Tech Brief
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On Tech Brief today: burying the iPhone, monetizing every chit chat and StarCraft made easy.
• We all know that everything we do online is recorded, analysed in giant databases and then used to sell us more stuff. pays off, the same thing might soon be happening with every conversation you have, no matter where.
"Called , this proof of concept platform translates casual remarks you make, say in a store, into valuable data that companies can use to understand how average people feel about their products."
• On the subject of privacy comes research from computer scientist Eric Smith who has looked at the ways iPhone apps expose your personal data by leaking unique ID codes. .
"a majority of iOS apps transmit user data back to their own servers. But because some store more info than others--and in some cases, in plaintext--it can be easily pieced together to reveal more about individual users than they bargained for."
• On the subject of the iPhone comes a report from about a strange ceremony on the Microsoft campus.
"Last month, a few hundred Microsoft Corp employees acted out their fantasy with a mock funeral for Apple Inc's iPhone at its Redmond, Washington campus. The bizarre gathering, which morphed into a spirited Michael Jackson Thriller dance routine, marked the completion of its Windows Phone 7 software, and showed how badly Microsoft wants to resurrect itself in the viciously competitive phone market."
Mr Rigby remains silent on whether the burial was in the plot next to that holding Windows Vista.
• Continuing on the theme of burying and recycling comes the Recompute computer. A green PC. So far, so what. But, , this one is greener than most. Its case is made from cardboard.
"Sure, the internals are standard off-the-shelf PC components, but from the outside Recompute looks like nothing we've ever seen, and that's really saying something for a desktop industry that's tried just about every look twice."
Sadly, all did not go well when Mr Miller put the machine through its paces.
"While pushing the plug into the Recompute's power supply we heard the distinct crackle of tearing velcro or loosening adhesive. Somehow the simple act of plugging the computer in seemed to be ripping the computer apart internally."
• On that theme of recycling and re-use comes startling work by the venerable StarCraft game much easier to play. Instead of having lots of buttons to press and an overwhelming number of choices to make he has turned it into something more appropriate to these busy, busy times.
"My system provides the user with a GUI containing 8 buttons and lets the AI take care of the rest of the complexity associated with normally playing StarCraft. In the fully realized system, EISBot, the AI decides which buttons need to be pressed."
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