Uh, It's Jayvee.
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The Get More Out of Google Infographic Summarizes Online Research Tricks for Students
Thank the good Lord for this. Oh, and the people over at lifehacker. Some of the later parts of the infographic is applicable only to Mac users, though.
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Future gadget batteries could last 10 times longer | GigaOm
Batteries continue to be the bane of mobile devices, but research done at Northwestern University could change that with longer lasting batteries that charge in minutes, not hours. The new science shouldn’t increase the size of batteries, but instead modifies the chemical reaction that takes place inside lithium-ion power packs, allowing for 10 times the capacity, says PC Mag. Don’t run out to the store looking for these batteries just yet, though: They’re not expected to hit the market for 3 to 5 years.
According to Northwestern’s Professor Harold Kung, the longer-lasting batteries take advantage of two new processes. First, the number of lithium-ion atoms in the battery’s electrode are boosted by using silicon in place of carbon between sheets of graphene in the battery. It sounds complicated, but the gist is this: Silicon works 24 times more efficiently with lithium ions compared to carbon, which is used in traditional batteries.
Second, the research team scored the graphine sheets with microscopic holes, allowing the lithium ions to travel faster within the battery. These techniques improve both the recharge time and density of lithium ions, which equates to longer-lasting batteries with fast recharge times; perhaps as little as 15 minutes.
I will rejoice the day when this happens. I am currently very bugged by the charge time of my phone’s battery, which often gets drained in less than a day. Maybe this is a problem with the phone’s current battery, but still, this is an advancement I intend to witnessing and experiencing.
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I’m guilty. The infographic is more of how college students use cellphones, though, and not how cellphones shape college life. But nonetheless, it’s interesting.
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Patent Disaster in the Making
President Obama signed the most significant overhaul of the US patent system in the last half-century. One of the key provisions of the new legislation is the “first-to-file” process:
Among other things, the measure, dubbed the America Invents Act, will transition the country to a “first-to-file” system, instead of the current “first-to-invent” approach. Issuing patents to the first person or company to file will help provide clarity in the patent-granting process, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says. It will also prevent inventors from coming out of the woodwork to challenge pending patents.
From “Obama signs patent reform bill” - CNN Politics
This change will be an unmitigated disaster for innovation in the US and is absolutely not the type or “reform” anyone in the technology startup community was seeking. By implementing a first filer process, the US has effectively given power over to big business and mega corporations. Startups with innovative, patent worthy ideas already have a difficult time as it is filing patents, now have to contend with large corporations undercutting them by simply filing faster and getting to the head of the line. Not that this is what happens anyway mind you, it is just that the legislation formalizes the thievery.
What would be real patent reform? First, limiting the massive stockpiles and hording of patents that is currently happening and being consolidated by a handful of technology giants and patent trolling firms like Intellectual Ventures. This can be done by implementing taxes on the exchange of patents and reevaluating patent awards if the holder does not produce any goods using said patents within a certain time frame. Second, denying patents of overly broad methods and concepts. Broad patents would instead go into an open source patent system managed by the US Patent Office. Third, greatly increasing the manpower and funding of the US Patent Office to reduce the backlog and start moving towards processing applications in real-time.
There is a decent post by Chris Dixon that lists out the key provisions of the new patent legislation. Read it and get informed and get ready for some rough and tumble as the patent process just got a lot more brutal.
Doing this would defeat the purpose of patenting — to protect inventors who create novelties and their inventions from plagiarism.
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Japanese breakthrough will make wind power cheaper than nuclear
A surprising aerodynamic innovation in wind turbine design called the ‘wind lens’ could triple the output of a typical wind turbine, making it less costly than nuclear power.Now that is what I call rising from the ashes.
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“ To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
”—Text of resignation letter by former Apple CEO STEVE JOBS.
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Germany Makes Facebook “Like” Button Illegal
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Did you know that Facebook sucks all the contact information for your friends out of your phone, when you sync your contacts with Facebook? Even the ones who aren’t on Facebook?
Did you know that even if you’re not on Facebook, Facebook probably has your e-mail address and phone number via your friends who are on it?
Did you know that this (above) is the default setting? Unless you know enough to tell them not to, the corporate sociopaths at Facebook will “remind” your non-Facebook friends to join Facebook every two weeks.
Did the corporate sociopaths at Facebook tell you any of this? No, the Village Voice did.
Has Facebook ruined social networking?
Yet another social networking loophole has been exposed in the walls of socially-glorified Facebook. This seriously is only strengthening my need to leave Facebook permanently.
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Facebook Use May Lead to Psychological Disorders in Teens [STUDY] 
While social networking site Facebook was created to help people connect with their friends, increasing research in the effect of social media on human interaction is painting a different picture — one that features the development of antisocial behavior, narcissism and a slew of other character flaws and negative by-products. -
Laptops Powered by Typing Could Be on the Way [STUDY] Australian researchers have figured out a way to harness the energy we use while typing to power a laptop. Using piezoelectricity, this method works in a similar way to cigarette lighters that create a spark by striking a piezoelectric crystal. […] The idea of an everlasting battery is mind-boggling. Scientists are also looking into ways to power touchscreen devices with piezoelectric film, putting all that energetic finger-swiping to good use.
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How safe is Tumblr? How safe are we Online?
There have been reports circulating on the news lately about murders or other crimes that resulted from meet-ups with people acquainted with online. Facebook hasn’t been a stranger to such cyber-influenced crimes, but what about Tumblr?
Tumblr integrates a meetup feature that allows you to organize and inform people about a meetup.
What is a meetup? The tumblr administration defines it in their Meetups FAQ, and to quote:
A meetup is a public event or gathering organized by Tumblr users who want to get to know other Tumblr users in person. They can have as many people, run for however long, and organized in any format — be it hanging out in the park or an open mic at a bar.
In a virtual world where you can only see what is presented to you by the third party, how can it be assured that there is safety in a meetup, whether organized through the Tumblr service or not, or in social networking sites in general?
I think that it is safe to say that Tumblr is only as safe as how you secure yourself. Although Tumblr might be a medium for personal expression and communication, people should not forget that the service is given for free. It is open to the public, be it the criminal or the pacifying type.
I think that the crimes that have been mobilized by social networking media are enough reasons for us to think about and to edit what we put in our blogs and in our profiles. Keep safe.
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fun things with words: Light travels, 300 million miles per second. This lady made it stop. a must click. 
“Two years ago we slowed it down to 38 miles an hour; now we’ve been able to park it then bring it back up to full speed.” Lene Hau isn’t talking about a used motorbike, but about light – that ethereal, life-sustaining stuff that normally travels 93 million miles from the sun in about eight minutes.
Less than five years ago, the speed of light was considered one of the universe’s great constants. Albert Einstein theorized that light cannot travel faster than 186,282 miles per second. No one has proved him wrong, but he never said that it couldn’t go slower.
(via funthingswithwords)
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Steve Rubel: ¶ Tumblr is the Next Great Social Network Brent Simmons sees a natural evolution for blogs…
“New blogging systems like Posterous and Tumblr seem to be pretty popular, and they fill a nice middle ground: short content, easy sharing, social stuff. They’re cool.
But try to imagine replacing Daring Fireball, Scripting News, Apple Outsider, Shawn Blanc, or any of a number of great blogs with something like Twitter. You can’t. You’d have to invent blogs so that these writers have somewhere to write.”
Brent is right. Blogging, once again, is evolving. But he’s a bit off in portraying Tumblr this way.
Tumblr, to me at least, isn’t a blog platform but something new entirely - a social network for both original and curated content that is longer than a tweet and often more visual in nature. It’s a hybrid.
This nuance is lost in the news that Tumblr now has more blogs than Wordpress.com.
Consider this: over breakfast last week Mark Coatney from Tumblr shared with me that most of the platform’s billions of page views take place inside the dashboard rather than on the individual domains. That means that Tumblr is less like Wordpress and more like Twitter or Facebook - a social network for content rather than a blogging platform.
A huge part of Tumblr’s appeal is its community. Like Twitter and Facebook you don’t have to attract an audience, you just need to get them to subscribe. And while RSS is baked in, subscriptions are disguised simply as follows on Tumblr, making it all the more simple.
The more people start using Tumblr Dashboard as an aggregator, the more they create, share, comment and reblog. The network effect takes over and the platform grows.
When you add in the fact that the media is increasingly using Tumblr, you have an engine in place that can drive additional growth.
All the forces are in place, to me at least, to propel Tumblr as the next big hub. However, it’s not blogging that will do it but - like Twitter and Facebook before it - the community that’s driving the network effect and its meteoric growth.
I’m always supportive of evolution but I’m still hoping that Tumblr does not become another Facebook or Twitter where content is superseded by number of subscribers and how popular you are. I believe that for the a great part of the Tumblr population, Tumblr isn’t a social network that focuses on getting more subscribers than a person’s friends. Tumblr for me is a medium for communication.
I’m scared that this evolution might jump start the assimilation of Tumblr into normalcy of social network competitions.
