Saudi Arabia Implements Electronic Tracking System For Women

"Denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned from driving, women in Saudi Arabia are now monitored by an electronic system that tracks any cross-border movements. Since last week, Saudi women's male guardians began receiving text messages on their phones informing them when women under their custody leave the country, even if they are travelling together. 'The authorities are using technology to monitor women,' said columnist Badriya al-Bishr, who criticised the 'state of slavery under which women are held' in the ultra-conservative kingdom. Women are not allowed to leave the kingdom without permission from their male guardian, who must give his consent by signing what is known as the 'yellow sheet' at the airport or border."

Lebanon Java User group — Java.net

Lebanon Java User group — Java.net

Développeurs Android : placez-vous dans les classements Google Play, travaillez votre notoriété, déboguez

Développeurs Android : placez-vous dans les classements Google Play, travaillez votre notoriété, déboguez

Free software, open source for emergent economy

For emergent economies, the free software paradigm is a chance to help these country and software companies to align their products to the biggest enterprises.

What do you think? (you can comment anonymously)

technorati H5G2CJCSWV58

H5G2CJCSWV58

Students works

Engineering computer science student of Cnam Liban, developp some small applications fot Andoid you can find them at this adress : http://libre.cofares.net/auditeurs-smb215-11-12

Android operating system will be used on more computing devices than Microsoft's Windows

An anonymous reader writes
"Google's Android operating system will be used on more computing devices than Microsoft's Windows within four years, data from research firm Gartner showed on Wednesday, underlining the massive shift in the technology sector. At the end of 2016, there will be 2.3 billion computers, tablets and smartphones using Android software, compared with 2.28 billion Windows devices, Gartner data showed."The comparison would make less sense if Android was strictly for phones, and Windows was strictly for desktops-with-keyboards, but gets interesting as the devices on which each system runs overlap ever more.

Contextual Intelligence: Smart Phones to Become Big Brother?

BYTE (10/22/12) Boonsri Dickinson

PARC researchers are developing contextual intelligence technologies that could enable enterprises and governmental bodies to use data in the same way citizens use mobile phones. The researchers say data mined from email messages, Facebook conversations, and phone sensors could be used for intelligence gathering, marketing and application design, and employee relations. PARC's Oliver Brdiczka says researchers are working on a project that predicts a person's personality based on their online behavior, with the goal of marketing this data to enterprises that want to know people's intent for targeted advertising or developing content customization. The researchers found that activity levels can help predict levels of happiness. The government could use this information to identify depressed soldiers, and companies could use it to determine if employees are unhappy. Unhappy people "get much less expressive, so the amount of sentiment goes down--both positive and negative," Brdiczka notes. Companies also could use the data to customize ads so they are more likely to be perceived as recommendations than advertisements. Brdiczka predicts that in the future contextual intelligence systems will be built into operating systems and will be able to assist users.
http://www.informationweek.com/byte/personal-tech/smart-phones/contextual-intelligence-smart-phones-to/240009342

A Complex Logic Circuit Made From Bacterial Genes

Washington University in St. Louis (10/12/12) Diana Lutz

Washington University in St. Louis professor Tae Seok Moon hopes to develop biological circuits made from genes and regulatory proteins.  He plans to use the circuits to act as controllers inside synthetic bacteria to make fuel, remove pollutants, or eliminate cancerous cells or infectious bacteria.  Moon envisions that the minuscule circuits eventually could be used to make cells that can monitor and respond to their environments.  As he was developing the genetic circuits, Moon had to identify a gene whose activation could be controlled by at least two molecules.  The circuit Moon developed consists of four sensors for four different molecules that feed into three two-input "AND" gates.  To eliminate crosstalk, or interference, in the circuits, Moon used parts from three different strains of bacteria:  Shigella flexneri, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella typhimurium.  Moon says in the future, a synthetic bacterium with this circuit might be able to detect four different cancer indicators and release a tumor-killing factor.
http://https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/24418.aspx

Technology Has Improved Voting Procedures

California Institute of Technology (10/18/12) Marcus Woo

New voting technology developed over the last 10 years has greatly improved the voting process in the United States, according to a recent California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report.  After the 2000 presidential election, Caltech and MIT researchers launched the Voting Technology Project (VTP) to develop ways to improve elections.  VTP issued its first report in 2001.  "Since that report came out and since our project was formed, a lot of progress has been made in improving how American elections are run," says Caltech professor Michael Alvarez.  The researchers determined how many votes are lost during each election due to voting mistakes by calculating the number of residual votes, or the difference between the number of votes that are counted and the number of votes cast.  In the 2001 report, the researchers found that older voting technology led to a high residual vote rate.  However, new research shows that the residual vote rate dropped from two percent in 2000 to one percent in 2006 and 2008.  "As we moved away from punch cards, lever machines, and paper ballots, and towards optical-scan systems and electronic systems that have voter verification, we have seen the voter residual rate plummet," Alvarez says.
http://www.caltech.edu/content/technology-has-improved-voting-procedures

Automated Translation of Sign Language Into Text Is Now a Reality

University of Aberdeen (10/03/12) Jennifer Phillips

University of Aberdeen researchers are developing technology that can automatically translate sign language into text.  The researchers say the software is the first of its kind and has the potential to revolutionize how sign language users communicate.  "The aim of the technology known as the Portable Sign language Translator is to empower sign language users by enabling them to overcome communication challenges through portable technology," says Aberdeen professor Ernesto Compatangelo.  He says the application can be used on various types of mobile devices, enabling users to customize sign language to their own specific needs.  "The user signs into a standard camera integrated into a laptop, netbook, smartphone, or other portable device such as a tablet," and the signs are immediately translated into text that can be read by the person they are conversing with, Compatangelo says.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/details-13206.php

Bientôt un Galaxy S III « mini » ?

Technologie - C’est ce que suggère l’invitation envoyée par Samsung pour une conférence de presse qui aura lieu le 11 octobre.

Malgré son succès incontestable (20 millions d’unités écoulées en 100 jours), le Galaxy S III de Samsung a un défaut. Son encombrement dont certains utilisateurs se plaignent et qui fait que d’autres n’ont pas franchi le pas. La firme coréenne a-t-elle entendu ces griefs ? Peut-être bien si l’on en croit l’invitation lancée hier pour une présentation produit qui se fera le 11 octobre.

En guise de teasing, Samsung manie des jeux de mots sur la taille, expliquant que le grand peut être petit et vice-versa. Le « S » en arrière-plan suggère qu’il s’agira dans tous les cas d’un terminal dans la gamme Galaxy S. Donc, un S III « mini » doté d’un écran plus petit (4 pouces ?) arriverait à point nommé pour rivaliser avec l’iPhone 5 durant la période clé des ventes de fin d’année. Réponse dans une semaine. (Eureka Presse)

Download NetBeans IDE 7.3 Beta, with New HTML5 Support!

NetBeans IDE 7.3 Beta empowers developers to create and debug rich Web and mobile applications using the latest HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS standards. Developers can expect state of the art rich web development experience with a page inspector and CSS style editor, completely revamped JavaScript editor, new JavaScript debugger, and more. Additional highlights available in 7.3 Beta include continued enhancements to the IDE's support for Groovy, PHP, JavaFX and C/C++.

• Download NetBeans IDE 7.3 Beta
• Watch New NetBeans IDE 7.3 Screencasts
• Release Notes
• Installation Guide

Release Highlights Include:

Project Easel: HTML5 Application Development

• HTML5 Application project with JavaScript testing support
• JavaScript Editor significantly improved
• Page inspector and visual CSS style editor
• JavaScript Debugger
• Embedded WebKit browser; deep integration with Chrome

Java

• Breadcrumbs: A new navigation bar shows the current embedding in the editor
• Updated Show member and Show hierarchy views
• Set of new hints and refactorings
• Filters for Find Usages results
• Effective POM editor tab in pom.xml editor

Java EE

• Java Persistence JPQL testing tool
• REST Service Development enhancements

JavaFX

• FXML/Scene Builder Support
• JDK 7u6+ support on Windows, Mac and Linux
• FXML editing greatly improved by providing accurate code completion, error marking and more
• FXML Generate Controller action added on FXML files

PHP

• Parsers for Namespaced Annotations (Symfony 2, Doctrine 2, etc.)
• Basic Composer Integration (Dependency Manager for PHP)
• Twig Code Completion (with documentation)
• Smarty Braces Matching for Related Tags
• Smarty Parser Errors of Unmatched Tags

Groovy

• Groovy 2.0 integration
• Support in Java EE projects
• Groovy JUnit test support
• Basic refactoring implemented (Find Usages, Rename for class type)

Profiler

• Sampled memory profiling
• CPU snapshots comparison
• Support for Linux ARM machine

C/C++

• Memory usage reduced by at least half for big projects
• Parser speed improvements
• Parser's index can be kept and relocated with project

NetBeans Platform

• Options dialog contents filtering
• New File / Open Recent File menu, and a new shortcut CTRL+ALT+T
• Main toolbar shows new drop down list for overflow situations

NetBeans IDE 7.3 Beta is available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese. Visit the 7.3 New and Noteworthy page for a complete list of highlights.
The final release of NetBeans IDE is planned for early 2013.

Tech news from ACM

Google Adds Coral Reef Panoramas to Street View Maps
BBC News (09/26/12)

Google recently added panoramas of coral reefs to its Street View services, enabling users to navigate their way around the sites.  The material was gathered by the Catlin Seaview Survey, a project studying the health of the reefs, including the impact of global warming.  "We want to be a comprehensive source for imagery that lets anyone explore anywhere," says Google ocean program manager Jenifer Foulkes.  To get the images of the coral reefs, the researchers developed a submersible fitted with three wide-angle lenses designed to take high-resolution images in low-light conditions.  "The main reason is to record reef environments on an unprecedented scale and reveal them to the world," says project director Richard Vevers.  To analyze the images, University of Queensland researchers are developing both image-recognition software to identify creatures recorded in the photographs and three-dimensional modeling programs to monitor how the habitats change over time.  "It's analyzing the health of the reef in terms of species distribution, and mapping that against the structure of the reefs to discover what reefs are important," Vevers says.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19716984

Lane-Keeping App Makes Any Car Smarter
New Scientist (09/25/12) Paul Marks

Dartmouth College researchers have developed CarSafe, a smartphone app that monitors how a driver blinks to determine if the driver is drowsy.  The phone is mounted on the windshield, and the front-facing camera monitors the driver's head pose, gaze direction, and blink rate.  The back-facing camera looks at the road to make sure the car is a safe distance from the vehicle in front, and that it is not drifting out of the lane.  The researchers have developed software that continually switches between the two cameras, which means it can only analyze scenes at a rate of eight frames per second.  "But the next generation of phones will allow software to access both cameras simultaneously, removing that bottleneck," says Dartmouth researcher Andrew Campbell.  "And with advent of quad core and 16-core phones in the future, I would expect 20 to 30 [frames per second] on each camera."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22297-lanekeeping-app-makes-any-car-smarter.html

UC Berkeley Researchers May Track Twitter Hackers
EE Times (09/25/12) Rick Merritt

A $10 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation will enable University of California, Berkeley researchers to spend the next five years exploring how to contest hackers on social networking sites.  The security project at Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) will try to anticipate and block social-networking attacks, such as emerging efforts to accumulate and sell large numbers of Twitter followers.  Researchers believe the spam-email economy may decline, and social networking will likely become the platform for those involved.  ICSI also has several other projects in the works, which range from devising new algorithms for voice recognition and video search to writing open source code for networking gear.  Nelson Morgan, a researcher working on new approaches to voice recognition, says there are fundamental flaws as people currently use products such as Apple's Siri.  "You have to make certain mathematical assumptions that people know are wrong, but you cover that up by using huge amounts of statistical data and limiting the domain," Morgan says.  Researchers are trying to find new approaches based on recorded signals of brain patterns and using multicore processors' parallel computing capabilities.

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4397114/Berkeley-researchers-may-track-Twitter-hackers

Meet Mira, the Supercomputer That Makes Universes
The Atlantic (09/25/12) Ross Andersen

One of the largest and most complex universe simulations ever attempted will be run in October by Mira, the world's third fastest supercomputer.  The model will condense more than 12 billion years' worth of cosmic evolution into two weeks, tracking trillions of particles as they form into the universe's web-like structure.  Argonne National Laboratory physicist Salman Habib says this structure remains consistent over many universe simulations of increasing scale.  He says the size of supercomputers such as Mira, which has nearly a petabyte of memory, makes universe simulations possible thanks to the tremendous increase in speed.  "If you tried to do a simulation like this on a normal computer, you wouldn't be able to fit it, and even if you could fit it, if you tried to run it, it would never finish," Habib notes.  He predicts that next-generation computers may require new models for programming, powering, or error correction because the physical limits of Moore's Law will have been reached.  "There is some hope that there will be investment [in technologies to exponentially ramp up computer speed], because supercomputer simulations are increasingly being used outside the basic sciences," Habib says.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/meet-mira-the-supercomputer-that-makes-universes/262639/

ITU Predicts 25 Billion Networked Devices by 2020
V3.co.uk (09/24/12) Dan Worth

There will be as many as 25 billion devices online by 2020 as the Internet of things revolution takes off, and the proliferation of technologies such as machine-to-machine communications will be the primary driver of the growth, according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).  "By 2020, the number of connected devices may potentially outnumber connected people by six to one, transforming our concept of the Internet, and society, forever," ITU says in its annual State of Broadband report.  ITU also predicts there will be 10 billion mobile broadband connections as the developing world uses smartphones and tablets as its primary means of Internet connection.  The United Nations organization notes mobile devices could help close the digital divide while creating new issues of exclusion based on content and capabilities.  "Given the prolific spread of mobile, in the future, the digital divide may no longer describe disparities in access, but instead denote disparities in speed and functionality--or more specifically, what people can do with their mobile devices," the report says.

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2207590/itu-predicts-25-billion-networked-devices-by-2020

Artificially Intelligent Game Bots Pass the Turing Test on Turing's Centenary
University of Texas at Austin (09/26/12)

University of Texas at Austin researchers recently won the BotPrize by convincing a panel of judges that their bot, called  UT^2, was more human-like than half of the humans it competed against.  "The idea is to evaluate how we can make game bots, which are nonplayer characters controlled by [artificial intelligence] algorithms, appear as human as possible," says University of Texas professor Risto Miikkulainen.  The competition involves bots facing off in a tournament against one another and about an equal number of humans, with each player trying to score points by eliminating its opponents.  The bot that is scored as most human-like by the human judges is named the winner.  The complex three-dimensional (3D) environments of the game require that bots mimic humans in several ways, including moving around in 3D space, engaging in chaotic combat against multiple opponents, and reasoning about the best strategy at any given point in the game.  Some of UT^2's behavior is modeled on previously observed human behavior, while its central battle behaviors are developed through neuroevolution, which runs artificially intelligent neural networks through a program that is modeled on the biological process of evolution.

http://www.utexas.edu/news/2012/09/26/artificially-intelligent-game-bots-pass-the-turing-test-on-turing%E2%80%99s-centenary/

Mathematics and Fine Art: Digitizing Paintings Through Image Processing
SIAM Connect (09/25/12)

The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics' Journal of Imaging Sciences recently published a paper describing a technique for automatically producing digital reproductions of paintings. The method involves fusing photographs taken from different angles through statistical models, which can eliminate glare, highlights, and motion blur. The paper's authors say the statistical models reduce noise and compensate for optical distortion, solving the problem of uncontrolled illumination and destructive reflection. "This article demonstrates the possibility of acquiring a good quality image of a painting from amateur snapshots taken in bursts from different angles, in normal museum illumination," says paper author Jean-Michel Morel. The photographer must take as many pictures from as many angles as possible. "This acquisition is then followed by an intensive [but fully automatic] post-production chain, whose mathematical and algorithmic definition is precisely the object of the article," Morel says. Once the process rids the image of imperfections, the color, mapping, contrast, and other subjective features are left to the photographers and artists. The authors note the technique also could be used in image restoration, or applied to three-dimensional objects.

http://connect.siam.org/?p=2584

Scientists Simulate Clothing Sounds for Computer Animation
Cornell Chronicle (09/25/12) Bill Steele

Cornell University researchers have developed a method for synthesizing cloth sounds by using digitally synthesized sounds as a guide to insert real recorded sounds.  The method involves synthesizing an approximate sound based on friction and crumpling of the various kinds of cloth.  The researchers made controlled recordings of friction sounds by spinning a cloth-covered roller while holding a piece of cloth against it, and crumpling sounds by manipulating a piece of cloth while avoiding any sliding contact.  The target sound is reduced to microsecond-length chunks, which the computer matches against a database of similar chunks or real sounds, which are then reassembled to produce a convincing soundtrack.  The researchers say their approach was inspired by speech synthesis.  "People thought they could synthesize speech using oscillator models, but it didn't sound realistic, sort of like 'Speak & Spell,' so they ended up concatenating bits of recorded human speech for realism," says Cornell professor Doug James.  The research was presented at the recent SIGGRAPH 2012 conference.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept12/ClothSounds.html

NSF and Mozilla Announce Winning Big Ideas for New Applications on a Faster, Smarter Internet of the Future
National Science Foundation (09/26/12)

Mozilla Ignite announced eight winning ideas for innovative applications demonstrating what the future Internet might look like. The program called for application ideas that would advance national priorities such as healthcare, public safety, clean energy, and transportation. The Mozilla Ignite Challenge is part of the Obama Administration's U.S. Ignite Initiative, a coordinated effort to facilitate next-generation public sector applications. "After the challenge was announced, the response was exciting and encouraging, not just in terms of the number of submissions but in quality and creativity and impact embodied in each," says Mozilla Ignite project manager Will Barkis. Mozilla Ignite's Gold Medal went to a group of McGill University researchers who developed an idea for a system for Real-Time Emergency Response Observation and Supervision. The technology aims to provide live, high-quality video from multiple feeds and incorporate sensor data from a variety of sources. The Silver Medal winners include a Purdue University team that developed remote process control using a reliable, real-time protocol, and a Seneca College group that developed real-time 3D interactive telepresence technology. Mozilla Ignite's Bronze Medal winners include researchers from Boston University, Virginia Tech, and the University of California, Berkeley.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125515&org=NSF&from=news

App Lets You Monitor Lung Health Using Only a Smartphone
University of Washington News and Information (09/18/12) Hannah Hickey

University of Washington, UW Medicine, and Seattle Children's hospital researchers have developed SpiroSmart, a digital spirometer designed for smartphones that allows users to monitor their lung function by blowing into the device.  Conventional spirometers require users to blow into a tube with a small turbine that measures the speed of the flow.  The spirometer measures how much and how fast the patient can breathe out, which indicates whether their airways are narrowed or blocked.  The researchers were able to model a human trachea and vocal tract as a system of tubes to replace the spirometer, and use a smartphone to analyze the sound wave frequencies to detect when the breath is resonating.  "There are resonances that occur in the signal that tells you about how much flow is going through the trachea and the vocal tract, and that's precisely the quantity that a clinician needs to know," says Washington professor Shwetak Patel.  Researchers tested the system on 52 mostly healthy volunteers using an iPhone 4S smartphone and its embedded microphone.  They discovered that SpiroSmart showed results that came within 5.1 percent of commercially available spirometers.

http://www.washington.edu/news/2012/09/18/app-lets-you-monitor-lung-health-using-only-a-smartphone/

Humanitarian Response and CRICIS--A Report From a Grassroots Workshop
CCC Blog (09/24/12) Kenneth Hines

Texas A&M University professor Robin Murphy recently co-organized Connecting Grassroots to Government for Disaster Management, a visioning workshop about the role of computing in disaster management.  As part of the conference, Murphy briefed 60 physical and 150 remote participants for the Critical Real-Time Computing and Information Systems (CRICIS) report, which identified unique fundamental computing research questions in disasters.  Murphy highlighted SeaSketch, a marine biologist-developed, Web-based system that enables California residents to go to a map of the shore and propose a marine protected area by interactively drawing boundaries.  The system then automatically evaluates the appropriateness of the area, provides feedback to the designer, and ranks the area for the agency.  The workshop emphasized that the humanitarian response community needs computing advances beyond consumer-oriented apps and infrastructure.  "Their computing needs (and creativity) are exceeding what an average engineer or scientist can do in a year, thus out of range of their budgets or the time an expert can donate," Murphy stressed.

http://www.cccblog.org/2012/09/24/humanitarian-response-and-cricis-a-report-from-a-grassroots-workshop/

New Tool for CSI? Geographic Software Maps Distinctive Features inside Bones
Ohio State University Research News (09/25/12) Pam Frost Gorder

Ohio State University researchers have developed a method for using the ArcGIS mapping program to identify features inside a human foot bone.  The researchers wanted to determine whether the patterns of change inside the bones of human remains could reveal how the bones were used.  "Based on certain scientific criteria that you give it, the software gives you a statistical measure of whether the objects you're looking at actually constitute a cluster," says Ohio State professor Julie Field.  The researchers say their study is the first to use geographic information system software to map bone microstructure.  This "work allows us to visualize, analyze, and compare the distribution of microscopic features that reflect the development and maintenance of bones, which we can relate to skeletal health and disease," says Ohio State professor Sam Stout.  As part of their study, the researchers examined the cross section of a metatarsal bone and demonstrated how the software could be used to show the loads experienced in the foot during gait.  Ohio State researcher David Rose notes that more bones will have to be studied before the software can provide meaningful insight into bone biology.

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/osteons.htm

Google Spans Entire Planet With GPS-Powered Database
Wired News (09/19/12) Cade Metz

A new Google research paper details the workings of the Spanner data storage and compilation system, billed as the first database capable of quickly storing and retrieving information across a worldwide network of data centers while maintaining the information's consistency.  Spanner interfaces with a network of servers outfitted with atomic clocks or global positioning system (GPS) antennas to facilitate accurate synchronization of data distribution.  Spanner can store data across millions of servers and multiple data centers using the TrueTime applications programming interface (API), which employs the atomic clocks and GPS antennas to ensure that network operations run in tandem.  Google spreads clocks across its network instead of attempting to enhance communication between servers.  It outfits various master servers with GPS antennas or atomic clocks and, working in lockstep with the TrueTime APIs, these time keepers maintain synchronization across the entire network.  TrueTime communicates to the servers the degree of uncertainty there is over the current time, and they can modify their reads and writes accordingly.  Google researchers say Spanner helps the company replicate and route data across its network, and augments data center upgrades and repairs.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/09/google-spanner/

Most European Languages in Danger of Digital Extinction

University of Manchester (09/26/12) Daniel Cochlin

META-NET, a European network of researchers, recently completed a study that assessed language technology support for 30 European languages in four different areas, including automatic translation, speech interaction, text analysis, and availability of language resources.  Languages spoken by a small number of people could be at risk because they do not have technological support, according to the META-NET report.  The researchers found that digital assistance for 21 of the 30 languages is non-existent or weak at best.  Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Maltese are at the highest risk of disappearing, while Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian, and Polish also are at risk.  English has the best language technology support, while Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Spanish have moderate support, according to the report.  The researchers say new software is needed to save the languages that are deemed to have the highest risk of disappearing from the modern digital landscape.  "As digital information and communication is becoming increasingly dominant, it is vital that sophisticated language technology support is available for a wider range of languages, otherwise collaboration with our European neighbors will become more difficult," says University of Manchester professor Sophia Ananiadou.

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=8736

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Windows 8 n’est pas prêt selon le patron d’Intel, mais sera lancé malgré tout

Technologie - D’après des propos de Paul Otellini rapportés par Bloomberg, Windows 8 n’est pas finalisé, mais il est néanmoins impératif de le lancer afin de permettre à Microsoft et aux constructeurs de concurrencer Apple sur la saison de noël.

Voilà une déclaration d’avant lancement dont Microsoft se serait sans doute bien passé. Selon Bloomberg, le PDG d’Intel, Paul Otellini, a fait une analyse deWindows 8 peu vendeuse à l’occasion d’une rencontre à Taïwan avec des salariés.

De l’aveu même du patron d’Intel, le premier partenaire de Microsoft, Windows 8 a encore besoin de quelques améliorations. C’est tout ? Non, pour Otellini, le système d’exploitation n’est pas complètement prêt pour le lancement.

Mais pour le dirigeant d’Intel : mettre sur le marché un produit non finalisé n’est pas une faute en soi, c’est même une nécessité pour permettre à Microsoft et aux constructeurs de PC de concurrencer Apple durant la période de noël.

Quant aux améliorations qui restent à apporter, celles-ci peuvent encore l’être ensuite, après le lancement. La magie des mises à jour logicielles. Si le principe semble aller de fait pour l’industrie informatique, pas sûr que les consommateurs soient les premiers bénéficiaires.

sources: par La rédaction de ZDNet.fr, ZDNet France. Publié le mercredi 26 septembre 2012

Tags: Windows 8, Microsoft, Intel,

Welcome to the September/October 2012 issue of Java Magazine!

Java At Sea Liquid Robotics charts a new course with expert help from Java pioneer James Gosling. Duke's Choice Awards Meet this year's winners! Looking Ahead to Project Lambda  Java Language Architect Brian Goetz on the importance of lambda expressions JCP Q&A: Ben Evans The London JUG representative talks about the JCP and the Java community. Java EE Connector Architecture 1.6 Adam Bien on deep integration with connector services in a lean way DataFX: Populate JavaFX Controls with Real-World Data Tools to retrieve, parse, and render data in a variety of JavaFX controls Fix This Stephen Chin challenges your JavaFX skills. And more! Have feedback about this issue? Issue a tweet to @java, or send us a message directly.

Caroline Kvitka Editor-in-Chief Java Magazine

IT Employment Continues to Gain

Computerworld, September 7

Based on the latest data from the U.S. Labor Department, IT hiring continues to gain momentum, with signs emerging that high demand exists for people to fill jobs in specific IT occupations. Even research groups that tend to arrive at different opinions and viewpoints about U.S. employment data for the tech sector agree on the large macro-trend: IT hiring is up across the nation. While the month-over-month rate of growth is not quite as robust as it was earlier in the year, IT employment overall remains strong. From July to August, the number of IT jobs increased by 5,100 - bringing overall IT employment to almost 4.2 million.

Janco Associates, a research and consulting firm, counted a month-to-month increase of 12,400 IT jobs -- a figure that represents nearly 13% of the 96,000 jobs the Labor Department says were added overall in the U.S. in August. In its report, TechServe Alliance included unpublished Labor Department unemployment data for some specific job categories. For instance, from the first quarter to the second quarter of this year, the unemployment rate of computer hardware engineers went from 4.4% to 0.5%. For software developers, the unemployment rate shrank from 3.6% to 2.5% over the same period.

However, not all areas are growing as quickly. For computer support specialists, the unemployment rate rose from 7.1% in the first quarter to 8.2% in the second. The data for specific labor categories has to be viewed with caution because of the sample size, but it definitely shows a tightening supply. Janco conducts ongoing surveys of CIOs to assess their hiring goals, noting that many CIOs are cautious but feel that overall hiring will improve significantly in 2013 and are initially budgeting accordingly.

Click Here to View Full Article 

Intel Research Team Develops Electronic Probe Storage Device

The Engineer (United Kingdom) (09/12/12)

New research led by Intel marks a key step in the effort to commercialize probe-based storage technology with capabilities that exceed those of hard disk and solid-state drives. The researchers developed a long-lasting, ultra-high-density probe storage device by coating the tips of the probes with a thin metal. The device features an array of 5,000 ultra-sharp probes, which is integrated with on-chip electronic circuits. The researchers say the probes write tiny bits of memory as small as a few nanometers by sending short electrical pulses to a ferroelectric film, a material that can be given a permanent electric polarization by applying an electric field. High-speed data access requires that the probes slide quickly and frequently across the film. Wear can seriously degrade the write-read resolution of the device, so the team deposited a thin metal film of hafnium diboride on the probe tips. The metal film reduces wear and enables the probe tips to retain their write-read resolution at high speeds for distances exceeding eight kilometers. The data densities of the device exceed one terabit per square inch.

View Full Article
http://www.theengineer.co.uk/sectors/electronics/news/intel-research-team-develops-electronic-probe-storage-device/1013862.article

HTML5 Rocks - A resource for open web HTML5 developers

HTML5 Rocks - A resource for open web HTML5 developers

Google Public DNS

What is Google Public DNS?

Google Public DNS is a free, global Domain Name System (DNS) resolution service, that you can use as an alternative to your current DNS provider.

To try it out:

• Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers or
• Read our configuration instructions (IPv6 addresses supported too).

If you decide to try Google Public DNS, your client programs will perform all DNS lookups using Google Public DNS.

Why does DNS matter?

The DNS protocol is an important part of the web's infrastructure, serving as the Internet's phone book: every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading, so your computer may be performing hundreds of lookups a day.

Why should you try Google Public DNS?

By using Google Public DNS you can:

• Speed up your browsing experience.
• Improve your security.
• Get the results you expect with absolutely no redirection.

Making Web Applications More Efficient

MIT News (08/31/12) Larry Hardesty

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed Pyxis, a system that automatically streamlines Web sites' database access patterns, making the sites up to three times faster.  Pyxis currently works with programs written in Java, but the researchers note that adapting it to other languages only requires changing the code that translates programs into graphical models.  Pyxis automatically divides a program between application server and database server in a way that can be mathematically proven to not disrupt the operation of the program.  Pyxis also monitors the central processing unit load on the database server, increasing or decreasing the application logic needed to execute depending on its available capacity.  Pyxis transforms a program into a graph in which the nodes represent individual instructions in a program, and the edges represent the amount of data that each instruction passes to the next.  Pyxis also aims to find a placement of nodes on two different servers that minimizes the total cost of the program.  "Our tool is able to dynamically switch between them based on the current load on the server," says MIT's Alvin Cheung.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/making-web-applications-more-efficient-0831.html

Harness Unused Smartphone Power for a Computing Boost

New Scientist (08/29/12) Jacob Aron

Technical University of Braunschweig researchers have found that smartphones can be joined together in a network, which when connected via Wi-Fi, can carry out increased numbers of megaflops.  The researchers joined six low-powered phones and found they could carry out a combined 26.2 million calculations per second.  Although that performance figure is low when compared to the processing power of a modern desktop computer, the research suggests that larger smartphone clusters could be useful.  The system would be most powerful when there are large groups of phones charging at the same time.  "The more people show up, the more computer power you potentially have available," says University of Bristol researcher Simon McIntosh-Smith.  A business model could be developed to provide incentives for users to join, such as receiving subsidized phones for users who contribute time to the cluster, says Braunschweig researcher Felix Busching.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528803.800-harness-unused-smartphone-power-for-a-computing-boost.html

A Peace Corps for Civic-Minded Geeks

Wall Street Journal
(08/26/12) Holly Finn

The new nonprofit Code for America (CfA), a kind of peace corps for geeks, has led the way in bringing online efficiency to offline government systems, handpicking a team of tech stars each year to take time off from their jobs and offer their services to local governments. CfA fellows have designed more than 35 apps, for everything from urban blight to school buses, and the group also runs an Accelerator program for civic startups. It took two CfA fellows just two and a half months to complete one government project that was expected to take two years and cost $2 million. CfA puts its fellows in a warehouse in San Francisco, where they bond with each other. "Coding sprints, design sprints, they're with us," says CfA executive director Jennifer Pahlka. The CfA fellows act more like a stealth team of computer-savvy SEALs when they fan out to do five-week research residences within city governments across the country. There are 26 fellows in eight cities this year, while 550 people have applied for 25 to 30 spots next year.

View Full Article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444270404577605622944527722.html

National Campaign Launched to Recruit Fellows to Understand How Software Can Help Research

University of Southampton (United Kingdom) (08/23/12)

The United Kingdom's Software Sustainability Institute recently started recruiting researchers to take part in its new Fellows program to develop a better understanding of the way that software is used in research. The Software Sustainability Institute is a team of experts from the universities of Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford, and Southampton who are committed to cultivating world-class research through software. The institute team is seeking about 15 new Fellows who are based in a wide range of research areas that rely on software in science, technology, digital humanities, engineering, and social sciences. "The Software Sustainability Institute was set up in 2010 to help researchers use and develop software that is reliable, well engineered, and can be re-used by different disciplines in and outside their research programs," says the institute's Simon Hettrick. The launch event, which takes place on Sept. 10, will be an opportunity for prospective applicants to learn more about the Fellow program, network with similar-minded researchers, meet people from the institute, and learn how software can better influence research.

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2012/aug/12_146.shtml

Doing something logical: Android Tutorial Doing something logical: Android Tutorial

http://goo.gl/fb/xD6De

The Wild World of Wearable Computers

Network World
(08/20/12) Julie Sartain

The technology associated with wearable computers is growing quickly and could become a priority in the near future. Altimeter Group analysts call this phenomenon the sentient world, because it has to do with machines thinking and communicating with humans instead of just taking instructions. "Our research around this sentient world has more to do with the fact that machines and environments will begin to learn over time instead of simply anticipating our commands or making our commands easier to input," says Altimeter Group analyst Chris Silva. He says in the next 18 months there will be more mass-marketing applications for multiple sensors that will exploit people's omnipresent connection computers. "The eyeglasses are really cool, but they're just too far out there for a lot of people to grab any time soon," says Forrester analyst Frank Gillette. In order to realize the full potential of wearable computing, companies needs to consider the ergonomics, performance, reliability, flexibility, and manageability of the overall solution, says Motorola's Darren Koffer. For example, Belgian researchers recently presented an energy-harvesting technology that uses thermoelectric elements integrated into textiles to produce enough energy to power body sensors such as a heart rate monitor, a pulse oxymeter, or a watch.

View Full Article
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/082012-wearable-computers-261509.html?t51hb

Integrated web apps in ubuntu 12.10

At first this might seem little more than the ability to open a dedicated web browser window with a web app — it’s much more than that. The Ubuntu WebApps is a new API that allows web applications to tightly integrate with Unity and make use of various features. The web-based applications can take advantage of the notification system, the HUD, the Launcher, and more. This means that, for example, when you have, say, a Google Docs file open, the Google Docs menu system will be directly accessible via the HUD (Head Up Display). Users will also have automatic integration between Google docs and the notification system (no more installing a third-party software). There is already an impressive list of sites that support the API: News Sites: BBC News (bbc.co.uk/news) CNN News (edition.cnn.co m) Yahoo! News (news.yahoo.com/) Google News (news.google.co m) Yandex News (news.yandex.ru) Google Reader (google.com/reader) Reddit (reddit.com) Mail services: GMail (mail.google.co m) Yahoo! Mail (mail.yahoo.com) Yandex Mail (mail.yandex.ru) QQ Mail (mail.qq.com) Windows Live Mail (login.live.com) Mail RU (mail.ru) Social Networks: Facebook (facebook.com) Twitter (twitter.com) Google+ (plus.google.co m) VK.com (vk.com) LinkedIn (linkedin.com) YouTube (youtube.com) Tumblr (tumblr.com) Games: Cut the Rope (cuttherope.ie) Angry Birds (chrome.angrybi rds.com) Lord of Ultima (lordofultima.c om) Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances (alliances.comm andandconquer. com) Office Apps: Google Docs (docs.google.co m) Google Calendar (google.com/calendar) Misc Launchpad (launchpad.net) WordPress.com (wordpress.com) Amazon (amazon.com) Amazon Cloud reader (read.amazon.co m) Subway IRC For any developer that wishes to add their site to the list, go to the Ubuntu Web Apps API Documentation to get started.

Installing App Inventor. Setup Software for GNU/Linux

You'll need sudo privileges to do the installation.

For systems that can install Debian packages
Use these instructions for systems that can install Debian packages (e.g., Debian or Ubuntu):

Download the Appinventor Setup installer Debian package . This is a file named appinventor-setup_1.1_all.deb (about 86 Megabytes). It is a Debian package installer file. The place it will end up on your computer depends on how your browser is configured. Typically, it will go into your Downloads folder.
If your system can install packages simply by clicking on the package file, then do that.
If your system doesn't support clickable package installers, then navigate to the directory where the file is located and run the command

sudo dpkg --install appinventor-setup_1.1_all.deb

With either method, you might need to ensure that the deb file as well as the directory it's in are world readable and world executable. On some systems, sudo does not have default privileges to read and execute all files.
The software will be installed under /usr/google/appinventor-setup.
You'll also need to configure your system to detect your device.
Linux Setup - App Inventor for Android
//TODO add explanation on how to install the sdk of android

Application builder App inventor

What is App Inventor - App Inventor for Android

Application android simple

Découvrez "Open Source Lebanese Movement"

Le stylet, l'arme fatale de Samsung pour détrôner l'iPad

INTERNET - C'est un front de plus dans la "guerre" que se livrent les concurrents d'Apple pour tenter de détrôner l'iPad. Samsung a lancé mercredi 15 août en grande pompe, sur le marché américain, une nouvelle tablette tactile qui fonctionne sous le système d'exploitation de Google, Android. Le Galaxy Note 10.1 est doté d'un stylet baptisé "S Pen", sa véritable innovation majeure. L'appareil est déjà commercialisé depuis la semaine dernière dans quelques pays dont l'Allemagne, mais il sera commercialisé aux Etats-Unis à partir de jeudi. 
Le "S Pen" peut remplacer une souris ou être utilisé comme un stylo. L'appareil est en fait sensible à la pression exercée, ce qui lui permet de ne tenir compte que du stylo et pas du doigt qui appuie sur l'écran quand on écrit. "Pour la première fois, écrire à la main sur une tablette a du sens", a souligné un responsable de Samsung, Travis Merrill.
La tablette peut aussi transformer l'écriture manuelle en caractères d'imprimerie et corriger des schémas. Samsung a mis en avant l'intérêt de cette fonctionnalité pour les étudiants, par exemple. Elle permet aussi d'utiliser plusieurs applications en même temps, en divisant l'écran en plusieurs fenêtres.

Un défi d'envergure pour Samsung

Avec cette nouvelle tablette, Samsung va tenter de surpasser Apple. Le géant sud-coréen est le premier concurrent de la marque à la pomme sur ce marché, mais bien loin derrière avec seulement 2,4 millions d'unités vendues au deuxième trimestre. Sur 25 millions de tablettes vendues au deuxième trimestre dans le monde, 17 millions étaient des iPad, selon des données de l'institut IDC.
Les tablettes sont présentées comme le futur moteur de croissance du marché informatique. Selon une enquête publiée début juillet par le cabinet NPD, elles devraient supplanter les ordinateurs portables d'ici à 2016.

Source : FTVi avec AFP

JavaOne San Francisco, Sept 30-Oct 4. Over 400 technical sessions and networking with the stars of the Java world. New this year: Sunday keynotes and the Oracle Music Festival. The content catalog is live, so start planning for an unforgettable week of Java technology, Java community, and fun. Java Embedded @ JavaOne San Francisco, Sept 30-Oct 4. A new conference for C-level executives, architects, business leaders, and decision makers. Learn firsthand how Java-embedded solutions are being applied to a wide spectrum of business verticals. Silicon Valley Code Camp Los Altos Hills, CA, Oct 6-7. Right after JavaOne, by and for the developer community, over 100 sessions, free. jTechDay Chennai, India, Sep 15. A free day to explore different aspects of Java technology from Java language to Java devices. Sponsored by JUGChennai. J-Fall Nijkerk, Netherlands, Oct 31. A fine Java conference in the heart of Holland. Free for NLJUG members, a great reason to start or renew your membership. QCon San Francisco, Nov 7-9. QCon is a tech conference designed for team leads, architects and project managers. Early Bird discount expires August 24th. OTN members receive an additional $100 discount. Details on the OTN Member Discount page. Devoxx Antwerp, Belgium, Nov 12-16. A premier tech event in Europe, for Java and other technologies. Registration is open. jDays Gothenburg, Sweden, Dec 3-5. jDays, a dynamic Java developer conference, comes to Gothenburg. In addition to conference and presentations, visitors can join any courses in Java and related technologies for free.

NetBeans IDE 7.2.

Released NetBeans IDE 7.2 promises a smarter and faster way to write bug-free code with new static code analysis in the Java Editor, enhanced project scanning, and improvements to support in JavaFX, Java EE, PHP, Groovy, and C/C++.

#Tablette #Samsung Note 10.1

Samsung lance la tablette Galaxy Note 10.1

Python Programming Language

Python is a programming language that lets you work more quickly and integrate your systems more effectively. You can learn to use Python and see almost immediate gains in productivity and lower maintenance costs.

Python runs on Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, and has been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines.

Python is free to use, even for commercial products, because of its OSI-approved open source license.

Here are some links to documentations

Browse Python 3.2.3 Documentation - (Module Index)

• What's new in Python 3.2
• Tutorial
• Library Reference
• Language Reference
• Extending and Embedding
• Python/C API
• Using Python
• Python HOWTOs

and 

• Beginner's Guide to Python
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to Packaging (creating and distributing Python packages)
• Quick Reference Guide (off-site)
• New-style classes (aka descrintro)
• Python Periodicals
• Guido's essays and presentations
• Non-English documents