New York Times: ”Over the next few years, American astronauts will be competing for a handful of slots on the International Space Station, flying there on Russian Soyuz capsules.”
Today, April 15, is normally called “Tax Day” in the United States; it’s the day when thousands of people across the nation stand in long, long lines outside their local post offices to mail their tax returns in at the absolute last minute. This year, though, the filing deadline is delayed until Monday the...
The so-called “uncanny valley” is a phenomenon associated with the development of life-like robotics and androids. The idea is that a poor approximation of a human or animal, something that is perhaps 20% realistic, is seen as a 20% likeness. A 50% realistic likeness is seen as better than 20%, but still a non-threatening...
Are you a Call Center worker who answers Customer Service phone calls? Do you hate your job because for your entire shift you never know who’s going to yell at you next? Don’t worry! The good people at IBM are working to bring Watson into the Customer Service arena, displacing you from your job. ...
This list of ways to circumvent the former Egyptian government’s gambit to block the internet was posted in multiple places a few weeks ago, but it’s still worth looking at it to make a few conclusions and store for future uses.
We’ve all done it: written that ill-conceived email / Facebook / Twitter post and hit SEND when we should have hit DELETE. That SEND button is a cruel master, in that once we send out an electronic message it’s gone, it’s “out there.”
For many years now, you’ve become accustomed to the notion that retailers track your purchases. “Did you bring your Duane Reade VIP Club Savings Card today?” the clerk will ask in automaton-like fashion in a gambit to see if they can link today’s purchases to your long-term client purchase profile. “If you want those...
According to a story in today’s New York Times, Congress is on the verge of canceling the Constellation program entirely and shifting NASA’s focus away from the lunar outpost. Instead, NASA is now mandated to build heavy-lift vehicles that will be focused on longer-term, longer-distance travel. At the same time, the Chinese government has...
In another example of the value of proper requirements analysis before any major project is undertaken, the Planetary Society has announced an initiative: the first human mission to an asteroid.
I wrote more than a year ago about the imminent development of having robots replace humans in management situations. Now, a story from the New York Times that explores this idea. The boss isn’t so much a robot, but is instead using robotic telepresence devices.