China Blocks acces to LinkIn

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/02/25/china.blocks.linedin.fastco/index.html

I found this link interesting because earlier in the semester, we read various articles talking about the democratization effect of the Internet. But this article eludes the the ideology that the Internet websites will have to conform to the government in order to ensure profitability.

Drought threatens Taiwan tech firms

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1871039.stm

This article is about severe drought that occurred in Hsinchu Science Based Industrial Park in 2002. It is interesting to read about the involvement of national air force to make rain and Hsinchu's mayor and science park officials taking part in a televised rain-making ceremony , at which pigs, ducks and chickens were sacrificed.

Debate over mobile phones and health continues

The article talks about an ongoing debate of whether cell phones have negative health impacts. researchers found that healthy research subjects had increased metabolism of glucose in brain regions closest to the cell phone antenna. Whether or not this brain activity is harmful is yet to be seen.

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,62206987,00.htm

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2011/02/18/sosa.clicked.in.tech.education.cnn

This link discusses how textbooks in the future could all be electronically exported. Reminded me of google's strive to digitalize books.

'Poisoned' Chinese workers turn to Apple for help

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12550429


In short n-hexane is a chemical that Wintek used to clean electronic equipment in the manufacturing process. It caused health issues in the workers and the workers want more compensation for the exposure.

Some short info on the chemical they used
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-hexane


These are unrelated to the above but they are factory tours presented by/ products of dell , seagate, Gigabyte. It should be interesting to note how each video is presented.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECwdccBTOJc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX-AyZpLvRE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4qBl8x3tC0&feature=related

South Korea aims to have Even Faster Internet Connection

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/technology/22iht-broadband22.html?ref=technology

Just as our speaker last Thursday described about South Korea's Internet speed and connectivity.

Microsoft to Add Staff in China

Relevant to the reading for Tuesday. More R&D jobs in China.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703529004576160013344234354.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews

Apple Employee Confessions

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/confessions-of-an-apple-store-employee

I found this article that basically talks about what an Apple store employee goes through on a day to day basis. I thought it was interesting on how the company doesn't tell anything to the employee to keep everything on the down-low.

China's Alibaba bosses step down after fraud probe

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20110221/tap-china-internet-company-alibaba-fraud-8d4ea94.html

SHANGHAI (AFP) - – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.com said Monday its chief executive and head of operations had resigned after a probe found fraudulent suppliers had used the site to cheat buyers.

David Wei and Elvis Lee resigned as chief executive officer and chief operating officer respectively, accepting responsibility for "systemic breakdowns" that allowed the fraud to happen, the company said in a statement.

"The investigation confirmed that Mr Wei and Mr Lee and other members of senior management were not involved in any of the activities that led to the claims by buyers against fraudulent suppliers," the statement said.

However, the board accepted that Wei and Lee had taken responsibility for the systemic breakdowns, the statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange said.

China grapples with growing labor discontent

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/28/china.migrant.workers/index.html?iref=allsearch

Article above highlights the poor working conditions in Chinese factories that are owned by multinational corporations and political influences of the Chinese government around the labor issue.

Facebook Policy

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2011/02/16/simon.facebook.pseudonym.cnn

This video talks about how Facebook is very insistent on having real names for profiles. This ties into how Facebook in Japan didn't take off because they were insistent that Japanese people should use their real names.

Google Announces Payment System for Digital Content

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/business/media/17google.html?_r=1&ref=technology

We talked about how Google was infringing copyright laws by providing digitized media online, and this is their fix for it; implementing a payment system called Google One Pass. This will allow publishers to sell digital content (albeit currently it is limited to newspapers and magazines) online and through cell phone applications using Google Checkout. Users will gain access through their Google email and can read the digital media on any device they so choose. This way, publishers are allowed the freedom to charge for their media.

Group Project Day 1

Feb 15, 2011

.Received Dell Optiplex GX620 computer to disassemble.
.Everyone examined parts and chose what PC part to research.
Parts being researched
-Ayana: Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
-Clark: Harddrive
-Jae: Ram
-Maggie: CD/DVD Drive
-Pablo: Graphics Card
-Paul: Ram
.Everyone else chose to research things as a whole instead of focusing on one specific part.

.While disassembling the computer we identified several companies that took part in manufacturing parts of the PC.
Companies Identified
-Intel
-Foxconn
-Rubycon
-PHL (Phillipines?)
-Asus
-Bel Stewart


If I missed anything else from the first day just let me know.

Everyone is making Facebook phones - except Facebook

URL: http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/15/technology/facebook_phone/index.htm

Interesting is that facebook is penetrating our life from every angle, network, smartphones, communication, etc. A lot of newly-developed technology has employed facebook's idea and its interface in everyday communication.

However, at the launching of Facebook phones, no facebook representative was there.

Japan is now the third largest economy behind China

An interesting article about China overtaking Japan as far as total GDP. However, they also talk about how Japan's GDP per citizen is over US $40,000 while China's is about US $4,500.



http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/13/japan-economy-slips-to-third-in-world-behind-u-s-and-china/?iref=allsearch

Google: Your new phone carrier?

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/30/technology/google_wireless_carrier/index.htm

Paul Simpson wanted to post this

Obama pushes broadband expansion proposal

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/02/10/obama.wireless/index.html?iref=allsearch

This article is about President Obama highlighting the significance of telecommunication investment for recovery of U.S economy.

Sariff Industries Co

http://sarifindustries.com/

Austan Goolsbee's White Board: On the National Wireless Initiative

This man is akin to the antithesis of Glenn Beck working for the President.

Google increases security for users

Link

May help people's fears with cloud computing.

Time article on the Singularity

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138-1,00.html

(Japan) Tsuruoka Professor and Students Develop Thinking Robot Arm

Link

This article describes how a Professor and students developed a robot arm that can be operated by verbal commands. The robot arm successfully completed tests (picking up a specifically colored block) through vocal commands. Professor Satou who lead the project said that people who do not have the skill or knowledge in operating robots don't have to worry because they can command it with their voices.

Japan Censors Apple

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2011/01/04/japanese-government-wants-apple-to-add-content-filter-to-the-iphone/

Hi Hi,
I found an article that talks about how the Japanese government criticized Apple Japan about not adding a way to censor what minors can see from their iPhone.

The Google Art Project

This is very awesome. Google has digitized several museums from around the world. You can view paintinngs for free in very high resolution. The layout is very appealing too.

http://www.googleartproject.com/