Koding Tech Select is back. We have another roundup of thought-provoking high-tech news for you. As usual, there are only news carefully selected by our specialists. Enjoy.
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Bye, when was the last time you wore a strapless bra? That kind of bra that seems to keep falling off? Exasperating for you because you always have to pick it up, but also for those around you because it never falls off. The problem was solved, thanks to Anthony Roy, a robotics engineer whose wife complained one day about her unstable bra. Anthony remembered the project of a robot that climbs walls thanks to legs inspired by the gecko lizard. What do lizards have in common with bras? Adhesion without any glue. The gecko is able to climb glass or almost any vertical surface, thanks to the Van der Waals force (in short, an attractive force between molecules), which sticks its fingers to anything, without being really sticky. The lizard manages to activate this force through the billions of hairs on its palm. Anthony Roy used a adhesive tape developed by Manchester University on the principle of the der Waals force, and created GeckTech, a film that sticks to human skin without any glue. From here it was only a step to the solution to the bra problem. The project turned into the first clothing line, and Roy's idea is already on the market. Kickstarter.
Keep the data generated by sensors, even if you don't know what it could be used for in the future. You will find out at some point. The prompt comes from Microsoft, which points to IOT section of the company's blog how the Internet of Things has already started to generate enormous amounts of data, but little of this information is being retained. The data cascading from devices and sensors might seem like too much and too little useful after the moment of measurement. They are actually extremely useful for outlining a context, for setting benchmarks, for discovering trends and behaviors. Sometimes we don't know what they will use this data for, but someday we will. A Keystone Strategy study shows that two-thirds of companies retain data generated through IOT technologies for less than a year.
Dis at Personal Compu
ter at Trendspotting Computer. That's what we call it, in fact the tool launched by IBM is called Watson Trend. It is a service that uses machine learning skills to discover the most loved and sought-after products of the shopping season. The computer extracts its data from the internet, from conversations on social networks, from blogs and product tests. The information is subjected to a so-called "sentiment analysis" to understand the mood generated by that product. IBM claims that Watson is able to discover whether a product will be a passing fad
or a durable one.
The first laser that cools liquids. For the first time, a team of researchers at the University of Washington has succeeded in using an infrared laser to to freeze a liquid. In short, atoms in a special crystal in water absorb laser photons and then release them at a higher energy level than the original. The crystal loses heat and the water it is immersed in freezes. The most obvious possible application is cooling microprocessors, but the ability to cool a small, well-defined portion opens up many other uses, from research in biology and anatomy to creating high-power industrial lasers that generate less waste heat. And, of course, the time will come when we will laser beer.
And an exceptional interview with Edward Snowden. obviously about data security, but without politics but only with technology. Some ideas: you can encrypt your phone conversations using Signal, a simple Android and iOS app. Encrypt your laptop's hard drive. Use strong passwords and a password manager so you don't have to remember them. Use browser plugins like HTTPS Everywhere because "on every page you land on, information about you is collected, intercepted, analyzed, and stored by governments and companies."„