Understanding language can be difficult from human to human, much less for machines attempting to understand the intricacies of human speech and text. Google knows this as well as anyone considering the countless queries made every hour which take a user where they need to go, even in the face of abhorrent sentence structure and unfortunate spelling mistakes. Today, Google is open-sourcing something called SyntaxNet and specifically a component for it, Parsey McParseface. With an endearing reference to the polled name Boaty McBoatface for NERC’s research vessel earlier this year, Google is releasing the tools it uses to understand natural language when typed into a box or interpreted via spoken word.
SyntaxNet is the overall framework for parsing sentences, called a “syntactic parser.” Mr. McParseface is the English language plugin for SyntaxNet. Google claims the plugin can identify objects, subjects, verbs, and other grammatical building blocks of sentences as well as, or even better than, trained human linguists.
As AI technology grows in popularity and complexity, the natural progression would then be to shrink the actual size this tool needs to function and that’s exactly what a Silicon Valley chip designer has done.
Chip designer Movidius has launched a USB stick with a supercomputer onboard, essentially taking the deep learning paradigm of artificial intelligence to the spacial efficiency of a USB drive. Deep learing involves training a computer which, as we saw with Google’s AlphaGo, can create a true force to be reckoned with. Dubbed, the “Fathom Neural Compute Stick”, the device has been designed to connect to existing systems and increase the performance of deep learning tasks by 20-30 times.
The chip maker is applying the leap to other endeavors such as helping drones avoid obstacles, and developing higher sensitivity thermal imaging. The company has also signed a deal with Google which may take their DeepMind project to new heights as well.
There have been many interesting hacks to increase the battery life of an iPhone since its release but hearing “light it on fire” has probably not been one of them. Lighting your phone on fire is still a terrible idea and should not be attempted to charge ANYTHING but a device called the FlameStower USB Fire Charger lets you harness humanities oldest discovery to power one of its newest inventions.
The FlameStower is useful when camping, and especially useful for those unfortunate times stranded on a desert island. It works by converting thermal energy to a generator which juices the phone. A blade protruding from the device is placed into the fire to get a generator going. From there, the attached phone will begin to receive power, albeit at a crawl. With the ability to charge small electronics, cameras, and flashlights as long as the device receiving charge is USB compatible.
Printers, phones, laptops, even particularly high tech coffee makers. Everything in our daily lives has a network connection to the other devices around them. By utilizing this connectivity, the USB Network Gate allows you to connect to remote USB devices over the internet and local networks as if they were directly connected to your computer.
Available for both Mac and PC, USB Network Gate allows computers to operate USB devices from virtually anywhere in the world. With Mac, Windows, or Linux based systems that call for USB security authorization, you can share access without the hassle of running a physical device between systems.
Syncing remotely can be an invaluable tool when traveling, leaving valuable storage at home or work, or to avoid the hassle of getting up and migrating to where your hardware is instead of having that data come to you. Up to 10 USB devices can be supported using the USB Network Gate.
Smartphones are not in short supply when it comes to software gadgets. Rulers, levels, and calculators are great examples for the software, but hardware extensions to our powerful devices have been scarce in recent years. Android now offers a tool which utilizes the computation, camera, and display of a smartphone for an endoscope with incredible versatility.
The endoscope can take photos, record video, and store these forms of media directly on an Android smarphone or tablet. Included with the IP67 waterproof camera are 6 adjustable LEDs which enables further aquatic synergy with the trend of waterproof phones. The endoscope is an invaluable tool for mobile drainage inspection, cost-effective intraoral camera systems, motor vehicle examination, and even home care for vents or other hard to reach spaces.
While there has been a recent push for more customizable mobile phones, most carriers offer a fairly limited of variety in the hardware customers can receive. There isn’t much a user can purchase to make their iPhone battery last longer, but the SanDisk iXpand flash drive is coming up strong as a compact solution to make the standard 16GB iPhone a little less standard.
Services like Google Photos or other backup methods through the Cloud can be useful but require a stable internet connection to save and access files. The beauty of an iPhone compatible flash drive is that it’s portable, secure, and comes with a mountain of storage space to suit an individual consumer’s needs. SanDisk’s iXpand is designed to be an iPhone companion by automatically backing up the camera roll, offering video viewing straight from the drive, and acting as a storage space for some of those bulkier applications.
The obvious size discrepancy and the not so obvious set of protocol difference between SD memory and a standard disk drive has made it difficult to utilize SD cards as a primary or even secondary storage space on a standard computer. Fortunately, converters to bridge the gap between these two types of memory have become smaller and faster to finally utilize a set of SD cards as a SATA SSD.
The 10 x Micro SD to SATA converter utilizes a RAID 0 level which increases system performance, read speeds, and write speeds. RAID setups link multiple storage mediums together for better results and hardware RAID does not use the host computer’s CPU to function. Available for $64.00, this converter is an excellent way to take advantage of the speed of Micro SD cards for a desktop.
Novomatic slots games will be soon available as USB portable version with full features due to new technology developed by Gaminator Slots ltd. This means that anyone can play the games online or offline using the portable version of the slots games. This new technology is very secured and allow players to play real money even if they are not connected to the internet. Every piece of data is saved on the USB drive and it cannot be moved, copied or modified. When the player wants to cash out the money earned during the offline play he just needs to insert the usb flash drive in a computer connected to the internet.
This is not a new idea, but it is the first time when a casino succeed to create this kind of software, fully secured and ready to be used for general public.
Right now just 3 slots games have been ported to this new technology, but in a matter of months there will be a lot of games available in this format.
You can download these 3 games on your USB flash drive from these links:
Before you can start playing you need to prove that you are at least 18 yrs old so you need to insert the usb flash drive in a computer connected to the internet.
There is one small limitation. Windows XP and Windows Vista are not supported because of security layers incompatibility.
The information age heralded by our technology is proving more than capable of eroding the media blockade of regimes such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Over 250 defectors have studied at a journalist academy founded by one of their own in 2011 and they have gone on to further undermine North Korean efforts to keep its population in the dark. These subversions include going on to work for radio stations broadcasting into North Korea, writing about their homeland for media in South Korea or surrounding nations, and just recently, a defector by the name of Daniel Jeong has begun a project to smuggle 6,000 USB drives loaded with news and other media into the isolated state.
Amazon will no longer allow the sale of USB cords with the potential to fry a consumer’s technology.
In its list of banned items, USB-C cables or adapter products have been added. This of course is not a blanket statement since USB-C is taking the world by storm with companies like Apple even going so far as to release a macbook with only 2 ports total. Any USB Type-C cable or adapter product which is not compliant with standard specifications will not be allowed on Amazon for sale or resale.
The new Type-C power cord is small, multipurpose, universal, and reversible. Capable of suppling power, video output, and an enourmous amount of data per second, USB Type-C is looking to unseat micro-USB cords seen on many standard smartphones. Cheap power cords are nothing new and are still readily available but cheap, poorly made cords have proven to be dangerous to users and to their tech.
The USB-C standards-setting group, the USB Implementers Forum, has been issuing a seal of approval for safe USB-C cords since they first appeared on the market last year. Amazon, up until now, had allowed non-certified cords on its website. Since they are now following suit with many physical stores such as Staples and Best Buy, products and pricing between in-store and online may have much less of a contrast in the future.
Data security through the internet is one of the most volatile industries in today’s world. Bug exploits, malicious code, and all kinds of data stealing programs being born through the constant fluidity of web content has led to many companies and organizations removing their valuable information from the grid altogether. A new threat on the hardware front however, may prove to be a challenge for even this avenue of data protection.
A new malware sample, appropriately named “USB Thief”, was discovered by researchers at the award-winning ESET security firm. As its name implies, the malware is completely USB-based, meaning it spreads only through devices plugging in through the USB ports of a computer.
In response to the countless devices we use such as tablets, ChromeBooks, phones, MP3 players, and even 3D glasses, Saelig Unique Electronics has released a product to keep everything juiced up simultaneously while maintaining safety for each unique device.
The Cambrionix U16S Universal USB Charging Board allows users to charge up to 16 USB 2.0 devices at manufacturer-approved speeds and at up to 2.1A per port. Available for Mac and Windows environments, the U16S is ideal for schools, restaurants, airports, or any other location where customer services could be enhanced by offering a universal charging facility.
The U16S also includes compatibility with LCD or LED displays enabling users to view the status of their battery and other specifications such as time remaining or current (in Amperes) flowing to each device. The included LiveViewer software demonstrates the unique benefits and facilitates this informative display. LiveViewer shows each port if a device is attached and how much energy it is using. Furthermore, each port can be configured on or off from the app to avoid unwanted use of the product at certain times or after a period of usage.
