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Study: Facebook users sharing more personal info despite increased privacy concerns
Carnegie Mellon University conducted a study following more than 5,000 Facebook users over six years, from 2005 and 2011, and found that changes in the social network's privacy policies caused users to share more -- not less -- personal data. Lest you think this means that users suddenly trusted the site more, Carnegie Mellon says that Facebookers became more and more protective of their personal details as the social network grew in membership -- and that the uptick in shared information is a result of increasingly granular privacy settings. If you recall, Facebook introduced new in-depth privacy controls in 2010, and the study found that the release of these new settings corresponded to users sharing more personal data, both within their network of friends and with strangers and third-party applications. It's been quite some time since the new privacy policy was introduced, but the university says the sample group didn't reduce the amount of info shared with non-friends on the network, even as of 2011. The takeaway? Well, it's safe to say that more privacy controls doesn't equal more vigilance in protecting personal data, and it's certainly not a stretch to call Facebook's settings confusing. The researchers' comparison of the struggle for privacy to the eternal plight of Sisyphus? That might be a touch more dramatic.
Report: 58% of US adults blame violent games for violent behavior
Studies have shown that violent behavior is both linked and not linked to violent video games, but the majority of Americans have decided for themselves: A new poll says that 58 percent of adult Americans do believe that playing violent video games can contribute to violent behavior in teenagers. The independent survey studied 2,278 US adults, and found that nearly three out of five of them believed the link was there.However, those same adults aren't too bothered with keeping violent video games out of the hands of children. 38 percent of survey takers said they know nothing about the Entertainment Software Ratings Board's system for rating game content, and 33 percent of those surveyed say their kids can play whatever they want anyway. Only 32 percent of respondents say the ESRB can keep violent games out of the hands of children, which is less credit than those surveyed give the movies or music ratings systems.In reality, the FTC actually says the gaming ratings system is the best at keeping illicit content out of the hands of minors, though the media doesn't always report it that way. The full results of the report, from Harris Poll, are set to be released on Wednesday this week.
Kno launches 'Kno Me' interactive textbook metrics, lets you study your studying
It was almost a year ago that we first heard about Kno's smart textbook metrics system "Kno Me." Now the software is set to actually launch, and find its way into students' (and parents') hands. As a refresher, the system provides analytics on your (or your children's) study patterns, letting you see how long you have studied for, amount of time interacting with the subject matter, percentage of pages that have been annotated and more. Kno Me is available for all of the firm's interactive textbooks and launches tomorrow on the iPad, Windows 8 and browser platforms, with Android and Windows 7 coming by the end of the month. Kno Me is free, and will be pushed out via the existing app.
Female avatars are likely to be more exposed than their male counterparts
You really needed to be told this, right? You may not have been sure whether a lady-type avatar was more likely to be closer to naked than a manly-type avatar. If you were dying to know and really had no idea, there's an actual study now to get you all informed. Anna M. Lomanowska and Matthieu J. Guitton went into Second Life and examined 404 (192 male and 212 female) avatars of the humanoid-but-not-furry type. They found that 57% of lady-type avatars had less than half of their skin covered, compared to only 10% of masculine-type avatars being similarly exposed. Lomanowska and Guitton were not privy to the actual sex of the folks controlling the avatars. Do you feel enlightened?
Forrester report finds US tablet ownership doubled this year
Forrester Research has come out with its annual report on technology consumption in the US, and tablets are certainly gaining popularity. Although slightly lower than Pew Research's figures, Forrester deduced from its nigh 60,000-strong survey that 19 percent of 'mericans over the age of 18 own at least one tablet -- double the number the research outfit noted last year. While tech penetration is lowest among adults aged 47 and up, 14 percent of this demographic now have slates, which again is twice the figure recorded in 2011. Another notable stat that's risen is daily internet use, with 84 percent of adults hopping online every day (up from 78 percent last year), and approximately half of those owning a smartphone of some variety. TVs are pretty well connected also, as 43 percent of the plugged-in population has accessed the net from their living rooms, with games consoles being by far the most popular intermediary. The whole report isn't available to the public, but why not use the time you would've spent reading it inspecting what's under the tree, and hoping you'll be responsible for upping those tablet stats in next year's report.
Access4Kids input device allows disabled children to control touch-centric tablets (video)
The innovation world at large has been crafting ways for handicapped individuals to interact with computers for years on end, but the issue of tablets has created another predicament entirely. How do you enable someone to masterfully control a touch-centric device, when the mere act of touching is a challenge? Ayanna Howard, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Georgia Tech, and graduate student Hae Won Park have created Access4Kids, which is described as a "wireless input device that uses a sensor system to translate physical movements into fine-motor gestures to control a tablet." In essence, it enables individuals with limited mobility to pinch and swipe, and the group has had success thus far with providing greater accessibility to flagship programs like Facebook and YouTube. Moreover, custom-built apps for therapy and science education are cropping up, with the existing prototype utilizing a trio of force-sensitive resistors that measure pressure and convert it into a signal that instructs the tablet. A child can wear the device around the forearm or place it on the arm of a wheelchair and hit the sensors or swipe across the sensors with his or her fist, providing an entirely new level of interaction for those with cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, spina bifida and muscular dystrophy. The goal? Once it's honed, to get it out of the lab and made "into a commercial product." Head on past the break for a video look.
Rice University offers course on Old Norse mythology, Skyrim
Look, you don't need an expensive piece of paper from some institution to know that you're the Dohvakiin. You know it, we know it, the guy you yelled at until he died knows it -- that's all that really matters in the long run. But, if for some reason you did want to expand your knowledge of the ancient legends behind your ancient legend, Rice University has you covered."Scandinavian Fantasy Worlds: Old Norse Sagas and Skyrim" is a new course at Rice University in Houston, TX, which "introduces students to fantasy as both psychological concept and driving force in gamer culture" by having students "read selections from Old Norse and Old Icelandic sagas (in translation) as they play different quests within Skyrim."As you can imagine, enrollment availability is limited to actual, bona fide students at Rice University. Additionally, the class is only available this semester, which is sad considering that beating Skyrim will most likely take longer than passing the course.
Alt-week 10.13.12: is the Universe a simulation, cloning dinosaurs and singing mice
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Are you reading this? Seriously, are you? Sure, we know you think you are, but what if you're just a sub-feature of a complex computer program. A sprite, nothing more than the creation of software. The problem with this question is, how would you ever know? You wouldn't, right? Well, not so fast there. Turns out, maybe there is a way to unravel the matrix (if there is one). It'll come as no surprise, that this is one of the topics in this week's collection of alternative stories. Think that's all we got? Not even close. We'll explore the truth behind cloning dinosaurs, as well a rare performance by singing mice -- all before dinner. Or is it really dinner? This is alt-week.
Gartner and IDC: PC shipments tumbled over 8 percent in Q3, only ASUS and Lenovo escaped unhurt
We don't often summarize market share in one word, but: ouch. Both Gartner and IDC have trotted out their preliminary estimates for PC market share in the third quarter, and the two agree that this summer was a dire one for the traditional computer. Outside of ASUS and Lenovo, whose price-focused strategies and key acquisitions kept them ahead of rivals, virtually every major vendor saw its PC shipments collapse versus a year ago, often by more than 10 percent. Total worldwide shipments declined by more than 8 percent in either estimate -- enough to make a flat second quarter seem rosy by comparison. Lenovo took the top spot in Gartner's study, although IDC is counting workstations and kept HP in its usual lead. As for the US, it's almost better that we don't look. Gartner and IDC believe that the American market sank by respective 13.8 or 12.4 percent amounts, and the steep global declines repeated themselves in the one country for everyone but Lenovo. Even a market share gain for Apple came only because its shipments dropped at a gentler rate than most of its peers. Whether it's the US or worldwide, don't assume that inventory clearances ahead of Windows 8 were the only factors at work, though. Both research teams point to continuing world economic troubles as influences, and IDC contends that buyers are still skipping PCs in favor of smartphones and mobile tablets. There's often a jump in computer sales between the summer and the fall, especially with a new OS on the way, but we wouldn't count on a return to the halcyon days.
Nielsen says game consoles get men to use TV more: hurray, we think
We're not sure if we should always cheer figures that reflect sedentary behavior. Still, chalk one up for greater (if superficial) gender equality. Nielsen finds that, as of this past March, men who owned a modern game console like the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 or Wii were using their TVs almost as much as women: while males in the broader population typically spend 37 fewer minutes in front of the big screen every day than females, that gap shrank to a negligible 11 minutes when console use came into play. Unfortunately, the agency doesn't say just what's getting men to tune in for that much longer. Gaming is the most likely culprit, but a raft of streaming video options could have some of those refined couch potatoes watching Hulu or Netflix instead of playing one more round of Gears of War. If consoles have people of all genders spending more time together, we're in favor of it; given that men still spend over twice as much time on consoles as women, though, it's clear there's still a bridge to cross if we want more of a balance in the kinds of TV activity we enjoy.
Sandia Labs' MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes (video)
We've seen some large-scale simulations, including some that couldn't get larger. Simulated cellular networks are still a rare breed, however, which makes Sandia National Laboratories' MegaDroid project all the more important. The project's cluster of off-the-shelf PCs emulates a town of 300,000 Android phones down to their cellular and GPS behavior, all with the aim of tracing the wider effects of natural disasters, hacking attempts and even simple software bugs. Researchers imagine the eventually public tool set being useful not just for app developers, but for the military and mesh network developers -- the kind who'd need to know how their on-the-field networks are running even when local authorities try to shut them down. MegaDroid is still very much an in-progress effort, although Sandia Labs isn't limiting its scope to Android and can see its work as relevant to iOS or any other platform where a ripple in the network can lead to a tidal wave of problems.
Microbial music: Using sound to represent data from the deep blue sea
Science and music, many would say opposite sides of the same coin. Unless you're DOE biologist Peter Larsen at the Argonne National Laboratory, who would probably argue your legal tender has been double-headed all along. While Larsen is more likely to be studying the intricacies of microbes than Miles Davis, his latest work puts the two of them closer than ever before. Faced with the task of studying vast amounts of microbial data gathered from the English Channel, the biologist explored alternative ways of making sense of it all. While he could have made a spiffy set of charts, Larsen claims that there are certain parameters, like sunlight and temperature, that give the data a structure that lends itself to musical representation. While classical music might seem the typical choice, due to the irregular nature of the data, the result is more free-form jazz, yet still surprisingly musical. If you were wondering if there is something particularly groovy about the microbes in the English Channel, there isn't. Larsen and his colleagues used a similar idea in previous work looking at the relationship between a plant and a fungus. This isn't the first time data has been "sonified," but these processes that might initially seem to have no relation to music, rhythm and melody, actually highlight the patterns in natural phenomena. Want to get down to the microbial beat? You can hear a sample at the more coverage link. [Image Credit: Argonne National Laboratory]
Fabricated: Scientists develop method to synthesize the sound of clothing for animations (video)
Developments in CGI and animatronics might be getting alarmingly realistic, but the audio that goes with it often still relies on manual recordings. A pair of associate professors and a graduate student from Cornell University, however, have developed a method for synthesizing the sound of moving fabrics -- such as rustling clothes -- for use in animations, and thus, potentially film. The process, presented at SIGGRAPH, but reported to the public today, involves looking into two components of the natural sound of fabric, cloth moving on cloth, and crumpling. After creating a model for the energy and pattern of these two aspects, an approximation of the sound can be created, which acts as a kind of "road map" for the final audio. The end result is created by breaking the map down into much smaller fragments, which are then matched against a database of similar sections of real field-recorded audio. They even included binaural recordings to give a first-person perspective for headphone wearers. The process is still overseen by a human sound engineer, who selects the appropriate type of fabric and oversees the way that sounds are matched, meaning it's not quite ready for prime time. Understandable really, as this is still a proof of concept, with real-time operations and other improvements penciled in for future iterations. What does a virtual sheet being pulled over an imaginary sofa sound like? Head past the break to hear it in action, along with a presentation of the process.
Nexi robot helps Northeastern University track effects of shifty body language (video)
MIT's Nexi robot has been teaching us about social interaction for years, and has even done a stint with the US Navy. Its latest role, however, involved studying those moments when society falls apart. Northeastern University researchers made Nexi the key ingredient of an experiment where subjects were asked to play a Prisoner's Dilemma-style game immediately after a conversation, whether it was with a human or a machine. Nexi showed that humans are better judges of trustworthiness after they see the telltale body language of dishonesty -- crossed arms, leaning back and other cues -- even when those expressions come from a collection of metal and plastic. The study suggests not just that humans are tuned to watch for subtle hints of sketchy behavior, but that future humanoid robots could foster trust by using the right gestures. We'll look forward to the friendlier machine assistants that result... and keep in mind the room for deception when the robots invariably plot to take over the world.
FCC report says 19 million Americans still without broadband access
The FCC believes that 19 million Americans don't have access to broadband, defined as internet access at a speed of 4 megabits per second or more. Understandably, rural areas are the worst hit, with 14.5 million out in the sticks without access, with areas like West Virginia lacking coverage for 45.9 percent of its population. It's not limited to the wide open spaces of states like Montana (16.7 percent) however, even tech-heavy states like California lack access for 35 percent of its denizens. The commission's Connect America fund is charged with closing this gap, and has already awarded CenturyLink $35 million to connect 45,000 homes in under-served areas as part of a plan to help seven million more people get online by 2018.
Chemical sensors could detect plants' cries for help, reduce need for pesticides
It's a terrifying thought, but science suggests that when under attack, plants cry for help. Invisible and, often odorless, green leaf volatiles emitted from vegetation act as a defense mechanism, communicating to other foliage that danger is near. One researcher at the University of Georgia, however, is developing a chemical sensor to use these distraught emissions for good. Working in a similar fashion detecting glucose in the blood, the sensor would be able to alert farmers to when crops are under attack from pests, allowing them to trigger defenses reactively, and in a localized area. The net result being less chemicals on our food, and potentially lower costs for producers. Other suggested uses include helping us keep our produce at home fresher for longer by -- literally -- weeding out bad apples in a bag, before they affect the others. The technology is still being optimized for field use, but a testing device should follow once complete. In the meantime, we'll never feel the same about mowing the lawn again.
Dropped calls, slow download speeds rank among top gripes of mobile users
Everyone has an opinion, and if they all stink, then Pew must have one hell of a tolerance for foul odors. The research group recently surveyed a number of mobile phone owners to determine their primary complaints, and while it's not much of a surprise, slow network performance stole the show. In all, 77 percent aired at least some dissatisfaction with download speeds, and nearly half of all respondents cited frequent frustration. The story is similar for dropped calls, as 72 percent of those surveyed claim to experience the annoyance at least occasionally. While less widespread, the distribution of those who receive unwanted marketing attempts via either telephone calls or text messages is roughly equal -- it seems reasonable to assume that many respondents are harassed by both means. For more surveys*, just text #eng-123 to 9999. *Outrageous fees will apply.
Theory of cliodynamics uses science to predict history, sees violence erupt in cycles
Ever get the feeling that you've seen it all before? University of Connecticut researcher Peter Turchin has, and he (along with Russian partners Sergey Nefedov and Andrey Korotayev) has even crafted an entire scientific theory around the idea. Cliodynamics, as it's called, works on the view that broad trends of history occur in predictable patterns based on common factors like government strength, population size and social inequality. The surprise to Turchin is that violence outside of wars, at least in the US, triggers roughly every 50 years like clockwork: people rebel against a social crisis, but their children stay out of the fray and lead to the conditions that ultimately trigger another outbreak, like the 1970s civil rights and peace movements. Don't set your watch to cliodynamics just yet. Many historians are still skeptical, and even supporters note that one-off events or major wars fall through the cracks. If the theory pans out, however, science could be used to help governments do the right thing before they're made to do it at gunpoint. [Image credit: Steve Wilson, Flickr]
Researchers prove your grandmother right, modern music is louder and all the same
Are your elders always complaining about loud and monotonous music? Or perhaps you've started to feel similar sentiments? The Artificial Intelligence Research Institute in Barcelona says it's not just a matter of opinion. The team analyzed data on loudness, pitch and timbre from just under half a million tracks spanning 55 years, finding the average volume of recordings has increased in that time -- said to be the doing of record labels so songs stand out amongst other radio noise. But, they report that little has changed in the actual music, and whilst there are obviously differences in composition, most melodies are created from just ten popular chords. Variations in timbre, or tone quality, have also dipped since the 1960s, which the team attributes to the experimentation of shredders from that era. Creativity in music is obviously still abundant and it's important to point out only Western pop music was included in the analysis, but Gran was never really into the progressive stuff anyway.
Smartphone overtakes PC as primary internet device in China
The Chinese government has issued a study revealing that the smartphone has overtaken the PC as the most popular device to surf the internet with. China's Internet Network Information Center revealed that 538 million people -- around 40 percent of the country have internet access. It recorded 388 million instances of surfing from a mobile handset, compared to the 380 recorded from PCs. Microblogs are also popular, with around 43.8 percent of phone users documenting the minutiae of their lives on Weibos like Sina and Tencent -- which reminds us, we need to tweet about what we're having for dinner.
