XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 06/13/12

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Apple Will Let You Geo-Fence Your Friends - keep tabs on people -

Got an iPhone? Need to keep tabs on people? Want to your spouse or boss or pals be notified when you leave work, say, or arrive home? Then the upcoming version of Find My Friends is for you.

The updated app, which will launch with iOS 6 this fall, comes with a geo-fencing feature — that is, you can designate an area around yourself, as small as a building or as large as a state. When you arrive or leave that area, your friends can be notified.

As with all notifications in Find My Friends, this can be set for a limited time only. But we hear some Apple employees are already using this feature to let their bosses know when they’re arrived at the office — and even when they’ve left their house. (After all, it’s a long commute from San Francisco to Apple HQ in Cupertino; chances are, you’ll be late.)

Call it the 21st century time clock.

Otherwise, there’s one major update to Find My Friends: it features the Maps app front and center on your Friends page, a design treatment never given to Google Maps (which Find My Friends used in its first incarnation).

Read more -
http://mashable.com/2012/06/13/ios6-find-my-friends/

Greeks Withdraw $1 Billion a Day Ahead of Vote - and stock up with food -

Greeks pulled their cash out of the banks and stocked up with food ahead of a cliffhanger election on Sunday that many fear will result in the country being forced out of the euro.

Bankers said up to 800 million euros ($1 billion) were leaving major banks daily and retailers said some of the money was being used to buy pasta and canned goods, as fears of returning to the drachma were fanned by rumors that a radical leftist leader may win the election.

The last published opinion polls showed the conservative New Democracy party, which backs the 130 billion euro ($160 billion) bailout that is keeping Greece afloat, running neck and neck with the leftist Syriza party, which wants to cancel the rescue deal.

As the election approaches, publishing polls is now legally banned and in the ensuing information vacuum, party officials have been leaking contradictory "secret polls".

On Tuesday, one rumor making the rounds was that Syriza was leading by a wide margin.

"This is nonsense," one reputable Greek pollster said on condition of anonymity. "Our polls show the picture has not changed much since the last polls were published. Parties may be leaking these numbers on purpose to boost their standing."

The pollster said there was some consolidation, with voters turning to New Democracy and Syriza from smaller parties but the pool of undecided voters remained unusually large so close to the election and the result was impossible to predict.

Both parties say they want Greece to remain in the single currency but Syriza has pledged to scrap the bailout agreement signed in March which has imposed some of the toughest austerity measures seen in Europe in decades.

Read more -
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47793980

NuSTAR space telescope is scheduled for launch today - will search for undiscovered black holes in the Milky Way -

A once-canceled space telescope is set to launch into Earth orbit, where it will search for undiscovered black holes in the Milky Way and at the hearts of other galaxies.

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array will hunt for black holes that have been obscured by the dust and gas floating through space and measure how fast some of them are spinning. NuSTAR will also examine with fresh eyes the remnants of exploded stars known as supernovae.

"It's a very exciting mission," said Roger Blandford, director of the Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University and a member of the NuSTAR science team. "It opens up a new window on the universe."

Black holes, supernovae and other cosmic sources can give off light across the whole electromagnetic spectrum, from low-energy infrared waves to high-energy gamma radiation. But much of that light is invisible even to the Hubble Space Telescope and the ChandraX-rayObservatory, which are focused on the infrared, visible, ultraviolet and low-energyX-rayportions of the spectrum.

In addition, much of the lower-energy light gets absorbed by gas and dust floating through space, essentially blocking these objects from view.

NuSTAR will capture high-energyX-raysemanating from these cosmic bodies. But it's hard for instruments to detect the rays directly — they tend to go straight through. These are, after all, the same kind of X-rays dentists use to penetrate your skin and take images of your teeth, explained Caltech astrophysicist Fiona Harrison, the mission's principal investigator.

To catch these X-rays, NuSTAR will position its highly reflective mirrors at an angle that's almost parallel to incoming light. That way, when an X-ray hits the mirrors at such a glancing angle, it can then be bounced right into the detector, about 30 feet away at the end of a mast.

The steep angle reduces the amount of light that can be captured, so to compensate, NuSTAR's mirrors are arranged in 133 conical nested shells, like so many Russian dolls.

Read more -
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-nustar-black-holes-20120613,0,7768940.story

iPoo bathroom app pays off for jokesters - provides chat opportunities and up-to-the minute stool-related statistics -

Just call it plan number two.

Amit Khanna, a 30-year-old Markham native, used to be a high school teacher. Now, he’s manages the, uh, business end of a crass — and successful — app.

It’s called iPoo and yes, it’s what you think: an app you use on the ivory throne. It connects users with others conducting similar business, provides chatting opportunities, even offers up-to-the minute stool-related statistics, such as how many squares of toilet paper are being flushed.

“Imagine that you’re on the can, and think about the things that you would maybe want to do,” said Khanna, one of the app’s three creators.

Apparently for some, that’s more than just read a newspaper. Since it was created in 2009, the $1 app has been downloaded nearly 300,000 times.

Because it’s sold through iTunes, Apple takes 30 per cent of the profits, but it leaves a sizable chunk of change for the three partners. One co-creator was able to pay his way through Harvard Business School, while Khanna has made real estate investments.

“We were surprised but not totally shocked,” Khanna said. The trio suspected they could make some money, since other joke apps — such as iPoo’s equally unpleasant predecessor, iFart — have found financial success.

The idea surfaced much as you’d think: three bathroom humour loving guys were sitting around in someone’s Markham home, trading “wouldn’t it be funny” schemes. When conversation turned to toilet activities, someone suggested an app to pass the time.

Khanna’s co-creators, both developers, got to work and began sharing the app with friends. As soon as they made it available, they knew it would become larger than an inside joke.

Among the most used features is the “virtual wall” where a profile is created for public toilets, such as the Tim Hortons bathroom near Yonge and Bloor. Users can leave virtual graffiti on the wall, just like in the real bathroom.

Read more -
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1210345--ipoo-bathroom-app-pays-off-for-jokesters