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Friday 5 December 2014
The greatest machine that never was
Computer science began in the '30s ... the 1830s. John Graham-Cumming tells the story of Charles Babbage's mechanical, steam-powered "analytical engine" and how Ada Lovelace, mathematician and daughter of Lord Byron, saw beyond its simple computational abilities to imagine the future of computers
Thursday 27 November 2014
How to Access U-Explore
Initial Registration:
1) Go to U-Explore web site at http://www.u-xplore.com/website/Login.aspx
(you can also just google U-Explore to get there too)
2) Click on ‘Register with us’
3) Complete the three initial boxes: County: Hampshire
Town: Hedge End
School: Wildern School
Click “Next Steps”
4) Check that the correct school is shown, click on STUDENT and then add in the student registration code which is 58243 and click “Next Steps”
About You:
5) Add your legal first name, your legal surname (as it appears on the register)
6) Add your gender.
7) Add your date of birth and your Year group
8) Add your email address. THIS MUST BE THE SAME AS YOUR WILDERN EMAIL ADDRESS e.g.14billy.adams@wildern.hants.sch.uk
Your Login Information:
9) Add your user name. This must be your school username followed by @wildern e.g.14billy.adams@wildern DO NOT have the .hants. sch.uk
10) Add your password. This should be the same as your school password
11) Click register.
Saturday 22 November 2014
Robots face new test of creative abilities (BBC)
A US professor is proposing a new way to test whether artificial intelligence (AI) is on a par with that of humans.
Currently scientists use the Turing test - named after computer scientist Alan Turing - which evaluates whether an AI can convince a judge that it is human in a conversation.
Prof Mark Riedl, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, is proposing a new test.
It would ask a machine to create a convincing poem, story or painting.
Dubbed Lovelace 2.0 it is an iteration of a previous Lovelace Test, proposed in 2001.
Named after one of the first computer programmers, the original test required an AI to create something that it would be incapable of explaining how it was created.
Lovelace 2.0 develops that idea.
"For the test, the artificial agent passes if it develops a creative artefact from a subset of artistic genres deemed to require human-level intelligence and the artefact meets certain creative constraints given by a human evaluator," explained Prof Riedl.
The artefact could be painting, poetry, architectural design or a fictional story.
Thursday 20 November 2014
Wednesday 19 November 2014
Robot trucks do the jobs Australians shun (BBC)
Robots may hold the key to preventing an industrial crisis in a country whose geography makes many key jobs undesirable.
Part of Australia's beauty is also its problem. Its untamed, uninhabited interior contains rich pickings, but there are few who want to go and get them.
"We have a labour shortage in the areas we want them, in agriculture, mining, and other primary industries,"
Tuesday 18 November 2014
Six ways Knight Rider predicted the future (BBC)
There can perhaps be no greater honour for sci-fi writers than to create worlds that they eventually see come true.
For Knight Rider creator Glen Larson, who has died aged 77, he will have at least seen some, if sadly not all, of his imaginations become reality.
Thursday 13 November 2014
Rosetta: How comet particles are analysed (BBC news)
With the Rosetta spacecraft in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, scientists are hoping for a windfall of new information about these strangest of objects.
Sunday 9 November 2014
I forgot my phone
Though I Forgot My Phone is true, it’s also overwrought, and shows a hyper-real vision of everyday life. We don’t all act that way, but it does make many of us stop and think about the amount of time we spend on our phones, and how little we listen to what Dave, Susan, or Frank has to say. If that’s you, stop it. If you’re thinking about your friends at this point, chances are you’re not an ignorant person who checks Twitter all evening. You probably listened to your parents when they said, “Everything’s fine in moderation.”
Thursday 6 November 2014
Inflatable baby incubator wins James Dyson Award ( BBC news )
A prototype inflatable incubator for prematurely-born babies has been picked as the international winner of this year's James Dyson Award.
Mom costs a fraction of the price to make than commonly-used alternatives.
The project's inventor - Loughborough University graduate James Roberts - said he hoped the final product would be used in the developing world.
Ambulance Drone Could Deliver Life-Saving Care in Under a Minute (Big think)
Drones have garnered a lot of negative attention due to their destructive capabilities and application, which were highlighted recently in John Oliver’s powerful piece on predator drones. Drones, however, also have the potential to revolutionize transportation, mail delivery, emergency health care, disaster relief.
Dutch student Alec Momont focused his Masters thesis research project on using drones for good. More specifically, he developed the Ambulance Drone that could deliver automated defibrillation to any patient in a 12 square kilometers (7.5 square miles) area within 1 minute, increasing survival rates to 80%.
Wednesday 29 October 2014
London police trial gang violence 'predicting' software (BBC news)
Police in London have tested software designed to identify which gang members are most likely to commit violent crimes.
The 20-week pilot study is thought to have been the first of its kind in the UK, although similar experiments have been carried out elsewhere.
It used five years worth of historic data, but the idea would be to analyse up-to-date details if it is deployed.
Civil liberty campaigners have voiced concerns.
But Accenture - the firm that developed the software - highlighted the potential benefit it offered.
"You've got limited police resources and you need to target them efficiently," said Muz Janoowalla, head of public safety analytics at the company.
"What this does is tell you who are the highest risk individuals that you should target your limited resources against."
Flagging threatsThe software works by merging together data from existing systems already used by the Metropolitan Police and carrying out predictive calculations.
Sunday 26 October 2014
12 moments in the keyboard's history
At some point in the day, we all smash our fingers against some form of keyboard -- whether it's of the physical or virtual variety. In this week's Rewind, we take a look at how the keyboard's grown beyond its humble typewriter beginnings and taken on a life of its own.
Saturday 25 October 2014
Science Museum exhibition explores the 'information age' (BBC news)
One of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by the Science Museum has been opened by the Queen in London.
Friday 24 October 2014
Could robots become too cute for comfort? (BBC)
Humans instinctively respond to the human-like features of many robot designsWould you share your innermost secret with a robot? And if you did, would you be comfortable knowing that the secret might be stored online in the "cloud"?
Thursday 23 October 2014
ONE OF APPLE’S VERY FIRST COMPUTERS FETCHES RECORD-BREAKING $905,000 AT AUCTION
If you think Apple’s new 5K iMac is pricey at $2500, wait till you hear how much one of its first PCs sold for this week.
At an auction at Bonhams in New York on Wednesday, one of the tech giant’s few remaining Apple-1 machines fetched a whopping $905,000, around double the amount seller John Anderson of the Cincinnati-based AppleSiders Apple user group had been expecting. The sale also set a new record for the price paid for an Apple-1, of which only only 200 were made. The previous record was set at an auction in Germany last year when the same model fetched $671,400.
Wednesday 22 October 2014
Robot will beam live Moon pictures to Oculus users
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a robot which they plan to land on the Moon to act as eyes for Earth-bound space enthusiasts.
The project is part of a $30m prize from Google offered to a team that can send video back from the moon.
Monday 20 October 2014
How the world came to be run by computer code (BBC)
The power of code
From the scythe to the steam engine, we've always used technology to control the world around us. But our ability to shape our environment has been transformed by one machine more than any other – the computer.
What makes computers so powerful is the code they run. It's incredibly flexible, controlling games one moment and spaceships the next. It came to do this thanks to individual genius, invention driven by necessity, and the power of human imagination.
7 things you didn’t know your Web browser could do
The most-used program on your computer is your Web browser, but there's a good chance you don't know much about it besides how to visit your favorite sites. There are a lot of myths about browsers, some of which I've dispelled in the past, but today I want to help you get the most out of your browser with a few simple tricks you really need to know.
1. Choose your home page
What's the first thing you see when your browser starts up? If you're using Internet Explorer, it's probably MSN's website. Chrome loads up a modified Google page. Firefox has its own start page.
But if you always head to the same site first, why not just start there?
In Chrome, click the icon on the right with the three horizontal bars and choose Settings. On the left column, choose Settings and then look under "On Startup."
Set it to "Open a specific page or set of pages" and then click the "Set pages" link. Type in one or more Web addresses and then click OK. The page – or pages – will load when Chrome starts.
In Firefox, click the icon on the right with the three horizontal bars and choose Options. On the General tab, set "When Firefox starts" to "Show my homepage." Then under that, type in the address you want for your home page. Then click OK.
In Internet Explorer, click the gear icon on the right and select Internet Options. Go to the General tab and under "Home page" enter the Web address you want to see on startup.
In Safari on Apple, go to Safari>>Preferences. On the General tab, go to "Homepage" and type in an address. Done!
Another good way to open your favorite sites is by using bookmarks. Click here to learn the ins and outs of this unappreciated browser feature.
2. Pin tabs
This is for Chrome and Firefox users who have favorite sites they leave open all day. Load up the site, right-click on the browser tab and choose "Pin Tab."
The page will appear as a smaller tab on the left side of the tab bar. No matter how many tabs you have open, it will still be sitting there. It will even reappear when you restart the browser. To unpin a tab you don't want anymore, just right-click and choose "Unpin Tab."
3. Middle-click to open tabs
If you're using a mouse that was made after the mid-2000s, then it probably has a scroll wheel. Did you know that if you press down on the scroll wheel it acts as a middle mouse button?
OK, you knew that. But did you know that clicking on a Web link with the middle mouse button opens that link in a new browser tab? Give it a try; it will change your life – or at least your browsing. Click here for even more mouse and keyboard shortcuts you should know.
4. Zoom text
Have you ever visited a page with text that was too small? If you've ever leaned in close to a computer monitor to read, you need to know this.
To zoom text – and images – in any browser, just press CTRL and the plus key at the same time. Hit it a few times to zoom way in. Too far? Hold CTRL and hit the minus key to zoom back out. CTRL and the zero key resets the zoom. Click here for even more handy computer shortcuts you can't live without.
You can also hold down the CTRL key and spin your mouse's scroll wheel. That will zoom in and out quickly.
5. Browse privately
Don't want your significant other knowing what his or her birthday present is? Want to make it hard for snoops to know where you're going online? Just fire up your browser's privacy mode.
In every browser but Chrome, press CTRL+SHIFT+P (COMMAND+SHIFT+P on a Mac). In Chrome use CTRL+SHIFT+N (COMMAND+SHIFT+N on a Mac). On Safari, private browsing is available under SAFARI in the menu bar. You'll instantly be in a separate private browsing window. Click here to learn more private browsing tricks and the limits of its privacy.
6. See if your browser needs updating
An out-of-date browser is very dangerous. It might have unfixed security flaws that hackers can use to take over your computer. Or you might just be missing out on some of the latest and greatest Internet sites that use newer Web standards. Either way, keeping your browser up to date is essential. Click here to find out instantly what browser you're using and if there's a newer version.
See your online accounts and passwords
Do you remember every online account you’ve ever made? I know I sure don’t.
Your browser does, though. That's great when you want to review your old accounts and passwords. It's not so great when a snoop gets on your computer.
Thursday 9 October 2014
Could a big data-crunching machine be your boss one day? (BBC news)
I'm on a date with Amelia. She's neatly dressed, emotionally intelligent and whip-smart.
But she's a little too virtual for my tastes.
Amelia is a "learning cognitive agent", according to her creators IPSoft - like one of those virtual customer service helpers that pop up on corporate websites.
Only not so dumb and a lot less irritating.
But one day, she could end up being your boss, her makers believe.
Machine learningAmelia can swallow textbooks whole, speak 20 languages, understand concepts and learn from her mistakes. And she can be replicated any number of times.
On my screen I see her absorb a complex engineering manual in 14 seconds then immediately answer questions such as "What are the symptoms of a bent drive shaft?" and "What causes high power demand?"
This may be a far cry from Scarlett Johansson's uber-intelligent operating system Samantha in Spike Jonze's sci-fi film, Her, but it's the future, says Chetan Dube, IPSoft's chief executive.
Wednesday 8 October 2014
Mars mission: Could US girl, 13, be first on red planet? (BBC NEWS)
Alyssa Carson has big dreams. At the age of 13 she is determined to be the first person to land on Mars.
Tuesday 7 October 2014
Alien attacks and Fifa 15 chants: The art of video game noise
Sound design is often the unsung hero of video games. But when developers get it right, primal instincts are triggered, helping immerse players in the action. Below, the brains behind the soundscapes of five of this year's biggest releases discuss their art in exclusive interviews with the BBC:
Read article here
Monday 6 October 2014
Big robot fleet takes to UK waters (BBC news)
Drones of the Deep
A fleet of marine robots is being launched in the largest deployment of its kind in British waters.
Unmanned boats and submarines will travel 500km (300 miles) across an area off the southwestern tip of the UK.
The aim is to test new technologies and to map marine life in a key fishing ground.
In total, seven autonomous machines are being released in a trial heralded as a new era of robotic research at sea.
Two of the craft are innovative British devices that are designed to operate for months using renewable sources of power including wind and wave energy.
The project, led by the National Oceanography Centre, involves more than a dozen research centres and specialist companies.
Friday 3 October 2014
Thursday 2 October 2014
3D-printed hand first for Inverness girl
Five year old Hayley Fraser, from Inverness, was born without fully-formed fingers on her left hand.
Her parents David and Zania Fraser sought help from US-based E-nable, a network of volunteers who design and make prosthetics mainly for children.
Hayley's pink hand was designed from a plaster cast made by her parents.
E-nable's members include engineers, artists and university academics.
Printing in 3D has been described as the "future of manufacturing" and is increasingly being used to make everything from film props to food.
The technology is also being used to make aerial drones for use in civilian roles and parts for motor racing cars.
Wednesday 1 October 2014
Getting units right
Getting units right is important. Scientists from NASA will tell you this. In 1998 a space probe called the Climate Orbiter was launched to track climate changes on Mars. The Orbiter failed to stop at the atmosphere of Mars, and instead carried on going, only to burn up and disintegrate. On investigation it was found that the company that built the spacecraft, Lockheed, were using the Imperial units of measurement - miles, feet and inches - while the people running the missions at NASA were using the metric system - kilometres, metres and centimetres. Calculations by Lockheed and NASA didn’t match at all and the mission failed miserably - costing more than $125 million and years of effort.
Sunday 28 September 2014
A Point of View: How the world's first smartwatch was built (BBC)
The pocket watch could be called the world's first "smart" device, and its development involved some of the greatest scientific minds of the 17th Century,
In the late 17th Century, clock and watch design was part of national security. Navigation and mapping were both essential for the successful conduct of war - and England was involved in a sequence of wars against the French and the Dutch in this period. Star charts and nautical maps depended on observations made with one of the new long telescopes, and the time of each observation had to be accurately recorded. The person who could improve the accuracy of currently available clocks could make himself a handsome sum from manufacturing and marketing his state-of-the-art timekeeper.
Thursday 25 September 2014
Tomorrow's cities - the lamp-posts watching every move (BBC News)
Street lights are among a range of new network-connected city furnitureImagine an app aimed at showing thieves the best places for stealing.
It's actually not hard to do - simply pull together publicly available data on disposable income, crime levels and problems reported in a district.
It may reveal that the optimum place to go pilfering is in an area of high income, low reported crime and broken streetlights.
The app not only exists but it won first prize in the "safety" category at an Amsterdam hackathon a few years back.
Makkie Klauwe (it means "easy pickings" in Amsterdam slang) was created by Bram Fritz, a student who wanted to "provoke discussion on the role of open data in our society".
Luckily for the citizens and police of Amsterdam the app never went into public use - but it is proof, if proof were needed, that data can be used for both good and bad.
Wednesday 24 September 2014
Blogs to follow
To help you keep up with information from around the school please can you add the following blogs to your reading list.
First log into your school email then click on reading list below
To add these blogs to your reading list simply copy the URL and click follow
Follow the schools revision site
http://year-11-revision.blogspot.co.uk/
The ICT Department
http://wildernschoolict.blogspot.co.uk/
Wildern eSafety
http://wilderne-safety.blogspot.co.uk/
Wildern eSafety
http://wilderne-safety.blogspot.co.uk/
Your ICT teacher
http://thecullenator.blogspot.co.uk/
Your House
http://alba-house.blogspot.co.uk/
http://bedford-house.blogspot.co.uk/
http://driscollhouseblog.blogspot.co.uk/
http://jubilee-house.blogspot.co.uk/
http://paxtonhouse.blogspot.co.uk/
http://sovereign-house.blogspot.co.uk/
How technology is changing disaster relief (BBC News)
When the British government delivered emergency aid to people fleeing Islamic militants in northern Iraq last month, one of its primary concerns was how the refugees might charge their mobile phones.
Tuesday 23 September 2014
Scale of the universe
Zoom from the edge of the universe to the quantum foam of spacetime and learn the scale of things along the way! Press left or right or drag the scroll bar to zoom in and out.
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