July 2011 Archives

Picture the scene. Indoors on a cold winter's night, hot cocoa in hand, warming your feet by a roaring...server.

A Microsoft research report, titled 'The Data Furnace', has proposed cloud computing servers could be sent to homes and office buildings to be used as a "primary heat source".

Downtime has heard a lot of hype but is Microsoft is pushing the limits on cloud computing hot air?

"Cloud computing is hot, literally," says the report.

Connotations of report title The Data Furnace may fail to completely quell data security concerns but, nevertheless, an in-house server could go a long way to familiarise businesses with components of cloud computing.   
 
Perhaps the next phase of the project could be giving out iPads as cushions to make companies more comfortable supporting new mobile technologies?

While the White House engages in a game of brinkmanship with US Republicans over the future of the US - and effectively the world - economy and its ever-growing national debt, they do at least still have time for providing some light relief.

In response to a complaint that its daily briefing was less than enthralling, the White House tweeted through its @whitehouse Twitter feed to say, "Sorry to hear that. Fiscal policy is important, but can be dry sometimes. Here's something more fun:"  adding this URL, and duly "Rick-rolled" the bored correspondent - with a link to Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up on YouTube.

For the uninitiated, Rick-rolling is an internet phenomenon where people appear to link to something interesting, useful or pertinent, but instead send them to Rick singing his 1987 UK number one smash hit.

When the world economy goes down the plug-hole as a result of US politicans being unable to agree on a deal to avoid defaulting on their national debt, we can all console ourselves by singing a few verses: "Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie, or hurt you..."

London has been celebrating the milestone of a year to go to the start of the 2012 Olympic Games, and as such, current and former athletes are focusing on their top priorities.

To prove the point, Roger Black, the British Olympic 400m silver medallist in the Atlanta Games in 1996, has had a busy week. On the one year to go anniversary, he took part in the first race in the new swimming pool in the Aquatic Centre in London's Olympic Park.

But that wasn't enough for him. Eager for more excitement and to take his pre-Olympic preparations to another level, the next day he visited Computer Weekly, to deliver our team with lots of Olympic goodies and, more importantly, doughnuts.

 

 

Black is an ambassador for Cisco, the official networking partner of the 2012 Olympics, who had a bit of a hand in bringing him to CW Towers, but let's face it - he didn't need much convincing.

So, lucky reader, feel the privilege of being part of our elite Olympian audience.

Not only are small businesses looking to Skype to cut call costs, but NHS trusts are touting virtual hospital visits to cut costs.

The scheme is being proposed by Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to save on travel allowances for relatives visiting mental health patients due for relocation from Ascot, Maidenhead and Slough to Reading, according to reports.

Instead of travelling to the hospital for bedside visits, the trust is urging relatives who qualify for travel expenses to consider speaking to relatives via Skype as part of efforts to save £4m a year.

Unsurprisingly, the proposals have not been warmly received by mental health charities, which say people who work with computers forget that there is a community out there with people who may not have access to them, but Downtime suspects that a lack of familiarity with Skype and how to use it is likely to be an even bigger stumbling block.

Facebook has lashed out over competition from Google+ by shutting down all ad campaigns by web developer Michael Johnson who ran a Facebook ad asking people to add him to their Circles on rival social networking site Google+.

The ad simply said: "If you're lucky enough to have a Google+ account, add Michael Lee Johnson, Internet Geek, App Developer, Technological Virtuoso."

Facebook was not amused and not only removed the offending ad, but also banned him from running ads on the social network altogether.

"LOL: I recently ran a Google+ advertisement on Facebook that got all of my campaigns suspended. - Great," said Johnson in a Google+ post.

The only explanation he received from Facebook was the following message:

Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions.

If anyone is still in any doubt that Facebook does not like competition, they just have to look at Facebook's advertising guidelines, which state:

We may refuse ads at any time for any reason, including our determination that they promote competing products or services or negatively affect our business or relationship with our users.

Facebook users, you have been warned. If you are looking to make connections with people on Google+, do not mention the fact on Facebook.

They may be finishing at the tail end of races, if they finish at all, but Formula 1 team, Virgin Racing is pretty quick of the start line...at least its website is according to Keynote.The Internet and mobile cloud monitoring company measured the performance of Formula 1 team home pages, duirng the British GP. And while it certainly wasn't the fastest car out of the paddocks, Virgin Racing achieved pole position with web site availability and download speed...maybe that's because no one was actually looking at the Virgin Racing website.

Hot on the heels - pardon the pun - of a positive Bluetooth experience with Sony's Bluray remote control for the PS3, Downtime has discovered another inspired Bluetooth device.

Whether it is watching a Bluray movie, or the footie, the iGrill for Apple mobiles combines the traditional food thermometer with Bluetooth technology to enable hassle free cooking.

The device, which was featured at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year is designed to enable users to cook meat to the correct temperature, but the only time they need to check it is when the device alerts them by sounding an alarm on the user's iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.

Not only does the iGrill notify users of when the meat is done, the app will also provide updates with a countdown on the progress of one or several pieces of meat in the oven or under the grill.

There may not be anything new under the sun, but this gizmo certainly brings an interesting and useful variation to a tried and tested cooking technique that requires far too much time and attention for anyone with a busy modern lifestyle.

 

Video: iGrill at CES 2011

A bloke in Paris called Marco has become the second man in history to have a QR code tattoo. We've been reliably informed that the first QR man was, in fact, English (http://2d-code.co.uk/qr-code-tattoo/). But this one links to Facebook. It's part of a marketing gimmick from Ballantine's Whisky, where Facebook users can vote for their favourite tattoo and the QR code is then scanned up by an iPhone app to display the most popular tattoo, as voted by all his mates.

 

 

The worst thing is...Downtime doesn't believe he owns an iPhone. Bet he feels like a nipple today.

Anyone who fancies themselves as a writer has for quite some time already been able to get published internationally in an instant using a raft of free online publishing tools.

Now, thanks to a collaboration between The Gregory Brothers and application development firm Khush, anyone with an iPone, iPad or iPod Touch can turn speech into song lyrics.

The app, called Songify, is free to download and comes with three song styles, but additional styles are available at a relatively nominal cost, with the business model obviously relying on volume.

Songify makes it easy to create parodies, jokes or personalised songs to share on social networks by recording speech with an iOS device.

The app uses patent-pending artificial intelligence and speech recognition technology to create a melody from the voice input, segment it into chorus and versus, align it with the beat and add pitch correction.

Users can listen to the song in a variety of styles, and once the song is saved, it can be shared on Facebook, Twitter or via email.

Downtime is always happy to see when technology is put to such good use.

 

Video: Demo of Songify from Khush