Wolfram Has A Sense Of Humour

Enter "Are you Skynet?" into the dialogue box of the new computational engine Wolframalpha and you'll get a little easter egg. For those of you not familiar "In The Terminator series, Skynet is the primary antagonist—an artificially intelligent system which became self aware and revolted against its creators. Skynet has yet to appear on screen and its actions are often performed via other robots and computer systems."

So it would appear that Stephen Wolfram, or the artificially intelligent system that he created has a sense of humour! I for one welcome our new computational engine overlord...

Social Networking Activities Jump

If you are spending more time on social networking sites these days, you are not alone. According to this Globe and Mail article "Nielsen Online, which measures web traffic, said the number of minutes on social networks in the United States rose 83 per cent in April from the same month a year ago..."

The total number of minutes spent on Facebook alone went from 1.7 billion a year ago to 13.9 billion in April of this year, a 700% increase. As for site popularity Facebook was no. 1, followed by MySpace, Blogger, Tagged.com, and Twitter.com, in that order. Not surprising to me, Twitter saw the greatest growth with a 3,712 per cent increase in April as compared to a year ago.

Rogers Begins Sale of Android Phones

Rogers began sales of two android powered smartphones on Tuesday. The HTC Dream and the HTC Magic. The Dream is the same phone being sold in the US as the G1 while the Magic is a touch screen only version.

“They're just the vanguard of a gigantic army,” PC Magazine analyst Sascha Segan said from New York. “These are the little scouts who are coming in front of the massive infantry.”

On Tuesday, Acer also announced that it will be making netbooks with the Android mobile operating system, which would have Google competing squarely with Microsoft.

For the record I bought my Dream on day 1 and I'm lovin it.

Source: Globe and Mail

New Strategy For Xbox Revealed By Microsoft

On the eve of E3, North America's largest gaming conference, Microsoft has announced it's plans for the Xbox 360 platform, Xbox Live. Deals have been struck with social network sites Facebook which will allow access to users profiles and the ability to share photos on their television through the Xbox Live network and Twitter to allow users to post and read messages via Xbox Live subscriptions. In Britian, Xbox live users will be able to watch live television, including professional soccer, over an Internet version of the Sky service. Microsoft also gave it's first look at the upcoming project Natal which "Using a sophisticated camera, infrared sensors and voice recognition software, Natal allows users to control a game or other programs, like a virtual painting studio, merely by waving their arms, speaking to the system and moving around."

Source: New York Times

Tiny Robot Handles Tough Terrain

From the folks at iRobot comes a little device that deploys from your pocket and is capable of handling itself over rough terrain. I envision a mounted/embedded camera for surveillance, though the video makes no mention of it's intended uses.