A University of Leicester space scientist has worked out that sending texts via mobile phones works out to be far more expensive than downloading data from the Hubble Space Telescope! [...] “The maximum size for a text message is 160 characters, which takes 140 bytes because there are only 7 bits per character in the text messaging system, and we assume the average price for a text message is 5p. There are 1,048,576 bytes in a megabyte, so that’s 1 million/140 = 7490 text messages to transmit one megabyte. At 5p each, that’s £374.49 per MB — or about 4.4 times more expensive than the ‘most pessimistic’ estimate for Hubble Space Telescope transmission costs.”
Source: University of Leicester news release, May 12, 2008
Mobile phones more important than wallets
More than one-third of workers would choose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop or digital music player if they had to leave the house for 24 hours and could take only one item, a new survey has found. The survey, conducted by market research firm IDC and sponsored by Nortel Networks Corp, found that while more than 38 percent of the 2,367 people polled chose their mobile phones, less than 30 percent chose their wallets first.
Source: Reuters, May 13, 2008
The Hydra Versus Dragon Coding Competition
N-BRAIN, Inc., whose motto is “n minds are better than n-1,” will start on June 23, 2008 a coding competion online. CEO John A. De Goes asked me to write about this contest. “This competition is unique in that it’s designed primarily as a spectator event — spectators get to watch the coding sessions (which will be narrated by industry veterans), and vote for their favorite teams, Reality TV-style. It’s also the first competition to embrace collaboration: instead of developer against developer, it’s team against team.”
If you’re fluent in Java and want to win some of the $7,000 offered to the winners, please register.
Source: N-BRAIN, Inc., May 2008
Phone-wallets still years away
The new technology which enables small payments from mobile phones by just flashing the handset is likely to reach masses only around 2012, when one phone from five sold will be equipped with the technology. Consumers will be able to use a phone as a wallet or as an access card simply by waving it over a wireless reader — and in some cases punching a PIN number into the phone — similar to how travelers in Tokyo and London access public transport.
Source: Tarmo Virki, Reuters, May 15, 2008
Mobile-phone microscopes: Doctor on call
A research team led by Dan Fletcher, a professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a cheap attachment to turn the digital camera on many of today’s mobile phones into a microscope. Called a CellScope, it can show individual white and red blood cells, which means that with the correct stain it can be used to identify the parasite that causes malaria. Moreover, by transmitting an image directly over the mobile network, the CellScope could greatly help with the remote diagnosis and monitoring of many illnesses.
Source: The Economist, May 15, 2008
Academic argues software needs to learn manners
Has software ever angered You? Has it made you reboot your machine or made you so upset you had to leave your desk altogether and go and grab a coffee? If you answered yes to any of the above questions you are not alone. Many computer users feel at war with their software, says Auckland’s Massey University senior lecturer Brian Whitworth. Such users are constantly removing things they didn’t want added, resetting changes they didn’t want changed, closing windows they didn’t want opened and blocking emails they didn’t want to receive.
Source: Ulrika Hedquist, Computerworld New Zealand, May 14, 2008
How Did That Chain Letter Get To My Inbox?
Everyone who has an e-mail account has probably received a forwarded chain letter promising good luck if the message is forwarded on to others–or terrible misfortune if it isn’t. The sheer volume of forwarded messages such as chain letters, online petitions, jokes and other materials leads to a simple question — how do these messages reach so many people so quickly? New research into these forwarded missives by Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University and David Liben-Nowell of Carleton College suggests a surprising explanation.
Source: US National Science Foundation (NSF) news release, May 16, 2008
