that invited the finder to the competition, the person that invited that person and a charity.

Researchers on the team used the scheme to learn about how social networks spread information.

Google Zeitgeist, Boston edition: I seem to be missing something

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Google released their list of fastest rising search terms for 2009 — nationally, Michael Jackson took the top spot. Jacko was followed by some unsurprising terms — Facebook, Twitter, Lady Gaga, Windows 7 — and some things I don’t know what they are — “tuentro,” “sanalika,” “dantri.com.vn” and “torpedo gratis.” Even searching those words just now didn’t really help. I might just need more coffee.

Local results don’t make much more sense. At No. 1, we have “BU student link,” which I figured was about BU student/accused prostitute killer Philip Markoff, but is instead an actual Boston University student services web site.

No. 2: “eCommons.” This one also has nothing to do with killing anybody, and is also a college student service web site — Harvard Medical School’s this time. We might have too many college kids around here.

At No. 3: “Gloucester Daily Times,” which I’ll bet shocked even the Gloucester Daily Times. This is the year after the 2008 Time Magazine story about the “pregnancy pact” that either happened or didn’t, and its interminable fallout.

Restaurant Week” and “BHCC” at Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, seem reasonable enough, with the recession making expensive restaurants less, and community colleges more popular. “UMB.edu” follows at No. 6, which seems a little like calling someone to ask for their phone number.

MBTA Commuter Rail,” “7News Boston,” “WBZ TV” and “Coolidge Corner Theater” finish off the list. Nothing weird there, but where’s “David Ortiz“? The guy had a season-opening slump that almost killed half the local population, and then had a positive drug test leaked. I don’t even know who you people are any more.

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