9/06/2014

The secret to acing exams


In tests that offer a choice of answers, you can exploit hidden patterns to get full marks if you know how, says William Poundstone.

Our fates in school and beyond are decided by pop quizzes, final exams, drivers’ exams, and professional exams. Many are true-or-false, or multiple-choice. If you get stumped by a question, it usually feels like you can do no better than guess. But could there be hidden patterns in these tests that point to the right answer?

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Scientists 'make telepathy breakthrough'


Research led by experts at Harvard University shows technology can be used to send a simple mental message from one person to another without any contact between the two.

Neuroscientist Giulio Ruffini told the Today programme: "You can actually transmit information directly from one brain to another brain without intervention of the senses."

"The next step would be to try to find more powerful techniques to send more complex information," he added.

www.bbc.com

Headline Sep 07, 2014


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As for online communities, Arduino has an active forum on its website, while MakerBot runs a website called Thingiverse, which lets people share 3D designs.

YouTube and other video sharing sites offer how-to clips for almost everything.

On instructables,  users post and discuss recipes to make and do all kinds of things. And then there is Etsy, an online market place for handmade goods, from hand knitted scarves to  3D  printed jewellery.

The ease with which designs for physical things can be shared digitally goes a long way forward in explaining why the  maker  movement has already developed a strong culture   -its third driver.

''If you are not sharing your designs, you are doing it wrong," says Bre Pettis, the chief executive of MakerBot. Physical space and tools are being shared,too, in the form of common workshops.

Some 400 such  ''hacker spaces''  already operate worldwide, according to Hackerspaces.org. Many are organised like artists' collectives.

At Noisebridge, a hacker space in San Francisco, even non-members can come and tinker  -as long as they comply with the group's main rule : to be  ''excellent''  to each other.

''The Internet is no substitute for a real community.'' says Mitch Altman, a co-founder of Noisebridge.

This sort of thing makes the maker movement sound a lot like the digital equivalent of quilting bees. But it has already had a wider impact, mainly in schools in America.

Many have discovered  3D  printers and Arduino boards  -and are using them to make science and technology classes more hands on again, and teach students to be producers as well users of digital products.

All this will boost innovation, predicts Dale Dougherty, the founder of Make magazine, a central organ of the maker movement. Its tool and culture promote experimentation, collaboration, and rapid improvement.

Makers can play in niches that big firms ignore  -though they are watching the maker movement and will borrow ideas from it., Mr Dougherty believes. The Maker Faire in New York was sponsored by technology companies:

Including HP and Cognizant. And,   Autodesk which makes computer aided design software, bought Instructables a year ago.  

Firms may also copy some of the unusual business models that makers, often accidental entrepreneurs, have come up with.

Arduino lets other firms copy its designs. for example, but charges them to use its logo.

Quirk's an industrial design firm based in New York City, uses crowd sourcing to decide which products to make. MakieLab of London is developing a platform:

To allow toyshops or individuals or individuals to develop customised toys and have them printed. Venture capitalists are nosing around the field.

In recent months Quirky raised $16m. MakerBot raised $10m and Shapeways, a firm that offers a  3D  printing service , received  $5m.

The parallel  with the  lobbyist  computer movement of the  1970s  is striking. In both cases enthusiastic tinkerers, many on America's West Coast, began playing with new technologies that had huge potential to disrupt business and society.

Back then, the machines manipulated bits : now the action is in atoms. 

This has prompted predictions of new industrial revolution, in which more manufacturing is done by small firms or even by individuals.

''The tools of factory production, from electronics assembly to 3D printing, are now available to individuals, in batches as small as a single unit." writes Chris Anderson, the editor of  Wired magazine.

It is easy to laugh at the idea that hobbyists with  3D  printers will change the world.

But the original  industrial revolution  grew out of piecework done at home, and look what became of the clunky computers of the  1970s.

The maker movement is not only worth a watch but extremely worth participating for all the students of the world.     

Thank you all for reading! 

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW!   -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:


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SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

Headline Sep 06, 2014/"The Maker Revolution"


''' THE MAKER REVOLUTION '''



CULTURE does incredible things : A great culture may even herald a new industrial revolution by changing how science is taught and by boosting innovation.

For Technology and  Society :  The  'Maker'  movement is both a response and an outgrowth of digital culture, made possible by the convergence of several trends.

New tools and electronic components let people integrate the physical and digital worlds simply and cheaply.

Online service and design software make it easy to develop and show digital blueprints. And many people who spend all days manipulating bits on computer screens:

Are rediscovering the pleasure of making physical objects and interacting with other enthusiasts in person, rather than online. Currently the preserve of hobbyists,  the  maker  movement's impact may be felt much farther afield.

Start with the hardware. The heart of New York's Maker Faire was a pavilion labelled with an obscure Italian name : ''Arduino''   -meaning the strong friend. Inside the visitors were greeted by dozen stands displaying credit-card sized circuit boards.

These are  Arduino  micro-controllers; simpe computers that make it easy to build all kinds of strange things : plants that send  Twitter messages when they need watering-

A harp made of lasers, an etch-a-sketch  clock, a microphone that serves as a breathalyser, or a vest that that displays your speed when riding a bike.

Such projects are taking off because Arduino is affordable : basic boards cost $20-, can easily be extended using add-ons called  ''shields''  to add new functions and has a simple programming system  that almost anyone can use.

''Not knowing what you are doing is an advantage ,''  says Massimo Banzi, an Italian designer and engineer who started the Arduino  project a decade ago:
To enable  students   to build all kinds of contraptions.

Arduino has since become popular  -selling around  200,000 units in 2011 because Mr Banzi made the  board design   ''open source''  -which means that anyone can download its blueprint and build their own version.

And because he has made much time and effort getting the engineers all over the world involved with the project.

This openness has prompted a sizeable  ecosystem  add-ons. They include a touch-screen, an illuminated display and a support for W.-Fi networking.

Other firms have built specialised variants of Arduino.

SparkFun, for instance has developed Lilypad, a flexible micro-controller that can be sewn into clothing  -think blinking T-shirts-  along with other many add-ons.

Applying the  open-source approach in hardware has also driven the development of maker movement's other favourite piece of kit, which could be everywhere at the Maker Faire in New York: 3D printers.

These machines are another way to connect digital and the physical realm: they take a digital model of an object and print it out building it up, one layer at a time, using plastic extended from a nozzle.

The technique is not new, but in recent years  3D  printers  have become cheap enough for consumers. MakerBot Industries, a start up based in New York, now sells its machines for $3,000.

The output quality is rapidly improving thanks to regular upgrades, many of them suggested by users.

None of this action in hardware would have happened without a second set of powerful drivers : software, standards and online communities. Arduino, for instance:

Relies on open-source programs that turn simple code into a form that can be understood by the board's brain. Similarly, MakerBot's  3D printers depend on a standard way to describe physical objects, called STL, and affordable software to design them.

Some basic modelling programs,  such as Google SketchUp and Blender, can be downloaded free.

The Serving of the knowledge continues. Thank you for reading and see you on the following one.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya  all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:


''' Classic Inventions '''

Good Night and God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless