Category: Computers

Being Children pre-internet

I love the mini-video below. It showed the games that I remember playing as a child in the Philippines.

I especially love piko (hopscotch)

In a way I pity children of today.

Being Children pre-internet

The advent of computer and internet brought in untold usefulness to everyone of us but as they said, nothing is ever perfect. Though I can’t live without access to the internet/computer now, it does have negative impacts on some lives. Especially in the west, the computer has somehow put paid to children playing outside. Children nowadays would rather be in their pc or ipad playing games rather than in the garden or at the park playing hide and seek with their friends.

I supposed we have become too security conscious. We want our children under our radar almost 24/7 and the easiest way to ensure this is to allow them access to the computer; sitting in front of it where we know where they are.

Let us think about this, “As a child, would you rather be playing computer games or playing tugs with friends outside in the sunshine?!!!”

by lorosa Traditional Art / Paintings / People©2010-2014 lorosa

by lorosa
Traditional Art / Paintings / People©2010-2014 lorosa

Roaming Charges on Death Throes in Europe?!!!

mobileThis is good news. We are now mobile/cell phones using nations and the end of roaming charges can only be good news to us all. We have heard of much horror stories, which landed so many unsuspecting users with thousands of pounds of hidden and not quite so hidden roaming charges.

The only thing is that, what does it mean the roaming charges are to end by Christmas 2015? Does this mean roaming charges are not quite dead yet?!!!

So we must not celebrate by using our phone’s roaming apps just yet. 😉 Wait a while longer! Easy does it!

……………………………


Brussels, 3 April 2014

European Parliament votes to end roaming charges, expand consumer rights and make it easier to create better telecoms.

Today the European Parliament voted to end roaming charges by Christmas 2015, as part of a wider vote in support to the Commission’s proposed regulation for a “Connected Continent” (telecoms single market)*.

European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said:

“This vote is the EU delivering for citizens. This is what the EU is all about – getting rid of barriers to make life easier and less expensive.”

“Nearly all of us depend on mobile and internet connections as part of our daily lives. We should know what we are buying, we should not be ripped-off, and we should have the opportunity to change our mind. Companies should have the chance to serve all of us, and this regulation makes it easier for them to do that. It’s win-win.”

“In 2010 I promised to end roaming charges by the end of 2015, and now we are one step away from achieving that result.”

“Beyond the highly visible barrier of roaming we are now close to removing many other barriers so Europeans can enjoy open, seamless communications wherever they are”.

EU Member States will now continue to review the regulation and the Commission expects final agreement of the Regulation by end of 2014.

*The “Connected Continent” telecoms Regulation was proposed by the Commission in September 2013. It aims to bring us much closer to a truly single market for telecoms in the EU, by ending roaming charges, guaranteeing an open internet for all by banning blocking and degrading of content, coordinating spectrum licensing for wireless broadband, giving internet and broadband customers more transparency in their contracts, and making it easier for customers to switch providers.

Background
Tweets from @NeelieKroesEU today included:

“Today EU Parliament voted to end roaming charges by Christmas 2015 !! #roaming”

“We need a digital Europe – today we are another step closer with EU Parl vote for #ConnectedContinent”

“Find out more about the EU plan that is set to end #roaming + guarantee #NetNeutrality on Connected Continent webiste”

Contacts
Email: comm-kroes@ec.europa.eu Tel: +32.229.57361 Twitter: @RyanHeathEU

Dog Tags…Human Tags?

Lasmicrochip detectort Friday, we took our lively little terrier dog to the veterinary surgeon (vets). He had his routine vaccination. The vet also checked that his implanted microchip was working  OK.

In the UK by law,  all pet dogs have to have microchips implanted (normally near the neck).  The microchip  is about the size of a grain of rice. It consists of a tiny computer chip housed in a type of glass made to be compatible with living tissue. The microchip is implanted between the dog’s shoulder blades under the skin with a needle and special syringe. The process is similar to getting an injection with little or no to no pain.  Once in place, the microchip can be detected immediately with a handheld device that uses radio waves to read the chip. This device scans the microchip, and then displays a unique alphanumeric code. Once the microchip is placed, the dog must be registered with the microchip company, usually for a one-time fee. Then, the dog can be traced back to the owner if found.

Dog Tags…Human Tags?microchip

 

Microchip and detector

Microchip implant size

Microchip implant size

This made me think to the future and all the surveillance and communication technology we have and use in the 21st Century.

Today, we use an increasing amount  of  Radio-frequency identification (RFID)  wireless  devices to monitor movements/location of people or items. Shops/stores use RFID for stock control  or used to asset tag for inventories.

Indeed many of our smart phones, PC tablets can be tracked through built-in RFID devices.  Cars and vehicles  have RFID.

This technology is invaluable in locating/tracking  lost or stolen pets & valuable items.

Ever increasing sophisticated implanted microchips would also provide a range  medical benefits for monitoring health and even adjusting critical bodily functions to keep us healthy.

I wonder if, or indeed when humans maybe similarly ‘microchipped’ and have RFID implanted to monitor us . We would have a truly ‘Big Brother’  Orwellian 1984 nightmare, where the locations and status of all citizens are known or can be found by the government, regimes etc.

At birth or soon after, would all children have micro-chip implants by law and  registered along side the Birth Certificate process!?

Possibly the microchip(s) would only be activated for specific, appropriate and lawful needs?

humn log

Possibly known criminals,terrorists  etc.,  will be implanted with microchips active for their lifetimes or for a fixed period.  This would make policing immeasurably  more effective but remove fundamental human rights.

 

 

Commodore Grace M. Hopper, USN

Women Who Changed the World

 

Commodore Grace M. Hopper, USN


Commodore Grace M. Hopper, USN (Wikipedia)

BioData

  • Full Name: Grace Brewster Murray Hopper
  • Maiden Name: Murray
  • DoB: 9 December 1906
  • PoB: New York City, USA
  • Death: 1 January 1992 (85)
  • Civil Status:
  • Education: Vassar College, Yale University
  • Occupation: Military
  • Work Period: 1943–1966, 1967–1971, 1972–1986

Today’s Google Doodle is an animation of Grace Hopper sitting on her computer, using COBOL  to print out her age.  Google is celebrating the 107th birthday of Grace Hopper, the “mother” of the COBOL computer language.

Just toward the end of animation a moth was seen coming out of the computer; that was a reference to Grace popularising the term “debugging”.    Apparently whilst in the Navy and working on a Mark II computer, it was found that a moth was stuck in the relay, which was impending the system, quick as a flash Grace said they are debugging the system.

The remains of the moth can be seen at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

Grace lived a full and hectic life.

At a very young age, she showed a very inquisitive mind.  At the age of seven, she tried to find out how clock works and managed to disassemble seven of them much to her mother’s consternation.  In the end she was only allowed to touch one clock.  LOL

Grace was a Vassar girl but at 16 she was declined entry to the College because she had a low score in Latin.  She got admitted the next year and went on to earn bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics.  She then went to Yale University and became a history maker for becoming  the first woman to graduate with a doctorate in Maths in Yale’s long history.

Grace Brewster Murray, as she was, married Vincent Foster Hopper, a New York professor in 1930.  The marriage ended in divorce in 1945.  Grace never married again thus retaining her ex-husband’s surname.  Grace Hopper has a memorable ring to it.

Grace Hopper, to me, was like a grasshopper.  She leaped from one success to another.  She leaped from one award to the next.

Even her retirement was one of the longest hopping in history.  She first retired at 60 but was recalled almost immediately and then retired again and then recalled and then retired and then recalled………

Grace ended up working until her death at 85.