Addressing a packed auditorium at Austin?s South by Southwest festival last March, Bre Pettis, keynote speaker and co-founder of MakerBot, one of the leaders in desktop 3-D printers, described the increased interest and affordability of his company?s product as heralding the ?the next Industrial Revolution.?
"Revolution" is often used even when the result doesn't match the definition ? a complete change from the way things were before. Add "Industrial," and the comparison implies not just a change in manufacturing, but society as well, from improved living standards to changes in social class structure. Whether ? and how ? desktop 3-D printing can bring such changes is much debated, and remains to be seen.
Thanks to companies such as MakerBot, the bulk, expense and technical inefficiency that kept the 30-year-old technology known as Additive Manufacturing ? or 3-D printing ? confined to major laboratories and factories, is a thing of the past. Now, for less than $3,000, anyone with basic computer skills and an interest in learning more can download and personalize or create a computer-assisted design (CAD) that a printer will fabricate, layer by layer of filament.
Pettis is not the first to make the ?next Industrial Revolution? comparison. For some within the maker community ? subculture of tech-based do-it-yourself-ers ? the increased accessibility of 3-D printer technology means "the end of consumerism.? Conversely, tech analysis firms Gartner predicts that 3-D printing could create opportunities for new product lines created in-house by local retailers. And Daniel Suarez, who spent a decade developing logistics and production planning software for major multinational corporations (and is also a best-selling novelist who writes about near-future technologies) predicts that "3-D printing will be a disruptive economic force in the next two decades ? but I also think this disruption will benefit average Americans by causing a resurgence in local manufacturing."
Fervor over 3-D printing?s potential has only increased since SXSW, when Pettis introduced a prototype for the MakerBot Digitizer, which will scan small objects with the end goal of 3-D fabrication. He illustrated the Digitizer?s potential with a projection of a garden gnome, scanned to create ? another garden gnome.
For those who don?t so much see an endless supply of home-printed garden gnomes as ?revolution,? so much as a shot at getting on A&E?s ?Hoarders,? there?s Cody Wilson, the notorious public face of Defense Distributed. Wilson is a University of Texas law student recently licensed to manufacture guns by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In March, Defense Distributed, much to the consternation of gun control advocates, printed the plastic lower receiver for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle ? the portion of a firearm that carries the serial number ? which that can fire more than 600 rounds.
Scary, legal and ? as Wilson points out ? a 3-D printed result that actually does something.
Wilson latched on to Pettis?s garden gnome to express his frustration with the maker community to make something more than geegaws during his riveting yet sparsely attended SXSW presentation about Defense Distributed and DefCAD, an open-source CAD design website he launched after MakerBot?s Thingiverse CAD site dumped all the gun designs from the site following the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn.
A cursory scan on Thingiverse finds a sea of files to create iPhone cases, and myriad holders and stands, but other than clock components, parts to complete a cigar box ukulele, and a theoretical design for a working camera, there isn?t a lot on the open source data base that does stuff.
Wilson is using the platform of 3-D printing to make a political statement about? and push the boundaries of ? liberty and the freedom to share information. ?I think this isn't a project about firearms, it?s a project about political equality,? Wilson recently told NBC?s Nightly News.
The potential Wilson sees for for 3-D printers isn't just about guns, but prosthetics and other medical devices, even drugs, putting the means of production in the hands of the people.
Pettis and Wilson are often portrayed as polar opposites in the 3-D printer movement, but they both face the inevitable roadblock of all new digital technology ? intellectual copyright law.
"When it comes to 3-D printers, groups producing tools, weapons, and reproducing patented or copyrighted objects will be where all the debate and legal fireworks will occur," Suarez told NBC News.
"Sure, a copyright holder might get upset when individuals reproduce their trademarked cartoon character as little plastic tchotchkes, but I suspect this will follow the same path as digital music and torrented video ? namely, there will be several high profile legal cases against perceived infringers until big companies realize technological advances have made this an unstoppable tide."
And so begins the revolution.
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her she doesn't know what she's talking about on Twitter and/or Facebook.
A recent survey conducted by a Pentagon Inspector General has resulted in the fact that the smartphones and tablet present in the US Army are not configured to remotely wipe and protect sensitive data. An individual is responsible for his/her phone data, but recent checks have revealed that the data security on these devices is poor and inconsistent.
image source ECI
At West Point Military Academy, New York, a total of 15 out of the 48 inspected mobile phones did not even have passwords to protect the phone. One would expect them to have passwords on their phones, but the lack of security has proven a bit of a shock. Additionally, Assistant Inspector General Alice Carey warned that if mobile devices remain insecure, there could be a possibility of malicious activities that could result in the disruption of Army networks and sensitive defense data may get compromised.
The spot checks have also resulted in another finding: that the Army?s Chief Information Officer (CIO) has not yet setup the necessary tracking of the non-Blackberry devices that the soldiers use. It was found that over 14,000 devices (cellphones and tablets included) were being used without obtaining appropriate authorization from the CIO.
It was not that long ago that the military caught soldier Bradley Manning, a data destruction expert, who used his mobile device as a removable storage media to transfer innumerable military and government files and give them away to Wikileaks.
The recent spot checks revealed some soldiers were using their devices as removable media, and this has concerned the authorities a bit. This recent survey by the Inspector General is proof of the fact that even though mobile technologies are changing daily, the security in the US Army isn?t.
The US army has been the most active in terms of embracing newer mobile technologies. The US military as a whole, has also been trying to make a major push in the mobile market. Not only does the Army have an app store in beta, it reconfigured its next-gen dismounted communications system around smartphones. Now, however, the Army is learning that relatively early device adoption is no substitute for protecting the information it?s increasingly keeping on phones and tablets.
Sometime in the past few days, the longstanding rumors around the arrival of a Facebook Phone seemed to deflate. It wouldn?t so much be a piece of original hardware, reminiscent of how Amazon charged into the gadget category with the Kindle, but just an Android phone, manufactured by HTC, that happened to start users off with the Facebook app instead of the more familiar array of app icons.
This scenario was basically confirmed by today?s official announcement from Mark Zuckerberg and his lieutenants. Called Facebook Home, it?s a launch option that?s a modified and snazzier iteration of the existing Facebook app, one that the social network hopes to make available across as many devices as it can.
The starting-point interface is supervisual, drawing on photos from your Facebook News Feed. Also, the principle functionality selling point involves an unfortunately named ?Chat Heads? feature that makes it possible to communicate with friends without leaving Home (as it were). But the upshot is a kind of Facebook layer built over the Android operating system: When you turn your phone on, the first thing you see is content drawn from your Facebook News Feed. You can maneuver away from this, but it?s clearly designed to keep you within Facebook-land as long as possible.
The HTC phone that?s preloaded with Facebook Home will sell for $99.99. A version that works with a number of other Android phones will be available for download on April 12. (There will be no iPhone version for now.)
All of this sounds like much ado about circumventing the single screen-touch that it currently takes to access Facebook?s existing app. But the idea at the core of the non-Facebook-Phone Facebook phone is to exploit the awesome power of ?default.?
?Default? isn?t a particularly sexy concept in an era supposedly defined by infinite digital choice and customization. Nevertheless, for many people, the (default) Web browser already installed on a new laptop and the (default) home page it goes to every time it?s opened proved just fine. For such users, it?s sort of the equivalent of going to the nearest grocery store: good enough. If certain physical world businesses depend on location, location, location, a powerful strategy in the digital world is often default, default, default.
A phone that defaults to the latest from Facebook?s News Feed ?out of the box,? as they say, wouldn?t appeal to me personally, because I?m not a particularly heavy Facebook user. But it wouldn?t surprise me if a substantial number of people would have no problem with that scenario at all. One study reportedly concluded that Facebook users who access the social network through mobile devices check in there about 14 times a day. If that?s anywhere close to true, then there are plenty of people who already think of that object they?re toting around as their ?Facebook phone??which they can also use to play games or get directions from time to time.
And what?s good enough for them is potentially great for Facebook in its quest to soak up as much user time and data as possible. So the rumored Facebook Phone may not be an actual Facebook Phone, but for the social network?s business purposes, what?s not to like?
A billboard for the Women' sWall of Honour project features three men (womenswallofhonour.ca)A Canadian university has launched a campaign to honor women. But there?s one small problem: A billboard advertising the Women?s Wall of Honour project features only men.
The project will be a physical structure built on the Mount Saint Vincent University campus in Halifax. Its organizers call it ?the only one of its kind in Canada" and say its "home will be Canada?s leading university primarily focused on the advancement of women.?
Additionally, a description of the project on the Mount Saint Vincent University website explains that financial donors will have the opportunity to honor a woman of their choice by having their names included on a panel used in construction of the project?s site.
So, why is its first major advertisement showcasing men? The Chronicle Herald, which broke the news of the billboard?a photo of it taken by Herald photographer Ryan Taplin has been making the rounds on social media sites like Twitter?explained that it "features Paul Kent, the president and chief executive officer of the Greater Halifax Partnership, former provincial Liberal leader Danny Graham and Rob Batherson, the senior vice-president of public affairs at Colour, an advertising and communications company. Each of the men has donated to the university.?
Mount Saint Vincent University spokesman Ben Boudreau told the paper, ?I don?t know that we were really shooting for juxtaposition there, to be honest with you. It was just about reaching a different audience."
The disconnect doesn't appear just on the billboard. The project?s website also prominently features Kent, Graham and Batherson on the top left corner of the page, while a corresponding photo of three women is featured lower and to the right of the page.
However, a page for the project on the Mount Saint Vincent University website is more focused on actual women, as is the group?s Facebook page.
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, members of the 374th Airlift Wing of U.S. Air Force work on a C-130 aircraft during the Cope North military exercises at Andersen U.S. Air Force Base in Guam. There soon will be another military element to life on the U.S. territory _ a defense system will be installed to shoot down incoming missiles and warheads. Its deployment comes amid intensifying threats from North Korea, which recently listed Guam among its targets for a nuclear attack on the United States. (AP Photo/Koji Ueda, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, members of the 374th Airlift Wing of U.S. Air Force work on a C-130 aircraft during the Cope North military exercises at Andersen U.S. Air Force Base in Guam. There soon will be another military element to life on the U.S. territory _ a defense system will be installed to shoot down incoming missiles and warheads. Its deployment comes amid intensifying threats from North Korea, which recently listed Guam among its targets for a nuclear attack on the United States. (AP Photo/Koji Ueda, File)
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) ? C.J. Urquico has lived on Guam for 19 years so he's used to a military backdrop to everyday life. Navy ships visit, Air Force jets fly overhead and war games are played off the Pacific island's shores.
There soon will be another military element in this U.S. territory ? a defense system will be installed to shoot down incoming missiles and warheads. Its deployment comes amid intensifying threats from North Korea, which recently listed Guam among its targets for a nuclear attack on the United States.
That Guam is a named player in a nuclear showdown is striking for an island known for its slow pace and laid-back attitudes.
"The worst thing that can happen is we allow it to terrorize us," said Urquico, a 36-year-old creative director for a telecommunications company. And while "there's no real sinister feeling in the air," he added: "People are definitely paying attention. I mean, how many times do we ever trend on Twitter?"
The remote tropical island is no stranger to international conflict: the island's waters are a graveyard for rusting tanks from World War II and the oldest residents remember living under Japanese occupation. But residents say North Korea's threat isn't even attracting as much concern as a seasonal typhoon.
"Our sales have been pretty steady," said Michael Benito, general manager at Payless Supermarket in Tamuning on the west side of the island, explaining that there hasn't been a rush to buy canned goods like Spam and corned beef. "There hasn't been any bump in sales."
Benito says most people on Guam are generally prepared for disasters given the region's frequent storms, and are well-equipped with flashlights and other necessities.
"Fortunately everybody has concrete homes here so we're sort of a bunker already," joked Leonard Calvo, vice president of Calvo Enterprises, a firm that invests in insurance, real estate, media and retail as well as other businesses in Guam and other islands.
The businessman from Maite says North Korea's threats have been the topic of conversations at recent family barbecues, but most people are still skeptical of what North Korea can do.
"I think this guy from North Korea is just puffing out his chest," Calvo said. "A lot of people are numb to it."
Social media is abuzz with memes mimicking North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, with one joking that he is worried about "Guam bombs," a popular term for beat-up used cars on Guam.
But others aren't taking the talk lightly. Large headlines about the threats have flashed across the island's main news website for the past week and some residents are brainstorming plans in case the worst case scenario comes true.
Thomas Perez, an 18-year-old student at Guam High School, says he already has picked out a place to barricade himself in case the attack occurs.
"I could probably get there in 15 minutes," he said, adding that he's worried about the effects of nuclear fallout.
Perez isn't the only one thinking about emergency shelter; Guam Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo says the government is providing information to help residents prepare in case of an attack, including guidance for where to hide if radiation is in the air.
Calvo says an attack is unlikely and he has advised the public to go on with their daily lives. But he also says no one can be 100 percent sure of safety.
"As a governor and a father and a husband and a grandfather, I do have some concerns because of the proximity of Guam to North Korea," he said. "We are about a three hour flight away. That's about half the distance from Guam to Hawaii."
Several Guam residents say that they're confident that the missile defense system has what it takes to stop any offense North Korea may launch.
The system on its way to the island is part of a "layered" defense giving the military multiple opportunities to shoot down incoming missiles and warheads before they reach their targets. It's specifically designed to shoot down missiles during their final stage of flight, and is expected to arrive on Guam within the next few weeks.
Even if nothing more happens, for some residents the international attention is significant in itself. University of Guam President Robert Underwood says the threat is an opportunity for students and educators to discuss Guam's role in global military strategy.
Urquico says it's a geography lesson, at least.
"I've never heard anyone make a direct threat to Guam," he said. "My response was: 'Wow, they can find Guam on the map? Most Americans can't.'"
___
AP writers Anita Hofschneider, Oskar Garcia and Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report from Honolulu.
NSF award recognizes IUPUI professor for work to enhance machine learning applicationsPublic release date: 4-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Hosick dhosick@iupiu.edu 317-274-4585 Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Science
Computer science research could improve bio-detection, medical monitoring
(INDIANAPOLIS) A computer science professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has earned the prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to research ways to help computers actively adjust models and classify new data by enhancing machine learning technology.
Murat Dundar, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science, becomes the fourth faculty member in the School of Science at IUPUI actively working under an NSF CAREER Award. The award is the most prestigious honor given by the NSF in support of faculty members early in their careers who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and integration of education and research
Dundar will use the five-year, $500,000 award to continue to test theories related to machine learning, which traditionally is limited by the number of parameters or criteria a computer uses to classify data. In other words, a computer can only classify data (test results, biological samples, keyword indicators, for example) based on the training data set established at the beginning of an analysis. This oftentimes leads to misclassifications of data.
Dundar says this traditional method may not be accurate when you account for the continually evolving nature of data sets in many real-life situations.
His theory explores ways to refine how a computer actively and continually updates and adapts to the information it is collecting, thereby creating a more exhaustive set of categories by which to classify data. In essence, the computer is able to teach itself to recognize changes in the data and adjust accordingly.
"This new approach will let the data speak for itself in determining how many classes a computer can use," said Dundar, who specializes in machine learning and artificial intelligence applications in a biological or medical context.
Dundar, who earned his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, has several ongoing research projects encompassing areas such as computer-aided diagnosis and detection and bio-detection technology.
This new direction in machine learning will be applied to some of his current work, including research to determine new bacteria subclasses, mineral diversity on Mars and how to create a better method of sorting and classifying large collections of documents or records. His research has been supported by agencies such as the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The CAREER Award grant also includes an element of outreach associated with Dundar's research. He intends to organize a summer camp for K-12 students to introduce them to fundamental concepts in computer science and data mining and mentor student teams to compete in regional science fairs. He also hopes to organize a workshop on self-adjusting classification models at a premier machine learning conference.
###
Other School of Science faculty members conducting research under an NSF CAREER Award include Yogesh Joglekar, physics; Mohammad Al Hasan, computer science; and Greg Druschel, earth sciences.
About the School of Science at IUPUI
The School of Science is committed to excellence in teaching, research and service in the biological, physical, behavioral and mathematical sciences. The School is dedicated to being a leading resource for interdisciplinary research and science education in support of Indiana's effort to expand and diversify its economy. For more information, visit http://www.science.iupui.edu
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NSF award recognizes IUPUI professor for work to enhance machine learning applicationsPublic release date: 4-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David Hosick dhosick@iupiu.edu 317-274-4585 Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Science
Computer science research could improve bio-detection, medical monitoring
(INDIANAPOLIS) A computer science professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has earned the prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to research ways to help computers actively adjust models and classify new data by enhancing machine learning technology.
Murat Dundar, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science, becomes the fourth faculty member in the School of Science at IUPUI actively working under an NSF CAREER Award. The award is the most prestigious honor given by the NSF in support of faculty members early in their careers who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and integration of education and research
Dundar will use the five-year, $500,000 award to continue to test theories related to machine learning, which traditionally is limited by the number of parameters or criteria a computer uses to classify data. In other words, a computer can only classify data (test results, biological samples, keyword indicators, for example) based on the training data set established at the beginning of an analysis. This oftentimes leads to misclassifications of data.
Dundar says this traditional method may not be accurate when you account for the continually evolving nature of data sets in many real-life situations.
His theory explores ways to refine how a computer actively and continually updates and adapts to the information it is collecting, thereby creating a more exhaustive set of categories by which to classify data. In essence, the computer is able to teach itself to recognize changes in the data and adjust accordingly.
"This new approach will let the data speak for itself in determining how many classes a computer can use," said Dundar, who specializes in machine learning and artificial intelligence applications in a biological or medical context.
Dundar, who earned his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, has several ongoing research projects encompassing areas such as computer-aided diagnosis and detection and bio-detection technology.
This new direction in machine learning will be applied to some of his current work, including research to determine new bacteria subclasses, mineral diversity on Mars and how to create a better method of sorting and classifying large collections of documents or records. His research has been supported by agencies such as the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The CAREER Award grant also includes an element of outreach associated with Dundar's research. He intends to organize a summer camp for K-12 students to introduce them to fundamental concepts in computer science and data mining and mentor student teams to compete in regional science fairs. He also hopes to organize a workshop on self-adjusting classification models at a premier machine learning conference.
###
Other School of Science faculty members conducting research under an NSF CAREER Award include Yogesh Joglekar, physics; Mohammad Al Hasan, computer science; and Greg Druschel, earth sciences.
About the School of Science at IUPUI
The School of Science is committed to excellence in teaching, research and service in the biological, physical, behavioral and mathematical sciences. The School is dedicated to being a leading resource for interdisciplinary research and science education in support of Indiana's effort to expand and diversify its economy. For more information, visit http://www.science.iupui.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.