A new memory technology can store a terabyte on a chip the size of a postage stamp.
Why it matters: Existing memory technologies cannot offer much more improvements in data storage density. [Thank you MIT Technology review] [ By Tom Simonite | 08.14.13] More memory: The memory storage device shown in this electron micrograph image could enable dramatic jumps in the capacity of memory cards and other digital data stores. A new type of memory chip that a startup company has just begun to test could give future smartphones and other computing devices both a speed and storage boost. The technology, known as crossbar memory, can store data about 40 times as densely as the most compact memory available today. It is also faster and more energy efficient. The technology’s ability to store a lot of data in a small space could see it replace the flash memory chips that are the basis of memory cards, some hard drives, and the internal storage of mobile devices. Data can be accessed and written to crossbar memory fast enough to see it also possibly compete with DRAM, used as short-term memory, in computing devices. The technology is significantly more energy efficient than both flash and DRAM.
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Apple’s new phone could include a convex home button that will act as a fingerprint sensor, and could open up all kinds of fun possibilities. [Thank you Venturebeat] [ By Matt Marshall | 08.11.13] Apple’s new phone could include a convex home button that will act as a fingerprint sensor, according to an analyst report, and could open up all kinds of fun possibilities. The report emerged just hours other news that suggests Apple will release the new phone on Sept 10. The new phone, dubbed the iPhone 5S by some, and the iPhone 6 by others, will carry Apple’s updated iOS 7 software, which was announced in June. But its hardware so far has only been speculated about. This latest news should also be categorized as a rumor for now. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has been called well-informed, said Apple is likely to make room for the much-rumored fingerprint sensor by making the home button curve outward (convex) slightly instead of the inward (concave). The button has been convcave since its debut in 2007. Kuo’s report was cited by both MacRumors and AppleInsider. That outward curve would prevent Apple from losing valuable internal space, as it packs ever more features into the phone. The technology is believed to come from AuthenTec, the biometric security firm Apple purchased last year. It uses capacitive and RF technologies in its chips, a method that images fingerprints more effectively than optics-based systems because it avoids the build-up of dust or other particles. It will also make it dead-easy for consumers to know where to put their fingers for scanning. To protect the protruding sensor from scratches, Apple is expected to use sapphire glass, a hard material. Apple filed for a fingerprint sensor patent in June. Here’s the quote:
Convex home button creates space for fingerprint sensor; yield to improve. We think that a fingerprint sensor will be placed under the home button of iPhone 5S. However, assembling it could be difficult as the space under home button is limited as it already has to accommodate the Lightning connector, speaker and microphone. Thus, we think the shape of the home button could be changed from concave to convex to create more space for a fingerprint sensor. Sapphire prevents home button from being scratched. A convex home button could be more easily scratched, so a harder material is required. We believe Apple will switch from plastic to sapphire, whose hardness is second only to diamond. Sapphire would protect the home button from being scratched and the fingerprint sensor from being damaged. The repor set off speculation about what else you could do with the sensor (see Stabley Times) aside from unlocking the home screen more easily (instead of doing it the old way, by swiping across the screen and entering a password). Some of it is pretty interesting: Preemptive login — The sensor could automatically log you in to any apps for which you’d otherwise use a password. Your fingerprint acts as the confirmation that it is really you, making a password irrelevant. Digital wallet — By adequately securing your phone, the sensor could let you access your credit and debit card information through an app Apple houses on the phone. Indeed, in June, Apple applied for a patent on a combined virtual currency and digital wallet technology that would allow you to store money in the cloud, make payments, and perhaps even communicate with point of sale terminals with NFC technology. Presence — You can preprogram the phone to list you as available for things like chat in your Facebook app once you hit the sensor. Multiple users — The ability to recognize multiple fingerprints could allow you to hand your phone off to other people, including your kids. You could program different experiences for each of them, for example letting your kids play games with restriction settings. Although some people are skeptical that iPhones will be shared; more to happen with tablets? API — Apple could open the sensor to developers through an API, allowing them to create their own app experiences by implementing the sensor technology in ways they see fit. Read more: http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/11/apples-iphone-5s-rumored-convex-home-button-and-the-cool-stuff-it-could-do/ Coaching cannot change you one iota unless or until you're really committed — until you have skin in the game.
What, then, should you do if you think you want to change and, like so many of your peers, put your faith (and a huge financial commitment) in a coach? Is it possible to develop an authentic commitment to executive coaching through sheer willpower alone? [Thank you Harvard Business Review] [by Steven Berglas | 08.09.13] Remember "light bulb" jokes? My favorite was, "How many shrinks does it take to change a light bulb? One, but the light bulb must want to change." It's true: Unless or until a person decides to commit to change wholeheartedly, no coach can help move him or her one-millimeter off the dime. Worse yet is the fact that, unlike light bulbs that lack the capacity for self-deception, humans bamboozle themselves all the time. Whether it's a smoking cessation program or working with a coach to improve management skills, people claim they want to change or drop dysfunctional behaviors from their lives, but then fight like Ninja warriors to defend them. Worst of all, irrespective of how intelligent or professionally powerful a person is, it is a virtual certainty that after embarking on a change process, they will be partially or fully derailed by the feeling, "Better the devil I know than the devil I don't know." The reason why backsliding on our ostensible commitments to change is so common is because most change is the result of compliance to a demand, incentive, or threat. "Lose weight or you'll suffer a heart attack" coming from an M.D. is a directive most folks won't ignore. Unfortunately, when incentivized to change in this manner falling off the wagon is common because our motivation wasn't to change, it was to avoid a premature death. Psychologists who have studied intrinsic and extrinsic motivation since the 1970s — most notably, Professor Edward L. Deci — demonstrate that when a person acts in response to extrinsic motivators — the promise of money; the threat of punishment — commitment to a behavior is short-lived. This is why when the cat's away, mice will play. Mice don't want to change their behavior, i.e. playing games, but they do when cats are present. However, since change (the cessation of play) was instigated by an extrinsic force — Tabby — if Tabby isn't monitoring the mice, thse rodents instantly revert to form. What, then, should you do if you think you want to change and, like so many of your peers, put your faith (and a huge financial commitment) in a coach? Is it possible to develop an authentic commitment to executive coaching through sheer willpower alone? No. But what you can do is develop a mindset — i.e. new "automatic" cognitive messages — that will help you counter your own resistance to change. My mom Pierrette Mora is a painter in Rennes, Brittany, France.
Her site: http://www.pierrettemora.fr Her Board: http://pinterest.com/philippemora/sarturday-by-pierrette-mora/ |
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