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For the millions of blind people living in the United States, paying for something in cash can pose major challenges because there is no difference between the size and shape of a $1 or $100 bill. To tackle this problem, many blind people set up systems to identify a bill’s value by folding the notes into different sizes and shapes, which then make them easily identifiable later. A new application, the LookTel Money Reader, available for $2 on the Apple iOS platform, hopes to help solve this problem by taking advantage of the devices camera to “read money” and speak the value of the currency out loud. According to the company’s Web site, LookTel recognizes all United States currency and can read $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills aloud.
An iPhone App Helps the Blind Identify Currency
What is the average e-mail user like? Not to stereotype or anything, but Hunch has an idea.
Gmail, the most popular option among Hunchers, is most likely to attract thin, college-educated men aged 18 to 34, according to the site. They tend to be politically liberal city-dwellers who read blogs, own iPhones and laptops and get their music on MP3s and computers.
Hotmail, on the flipside, attracts women of average build in the same age range. These are politically moderate high school graduates living in the suburbs, who enjoy magazines and contemporary fiction and usually own a laptop.
Both groups are often single, childless and extremely well-traveled.
Yahoo draws an entirely different crowd, according to Hunch: Overweight women ages 18 to 49, who tend to be in relationships of one to five years with children, residing in the suburbs or rural areas.
AOL users are most likely to be overweight women ages 35 to 64, who are in a relationship for more than 10 years and are also parents, living in the suburbs.
All four sectors tend to be nonreligious, Hunch said. And Hunch also figured out the more personal preferences of users.
Gmailers and Hotmailers often sport a T-shirt and jeans, but while the former munches on salty snacks, the latter likes sweets. Yahoo users lounge in pajamas.
Hunch profiles the average Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL e-mail user
Google won plaudits for promoting original research and analysis and banishing pages littered with second-rate content or overloaded with advertising. But the revision to its secret mathematical formula that determines the best answers to a searcher's query also caused an uproar as hundreds of sites complained to Google that they had been unfairly lumped in with "content farms," which churn out articles with little useful information to drive more traffic to their sites.
Google won't discuss which websites it was targeting or how it revised its algorithm. It says it's pleased with the results, even as it acknowledges that with the rapid evolution and vast expanse of the Web, it has to be constantly vigilant to make sure its search engine finds what users want. "Our primary goal is to make sure we return the best websites we can," said Matt Cutts, who leads Google's spam-fighting efforts. "No algorithm can be 100% accurate." Such a major change to its algorithm was a rare admission from the world's most powerful search engine that it was being flooded by spammers and hucksters who were manipulating Google to land in the top search results. Google became one of the most powerful Internet companies by sifting through billions of Web pages and, with just a few words as a clue, guiding millions of people to what they seek on the Web.
Google's new search formula results in some unhappy websites
Comcast announced that Kyle McSlarrow will join the company in early April as President, Comcast/NBC Universal, Washington, DC. Since March 2005, McSlarrow has served as President and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA).
McSlarrow will have dual responsibilities in business operations and public policy in Washington, DC. On the operations side, McSlarrow will help lead the company’s efforts in the Washington metropolitan area around the customer experience and product development. In addition, McSlarrow will participate in national efforts to improve the customer experience and will help lead strategic planning around the extension of Comcast Business Services at the federal and state government levels. McSlarrow also will lead Comcast’s public policy office in Washington, DC. He will report to David Cohen, Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation, and work closely with Neil Smit, President of Comcast Cable, and Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal, and their senior teams.
Prior to joining NCTA, McSlarrow served as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy and before that was the Vice President of Political and Government Affairs for Grassroots.com, a privately-held Internet company marketing web-based political tools and services. McSlarrow has held numerous positions, including serving as the National Chairman for the Quayle 2000 Presidential Campaign, Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell and Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel for Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Trent Lott.
NCTA's Kyle McSlarrow Joins Comcast Corporation
President Barack Obama believes that funding national public broadcasting is worthwhile, and he will request funding for it despite recent controversies.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said President Obama does "not support calls to eliminate funding for National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, as is evidenced by our budget." "We think they are worthwhile and important priorities, as our budget makes clear," Carney said. Carney declined repeatedly to say while public broadcasting should be federally funded except to note that Republican administrations have budgeted for NPR in the past. "I don't think people here want to get into the history of public broadcasting and public radian and why successive administrations of both parties have felt that it's worthwhile, but suffice it to say that we do," Carney said.
White House opposes defunding public broadcasting
The Commerce Department has announced the creation of a new Innovation Advisory Board to guide a study of U.S. economic competitiveness and innovation and has opened the application process to business leaders, economic and innovation policy experts, and state and local government officials active in technology-based economic development.
The new study will help inform Obama Administration policies that will position the U.S. to win the future by out-innovating, out-educating and out-building our economic competitors. The Innovation Advisory Board, in coordination with the National Economic Council and other federal agencies, is charged, by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, to advise the Secretary of Commerce on the innovative capacity and economic competitiveness of the United States for a study to be completed by January 4, 2012. The study will analyze the U.S. economy and innovation infrastructure in comparison with its global competition – covering all facets of the economy, including trade and exports, education, research and development, technology commercialization, intellectual property and tax policy.
The 15-member board will be appointed by the Secretary of Commerce and represent all major industry sectors as well as both large and small businesses. Members will provide input on the development of the study and work to solicit feedback from across the country, serving until the completion of the report.
The application deadline is March 22, 2011.
Commerce Department Invites Applications to Join New Innovation Advisory Board
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano is urging federal lawmakers to boost DHS funding for fiscal 2012, citing the need to keep pace with emerging and evolving security threats.
Napolitano’s 2012 budget proposal includes significant funding for cyber-security initiatives, including:
- $233.6 million for development of the Einstein 3 program designed to prevent infiltration of government information systems;
- $40.9 million for network assessments in federal agencies;
- $24.5 million for cyber-security education and training;
- $1.3 million to help DHS work with the Department of Defense and National Security Agency; and
- $18 million for research and development in the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative.
DHS Requests $57 Billion to Fight Cyber-Crime, Assess Networks, in 2012
Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) blasted the Obama administration for holding up passage of cybersecurity legislation that has been subjected to a more than yearlong interagency review process.
"We need input from the executive branch to sort out the differences between the different committees," he said at the Senate Judiciary Committee session. "There's no point in sorting it out if we don't know where the executive branch is going to stand. . . . We're kind of on hold now, waiting." "In the legislative branch we are now probably a year into a stall in preparing the legislation that I think we urgently need in order to protect our country from a cyberattack," Sen Whitehouse added.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at first declined to say when the Administration would finalize its legislative offer. "You're the secretary of Homeland Security -- that's the central agency for cybersecurity other than the [National Security Agency], which provides the technical horses to everybody," Sen Whitehouse responded. "You've gotta have a sense of how close this is." After repeated grilling, Sec Napolitano said: "I think it is fairly close, but I hesitate to give you a deadline because I don't know that there is one. . . . I understand and take your frustration to heart and will take it to the White House, and we will try to generate an answer for you." Without cyber mandates, the administration has used its existing regulatory powers to create agency roles and responsibilities for protecting the nation's digital infrastructure.
Administration excoriated for delay in proposing cyber plan
The GPS industry and a new cellular phone carrier continue to battle over development of a new wireless broadband system, which the industry says will cause widespread jamming of sensitive Global Positioning System signals used for everything from smart maps in cars to aircraft navigation.
LightSquared plans to develop a nationwide cellular network that uses satellites and up to 40,000 high-powered land-based transmitters. The company intends to market its service to rural areas that do not currently have broadband service, a key reason the Federal Communications Commission approved LightSquared's hybrid satellite/terrestrial network on Jan. 26. FCC directed the company to work with the GPS industry to determine the potential effect its terrestrial transmitters, which operate in the 1525-1559 MHz and 1626.5-1660.5 MHz bands, would have on GPS systems that operate in the nearby 1559-1610 MHz bands.
GPS industry and new cellular carrier spar over interference issue High-speed wireless vs. GPS? (USAToday)
Sens John Thune (R-SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced a bill aimed at promoting long-distance telemedicine for Medicare recipients. The Fostering Independence Through Technology Act has been introduced in past years without passing. It would provide incentives for home health agencies, particularly in rural areas, to use home monitoring and communications technologies. Under the bill, agencies that participated in the telemedicine pilot program would receive annual payments based on Medicare savings through telemedicine technology.
Sens Thune and Klobuchar introduce telemedicine bill