A few days ago, visiting researches from the California Academy of Sciences discovered 300 new species on our very own shores. The diversity of life forms found ranged from inflatable sharks to “never before seen” slugs.
But what kind of tools do these scientists use? Obviously, they require standard diving gear, but they also have unique instruments that aid their quest in discovering new life forms.
Since recording data is essential, specialized notebooks filled with underwater paper are used. While most divers use slates to communicate and record, using paper allows for more data to be recorded without needing to constantly “wipe the slate clean”, so to say.
Other tools used to discover new life at unprecedented depths include surface marker buoys (aka safety sausages), LED lights and lift bags (pictured above) to send samples towards the surface. Furthermore, these underwater scientists also wear Datamasks, which are military grade masks that display real-time stats such as depth, dive time, tank pressure etc.
Let us all hope that the visiting researchers (as well as local scientists) find more unique life forms to renew our appreciation and awe for the diversity of our home, the Philippine islands.
Source/Photo Credit: California Academy of Sciences, Taragis
Globe Telecom recently introduced its latest cloud computing services to enterprise customers. Offered through its Globe Business unit, the company said that as cloud services are the next phase in communications, Globe is ready to provide Infrastructure as a Service to business customers whose telco needs continue to evolve.
(from L to R) Rowena Cristobal, Service Delivery Director of ASTI; Jocelyn Villame, Chief Finance Officer of ASTI; Kissinger Reyes, Sales and Marketing Head of ASTI; Anthony Lau, President of ASTI; Enrique Velasco, Managing Director of SANDZ; Jesus Romero, Head of Globe Business; JD Montelibano, Head of Product Development at Globe Business; Butch Velasquez, Product Development Manager at Globe Business; and Nino Obach, Business Development Head of SANDZ.
Globe Business has been providing a comprehensive range of ICT solutions relevant to the needs of various small, medium and large enterprises in the Philippines. This suite of solutions comprises fixed, data and mobile services, including managed services, and today Globe announces its venture into a series of cloud offers by introducing Globe Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
With IaaS, enterprises can have access to the latest technologies without the high costs of purchasing and maintaining hardware. As equipment that support operations are outsourced to a virtual environment, customers can get network access and solutions on-demand and pay only for what they use. Whether it is storage, back up, hardware, servers or network components, these resources can be provisioned fast and are highly-scalable suited to the specific needs of businesses. In addition, among the many advantages of IaaS are its relatively quick setup time and high availability.
Globe Business’ suite of IaaS solutions includes Backup as a Service, Storage as a Service and Compute as a Service. All these are hosted at the Globe Data Center (GDC), a highly-secure ISO-certified facility that manages the critical ICT resources and needs of enterprises requiring the highest level of availability, reliability and redundancy.
Globe’s first IaaS offering, Backup as a Service, was launched last June 16, 2011. The service allows users to backup and restore critical data to and from the GDC, using the best backup/restoration software offered in the market today.
Similarly, Compute as a Service will allow enterprises to acquire processing power without the high cost of purchasing additional servers. Server “instances” or virtual machines are available for customers to load with their choice of OS and applications.
Storage as a Service, on the other hand, will enable customers to upload and download data to and from an off-site or web-enabled data server, or a data repository for web-based applications.
Globe IaaS can be used in various enterprise-grade applications. For instance, IaaS can be employed to run large-scale operations such as that of a national election. Instead of purchasing physical servers then worrying about their subsequent disposal, the government can utilize the on-demand capability of cloud computing to manage and streamline their operations during the elections. IaaS offers users the convenience in maintaining servers and devices, with all the equipment maintained by certified engineers 24/7. Moreover, it provides a more cost-efficient alternative since customers only need to pay for their required service, for the duration of time that they require it.
According to Francisco J. Claravall, Head of Business Products and Services at Globe Business, “We are continuously expanding our solutions portfolio by offering the latest ICT innovations, such as Infrastructure as a Service, to our valued customers. Our goal is to keep enterprises abreast of new technologies and business solutions to help decision makers set future ICT directions for their organizations.”
“Globe remains steadfast in its commitment to provide superior customer experience as the solutions enabler and partner of the top corporations in the country,” said Jesus C. Romero, Head of Globe Business. “We bring in new services such as cloud computing to make sure that the enterprise market in the Philippines has access to the most advanced, relevant ICT solutions available in the market today,” he added.
Globe has partnered with respected industry leaders, SANDZ Philippines and Ayala Systems Technology, Inc. (ASTI), to bring Infrastructure as a Service to its enterprise customers.
ASTI President Anthony Lau said, “We are pleased to partner with Globe, whose visionary commitment to customer satisfaction has inspired a new era of utility model. With the broadest portfolio of technology solutions partners and expertise, ASTI can provide all the necessary pieces for a real cloud computing pay-per-use IaaS. I am very optimistic that it will help Globe maintain its lofty position as one of the telecom leaders in the country”.
SANDZ Philippines also shares the same sentiment. According to Managing Director Enrique Velasco, “We are delighted to enter into a strategic partnership with Globe for IaaS. Providing innovative cloud services to the local market has always been one of the key initiatives of the SANDZ Group of Companies. We aim to partner with no less than Globe Telecom, who has a solid reputation of providing quality ICT solutions and services to its customers.”
Most desktop rigs already consider being able to run Crysis 2 without major niggles an accomplishment in itself, but that’s apparently not enough for NVIDIA and Alienware. No, the duo needs to play the game in the most eye-popping way possible, by way of 1920×1080 resolutions, with “Ultra” settings and PC crippling high-res textures and DX11 Ultra updates. The Alienware M18x is able to handle all of this graphic intensity by using not one, but two NVIDIA GTX580M GPUs on board running on SLI (see a video demo below for proof). Users will also be able to enjoy the same desktop shaming performance on the smaller, M17x. We don’t know the local prices yet, or if the duo of machines will even grace our lovely shores, but you know what they say, if you have to ask…
Well color us surprised</sarcasm>. Notorious internet hacking collective Lulzsec, which claim have disbanded a few days ago have themselves been hacked by a rival group calling themselves the A-Team, and have been unveiled via a comprehensive list of names, email addresses and possible locations of those involved in some of the group’s hackingactivities in the same site that Lulzsec used when dumping data, namely pastebin. The timing of the unveiling sheds new light to Lulzsec’s abrupt departure from the hacking scene, which confirms rumours that the group was forced to go their separate ways because of rising pressure from both government agencies like the FBI and other hacking groups that doesn’t share Lulzsec’s view on hacking for the lulz. The data dump gives the A-Team’s motivation for unmasking, or in internet speak, doxing, the group, and gives hackers everywhere a piece of wisdom that’s always conveniently forgotten: “The internet by definition is not anonymous. Computers have to have attribution. If you trace something back far enough you can find its origins.”
If you haven’t heard, there’s a new Transformers movie out beginning today, and to commemorate the occasion Nokia is giving away 7 Nokia X7s to a group of 7 lucky people (that’s a lot of 7s). The contest mechanics are all in Nokia’s Facebook account, but if you’re too lazy to go in now, it involves a digital camera, you, 6 other people and a Transformer standee that’s scattered about in different Ayala cinemas in the metro namely Glorietta, Greenbelt, and Trinoma. Again, the winning group will get 7 awesome Nokia X7 phones. So, what are you waiting for? Go to Nokia’s FB page now and start with the snapping.
Learning how to play a guitar (a real one, mind) is a pain in the ass. Few of the population have the requisite hand-eye coordination needed to go beyond the requisite do-re-mi plucking. But what if there was a device that could teach you how to play a musical instrument by possessing your hand and showing you how it’s done? That’s the premise of PossessedHand, a project being developed jointly by the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Sony Computer Science Laboratories which electrically stimulates your muscles to move the fingers of your arm. Test subjects report that they’re able to sense the movement of their fingers and hands, even while their eyes were closed. The test subjects, of course, found the whole experience unsettling. “I felt like my body was hacked,” said one.
Aside from the obvious benefits to budding musicians, the device will one day be able to rehabilitate people who have suffered strokes or other injuries that has impaired muscle control. The ability of the device to produce finer motor movements is leaps and bounds over the crude electro therapy that currently exists today. We’ve embedded a video of a demonstration below.
First it was shirts, then shoes. Now, jewelry. The internet has definitely inspired our sense of fashion as well as many designers who take many iconic internet logos and symbols have turned them into fun and wearable pieces.
Inspired by Facebook and the new social habit of “liking,” French designer Lysander Follet from French studio Minigorille has created the iLike to adorn the necks of a limited few. It is a 30-piece pendant fully handmade out of silver 925 and made in Lyon, France. The pendant takes on the shape of the “Facebook Like” icon — which probably is the reason why throwing up a thumbs up sign became cool again.
This limited edition iLIKE Silver Pendant is available at selective shops around the world.
In the security world, there are two kinds of hackers – there’s the black hat hackers, or the bad dudes, then there’s white hat hackers, aka the good guys. White hat hackers basically do the same things that black hat hackers do, except they’re usually hired by corporations to legally break into their defenses to test it. It was under this particular premise that penetration testing firm Netragard was hired to pierce a company’s firewall. The job was a bit different than they were used to, because the client has specifically forbade against the use of social networks, telephones, and other social-engineering vectors as well as physical contact with the machines.
Never one to back away from a challenge, the guys at Netragard came up with an ingenious solution – they modified an off the shelf mouse with a custom micro-controller (which is essentially a small computer) that ran an attack code on whatever computer the device was plugged into. The firm then sent the mouse to an employee that they knew would use the mouse, under the guise of a promotional campaign. Long story short, Netragard was able to penetrate the firm’s firewall, and three days later, the malware contained on the mouse connected to a server controlled by Netragard.
Aside from giving network admins another layer of paranoia, this particular feat of network penetration should serve as a cautionary tale for many. Even the biggest firewalls and the best equipment isn’t a guarantee that you’ll never be penetrated if the guys on the ground start plugging in every foreign device that they happen upon in your network without being cleared first.
If you’re getting weary of typing on your iPad’s touchscreen, then perhaps you need this.
Meet the Genius LuxePad, a physical keyboard that is the perfect accessory for your iPad. It is stylishly leather bound and communicates via Bluetooth, with an astounding range of 30 feet.
The keys itself are quiet and ergonomic, due to its ultra thin scissor key structure. It also showcases custom made function keys to access specific features on your iPad, has its own power switch and can be recharged via USB.
The LuxePad has a suggested retail price of only Php 2,995.
For Metro Manila residents interested in Genius’ new products, you may visit the Genius Concept Store located at SM Megamall’s Cyberzone (Building B, 4th Floor).
Family therapist, Virgina Satir advises: We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.
That may seem a little much (then again, I think with how the world is coming to, we need to hug it out more often) and people may not be as “needy” for touch therapy as you are. Now, you never have to feel like you’re suffering from huglessness ever again.
A team from the University of Electro-Communications on Japan brings to you the Sense-Roid jacket. It uses pneumatic ‘muscles’ to simulate the pressure and sensations of a hug, a stroke, or a petting motion, as needed by the wearer.
Here’s another reason why you should NOT click on every single thing that pops on your wall: your account being used as an unwitting tool in spreading malware. Ah yes, malware writers and scammers are again targeting the naturally curious to deliver the newest Facebook scam: a video of a, ahem, well-endowed Italian actress, Marika Fruscio, suffering a wardrobe malfunction on TV. We’ve seen a number of remixes to the description of the scam, and while the name is different they all do the same thing, which is namely to spread an online survey to you and spam your friends’ and contacts with the same link, over and over. The payload may seem benign, but to be honest there’s no telling what the code contains – these people aren’t exactly following a strict code of moral ethics. So the lesson here is clear: stop clicking on every single thing you see on your feed, lest you appear as a gullible twit to all of your friends and contacts.
Lest everyone forgets, Asus doesn’t just make notebooks and tablets. Believe it or not, they’re also a prolific PC parts manufacturer, famed for their motherboards and videocards that usually cost more than your smartphone. That seems to be the case with the Asus ROG Matrix GTX 580, an absolutely massive beast of a videocard that can also double as a bludgeoning tool*. The Taiwanese firm took an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU and slapped a number of improvements and overclocking technologies on top of it to earn the Asus ROG badge. Things like on-the-fly OC, GPU tweak utility, 19-phase Super Alloy Power components and multicolored MATRIX LED load indicator make it one of the most overclockable cards on the market. Asus is making two variants of this monster: the MATRIX GTX 580 P /2DIS/1536MD5 that has an engine clock of 816MHz, and a MATRIX GTX 580 /2DIS/1536MD5 that runs at a slower 782MHz.
There’s cosplayers that buy a Naruto costume off the shelf and calls it a day. Then there’s cosplayers like Robert Rodgers, an artist and consume designer from Florida that create epic pieces that’s more art than costume. His latest work truly blows the minds of Mass Effect fans as he’s managed to painstakingly re-create Garrus Vakarian’s costume, complete with a total of 75 LED lights. The mouth of the Garrus mask he’s wearing moves when he speaks, and every detail in the armor is correct, down to the small, mini screen that’s in front of Garrus’ eye. He’s also recreated the way Garrus stands, which was no mean feat, as Turians (the species of Garrus) in the Mass Effect universe are digitigrades or beings that walk on their toes. Impressive stuff. Word is that he’s making more costumes for guys (and gals) who want some, but I think it’s safe to say that they won’t be cheap. Still, it won’t stop people from yelling “shut up and take my money” to him anytime soon, we guess.
iPad users finally have another app to watch out for: Skype on their iPad.
There is no announced official release date yet from either company, but iSpazio.net has leaked a video of the app’s prototype, which is rumored to be approved quite soon.
While some people might wonder why Skype is only releasing an app now, this is directly linked to the addition of a camera on the iPad 2.
According to Skype’s VP of Consumer and Product Design, Rick Osterloh, the app will have almost all of the same functions as compared to the PC version, although a few features (i.e. file sharing) will not be available.
Aside from that one bitching scene from the first movie Mummy, we don’t like deserts. It’s hot, there’s nothing there and sand tends to get everywhere. Markus Kayser sees it a bit differently, and when he looks at a desert, he doesn’t see a desolate landscape – instead he sees infinite raw materials for his Solar Sinter.
His little invention combines the power of sunlight and a 3D printer to create unique works of art using only what’s available in the harsh desert. The solar panels on the device keep it powered, while the focusing lens on top of the device provide enough heat to melt the silica in the sand to create glass. We’re still not entirely convinced that there’s no kind of witchcraft involved. You can follow this link to see the thing in action.
