Considerations In Computer Shopping

There are many factors that need to be taken into account when purchasing a laptop or desktop. The factors differ. When buying a laptop, the consumers general purpose for such a purchase is because they want to be able to bring their laptop with them, whether it's from home to work, or home to college. If a person is going to be lugging around a laptop with them for portions of the day, they want it to be effortless. That is why the factor of weight needs to be considered before buying a laptop of the intent is to bring it around with you like a personal slave. It is true that constructing a lightweight laptop would cost more, but the money you spend extra on this laptop will save you from back breaking pain after carrying around laptop with you all day.

      Another factor to take into account when buying a laptop, especially for use outside of the home or office, is the power consumption. Battery life is crucial for people on the go. A low budget laptop would provide the user with 2 to 3 hours battery life. A high quality laptop should provide around 4 hours. Again this will jack up the price. But isn't worth it?

     Depending on what the laptop or computer is going to be used for, processing power is important. If you're looking to buy  machine just to keep yourself on facebook and to play the occasional game of solitaire, then don't worry about this to much. Even if the purpose of the laptop is just for office use, an entry level processor like the single core celeron is more than enough to keep your machine running efficiently In the case of more enthused users, a core 2 duo or something of equal processing power would be of recommendation.

    Once again, especially for people looking for a laptop for use on the go, warranty becomes an important factor. Laptops out and about are more likely to get damaged, Although most warranties only cover non physical damage. But the longer the warranty and the more it covers, the better.

Social Malice: One In 60 Facebook Posts Are Malicious

This article I read in InformatioWeek looks at the social networks we use and how we feel on them. It examines how safe we feel and actually are, which networks are most likely to get hacked and the experiences we have on said networks. http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/client/231901895?cid=sem_edit_security&wc=4

     The networks it examines are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It says that 40% of people feel unsafe on Facebook, while 28% feel the same about Twitter and only 14% on LinkedIn. The trust that the user has with LinkedIn means it's an attractive playground for hackers. The more comfortable a user is with sharing information with the site, the more information they'll give.

    When it comes to businesses blocking social networks in the work place, 20% choose to block LinkedIn, 25% block Twitter, Google+ gets blocked by 24% and Facebook 31%. When asked what factors were most important to consider when joining a social network, users said (92%), that their friends use it (91%), privacy (90%), and ease of use (87%). Over 90% of users have received spam on a social network, and more than half have experienced phishing attacks. Over 20% received malware, 16.6% had their accounts used for spamming, ANd 13% have had their account hijacked or had their password stolen. The article also says that more than half of suers are unsatisfied with Facebooks privacy settings. 43% of Twitter accounts are  true users with real followers and regular tweets, and 57% as not true users which are either spam bots or inactive accounts.

    These facts open the readers eyes as to what information they have out there and how accessible it is.

SarcMark

Since social networking has been around, the problem of tone has been around. If you are having a conversation with someone via email, chat room or even text, it can be hard to tell whether or not something that the other person says is meant literally or as a joke. The worry is also there that if you make a sarcastic remark, the other person won't pick up on your sarcasm and they could end up severely offended. Now thought, finally, an answer to our prayers. Introducing the "SarcMark". The easy way to let someone know you're joking. Used in the same way as a question mark would be, the SarcMark is simply put at the end of a sentence to signify sarcasm. I think this is genius and hope it catches on. This is what the little guy looks like..

Nice and neat, a mix of the @ sign and the full stop. It still has to be introduced to keyboards and computer systems around the world, but the work is being done. More information can be found here on the official website http://02d9656.netsoljsp.com/SarcMark/modules/user/commonfiles/loadhome.do

Aerogel

I found this absolutely amazing, can't wait to see what hand it has to play in the future when it comes to things like insulation and other inventions.

Scientific Advances That Should Have Changed Everything

The Electric Car

I came across this article on cracked.com, a website that contains weird and wonderful articles that are often about what we've gotten wrong and weird things going on in the world.  The article I came across is about all the amazing advances in technology we've had over the years, and then how we forgot about them. It highlights the ignorance of the world when it comes to matters that don't effect the population at that very time.
http://www.cracked.com/article_19531_5-scientific-advances-that-should-have-changed-everything.html

The article lists 5 massively ground breaking inventions and discoveries that should have changed the way the world functioned, but they didn't.

       The first invention noted is the invention of the electric car in 1899. Event today we don't totally take advantage of the electric car, they're rarely used in society and come in a hybrid form more often. They are very important though, what with our ever changing environment and with the immense quantity of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere.

      Between the years 1899 and 1900 the electric car was more popular than the gasoline powered car. There were far more manufacturers. It was Thomas Edison and Henry Ford who developed this market further. It was only when huge oil deposits were found in Texas in 1901 that the electric car industry took a huge blow.. With such huge oil reserves so close to home, the price of gasoline powered cars dropped dramatically. Edison and Ford continued to make electric cars up until 1920, but the gas powered car ruled the market.

     If the electric car had of been embraced back then, and the future effects of oil on the world could have been seen, then the world would be a very different place. Not only in terms of a healthier environment, but there would be less war. We all know of the huge fights going on around the world because of oil. We would be able to run our cars for much cheaper. Car companies wouldn't be going out of business trying to come up with new innovative ways to create a more fuel efficient car.

     It is true that electricity is created from burning fossil fuels for the most part, but today we have cleaner options than that, Nuclear, solar, wind power are all options, and after 100 years of using electric cars, our way of getting electricity would be much more advanced.

Interesting Psychology Sites

In Mind: http://beta.in-mind.org/
This site examines aspects of social psychology. The articles on the site are very interesting and are easy to read. A degree in psychology is not required to understand the reports, written in layman's terms but without anything left out.

Mind Hacks: http://mindhacks.com/
This site is really easy to follow and continually updates itself with really interesting new reports coming from the world of psychology.

Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/
This site is also very good, it contains a huge range of articles and reports on psychology, from addictions to neuroscience to the media. It examines all aspects of psychology making it worth whole to explore.

Glass is the Future

This video is a vision of the future, it depicts a day in which glass is the main material we use for all technology, it's how we communicate, how we find out information, how we build our homes, how we interact with everything around us, how we travel, how we work, how we advertise, how we shop and how we have fun.

This video may not be a spot on representation of how we will live in the future, but I think it is good as it shows the creativity and aims of some the largest innovative companies in the world.