Microsoft researchers have developed a
mobility prediction system that knows where you will be, even years
down the road. What does this mean for the future of business?
Would you like to know how crowded your drive to the beach will be in
three weeks? Or where your ex will be on a Friday night next month so
that you can avoid him?
Adam Sadilek, formerly of Microsoft, now a researcher at Google,
and John Krumm, a principal researcher at Microsoft, were inspired by
the question of predicting where people would be in the future and even
led off with the query, “Where are you going to be 285 days from now at
2PM?” in their their paper, Far Out: Predicting Long-Term Human Mobility.
“At first glance,” the researchers told us, “it sounds like a very difficult problem.”
Sadilek, Krumm, and others have done a lot of research on predicting
where a person might be in the immediate future--say, in an hour or two.
Logically enough, it's been found that a person’s previous location is a
good clue for their next location. But as these models are extended
into the future, they give poorer and poorer results. To guess with any
accuracy where someone would be in 20 or 200 days would be more of a
challenge. In order to do so, Sadilek and Krumm realized, they’d have to
develop new techniques.
By Mike Adams, NaturalNews Editor February 2 - When you buy Microsoft products, you are now promoting the pharmaceutical industry and its global vaccine agenda. That's the new reality in which we live, where the world's largest software company is "in bed" with the world's largest vaccine pusher. How so? In 2009...
The web-based versions aim to make collaborative working much easier
Microsoft is launching a cloud-based version of its Office software suite.
Called Office 365 the service puts the familiar e-mail, word processing, spreadsheet and collaboration programs on the web.
Microsoft said the programs will be accessible via desktops, laptops and tablets plus Microsoft, RIM, Apple and Android smartphones.
The launch is aimed squarely at Google and others who already offer web-based business software...[Full Article]
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Apple Overtakes Microsoft As Biggest Tech Company (Reuters) - Apple Inc shot past Microsoft Corp as the world's biggest tech company based on market value on Wednesday, the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which nearly went out of business in the 1990s.
Apple's shares rose as much 2.8 percent on Nasdaq on Wednesday, as Microsoft shares floundered, briefly pushing its market value above $229 billion, ahead of its longtime rival.
Both stocks ended down after a late-day sell-off, but Apple emerged ahead with a market value of about $222 billion, compared with Microsoft's $219 billion, according to Reuters data.
Apple shares closed down 0.4 percent at $244.11 on Nasdaq, while Microsoft fell 4 percent to a seven-month low of $25.01.
Shares of Apple are worth more than 10 times what they were 10 years ago, as it has profited from revolutionizing consumer electronics with its stylish, easy to use products such as the iPod, iPhone and MacBook laptops.
The last time Apple had a higher market value than Microsoft was December 19, 1989, according to Thomson Reuters Datastream.
Microsoft, whose operating system runs on more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers, has not been able to match growth rates from its hey-day 1990s. Its stock is down 20 percent from 10 years ago.
Microsoft's Skinput Turns Hands, Arms Into Buttons Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- In Chris Harrison's ideal world, mobile phones would be the size of matchbooks. They'd have full-size keyboards. They'd browse the Web. They'd play videos.
And, most importantly, you'd never have to touch them.
Sound like too much to ask? Maybe not.
Harrison, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University and a former intern at Microsoft Research, has developed a working prototype of a system called Skinput that does just that, essentially by turning a person's hand and forearm into a keyboard and screen.
"People don't love the iPhone keyboard. They use them. But they don't love them," Harrison said in a interview at the recent Computer-Human Interaction conference. "If you could make the iPhone keyboard as big as an arm -- that would be huge."
Using Skinput, a person could tap their thumb and middle finger together to answer a call; touch their forearm to go to the next track on a music player; or flick the center of their palm to select a menu item...
Earlier this week, Microsoft had the whistle-blower website Cryptome erased from the Web. All the sprawling transnational corporation had to do was file a DMCA notice alleging copyright infringement on Cryptome’s proprietor John Young and Network Solutions did the rest — it locked up Cryptome’s domain name, thus disappearing the site from the Web. Cryptome had posted a Microsoft surveillance compliance document that the transnational corporation gives to law enforcement agents seeking information on Microsoft users.
No court ruling was required. Microsoft merely instructed Cryptome’s ISP to pull the plug...
