thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
strategy based on Twitter. During a four-month simulation, his approach outperformed other baseline strategies and indexes, including the Dow Jones industrial average, by between 1.4 percent and 11 percent.A model that predicts the stock market, Hristidis said, can only be successful as long as people dont know about it.
latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-bump-pay-iphone-app-20120329,0,4681787.storylatimes.comApp lets you pay pals by bumping iPhonesBy Michelle Maltais5:35 PM PDT, March 29, 2012AdvertisementClick here to find out more!If your buddy owes you money, lacking cash is no excuse if he's got an iPhone.Just like sending contact information with the Bump app, you can now transfer money the same way with Bump Pay. The free app asks for your email address when it's initially opened. You and your iPhone-wielding friend bump hands; when you feel the vibration, the money's a-moving.The money will be associated with the email address you enter. If that one doesn't have a PayPal account associated with it, PayPal will send you an email to prompt you to create an account to get your money. (You can't set up a PayPal account within this app.)If you have your checking account linked to PayPal, there are no fees for the transfer of funds. If your credit card is what's linked, there is a fee.Unlike Venmo -- which is for iOS, Android, computers and any phone with SMS -- Bump Pay uses PayPal exclusively and is available only for iOS devices in the U.S. Other payment platforms could be available in the future, Bump CEO David Lieb told Mashable.Originally, the app was a tool created for members of the Bump team to help split the check for lunch, according to Mashable.Now, if you win the Mega Millions jackpot or have some other reason to move big money around, just know you'll have to limit yourself to payments of less than $1,000 with this app.RELATED:Comedy Central app highlights election humorMega Millions: 5 things to do with apps if you winOnStar rolls out Family Link, allows families to track each other Follow Michelle Maltais on Google+, Facebook or Twitter Copyright 2012, Los Angeles Times Kinsight uses Kinect sensor to find lost keys and walletsObjects tracked by the Kinsight system The team used their system to track a range of objects around a homeContinue reading the main storyRelated Stories Microsoft launches Kinect for PCs Interface controls compete at CES Earthquake rescue with Kinect botForgetful geeks need never lose keys, phones or even cutlery at home again.Two computer science researchers have developed a depth-camera based system that keeps track of household objects as they are moved around a building.The project - dubbed Kinsight - relies on several of Microsoft's Kinect sensors attached to a computer running the team's software.Although the project is still at an experimental stage, it has been shown to work in a "real-world scenario".Details of the system were recently outlined at a conference in China and were subsequently reported by New Scientist."Imagine if we had a system that could keep account of all the objects that we interact with in our daily lives," the researchers said."By keeping track of the locations of the objects, we could build a smart search engine for our home that could answer queries like - where are my eye glasses, or my TV-remote, or my wallet?"Although alternative solutions, such as the use of radio-frequency identification chips already exists, the men said their system was many times
cheaper due to the high cost of RFID readers.What goes whereThe researchers noted that running a computer program that simultaneously tracked all the owner's objects in real-time would be too processor-intensive.So they based their design around the principle that objects only change locations when humans move them.As a result the system focuses on tracking human figures and then looking for objects that have changed position in their vicinity.Although the Kinect sensor's capabilities are limited - it only sees objects up to 11 feet (3.4m) away and only provides "skeleton data" at 15 frames/second - the Kinsight program has commonsense notions built into it to improve accuracy: so it knows that a coffee cup is most likely to be found at a study desk, or kitchen sink, but not inside a bath.Kinect sensor The researchers say accuracy could be improved if Microsoft releases a more powerful Kinect"This means that, when in doubt, an object recognition algorithm can use this knowledge to identify an object by analysing the likelihood of it being at some location, or looking for the candidate objects in their other locations," the researchers said.On the moveAlgorithms were also created to help the computer learn the appearance of objects and the context they were likely to be used in by analysing the data gathered.To prove the system worked the two scientists labelled 48 objects - including knives, forks, keys and a Rubik's cube - and identified 80 possible locations around a house.They then asked volunteers to move the items around according to randomly generated patterns.The results suggested room for improvement - errors were more likely if the objects were very small, far away, transparent or placed too closely together - but the team said these problems should be addressed by using more sensors per room and adopting more sensitive depth-cameras.In the meantime, they say that even when the program does lose track of possessions, it can still say were they were last seen which may still prove helpful.
introduire involontairement le virus. C'etait notre Saint-Graal, commente laconiquement l'un des auteurs du projet. Et il s'avere qu'il y a toujours un idiot pour ne pas trop reflechir a ce que contient la cle USB entre ses mains.Les resultats vont au-dela des esperances. Olympic Games s'infiltre dans les arcanes de Natanz, declenchant des pannes de centrifugeuses, en apparence benignes et localisees. Jusqu'a ce que survienne un couac majeur en 2010. Le virus echappe a ses createurs lorsqu'un ingenieur iranien le libere tout a fait involontairement sur Internet. La menace, detectee durant l'ete aux quatre coins du globe, est rebaptisee Stuxnet par les experts en securite informatique.Mille centrifugeuses detruitesBarack Obama se trouve a la croisee des chemins. Il doit decider de tout arreter avant qu'il ne soit trop tard, que cette arme d'un genre nouveau desormais revelee au grand jour ne soit decortiquee par les ennemis des Etats-Unis et ne revienne comme un boomerang sur les infrastructures vitales americaines.Convaincu des degats prometteurs causes a Natanz, Obama autorise deux nouvelles cyberattaques, a l'aide d'une version perfectionnee de Jeux olympiques, rebaptise Flame (flamme). Il ne le regrettera pas. Flame reussit l'exploit de detruire mille exemplaires de centrifugeuses iraniennes ultramodernes de type Ir-2. Mieux, les interceptions revelent que l'Iran est en train de perdre confiance en son savoir-faire et ses ingenieurs. Certains d'entre eux sont meme limoges sans autre forme de proces. Le chaos est complet dans les souterrains de Natanz et les laboratoires de la capitale iranienne.Les sources consultees par Sanger sont formelles: malgre le fiasco de Stuxnet, Flame a sans doute retarde d'un an et demi a deux ans le programme nucleaire iranien dans sa quete de la bombe. Un delai precieux, cense permettre aux sanctions internationales de faire enfin entendre raison au regime iranien. Cet objectif-la n'est pas encore atteint.* David E. Sanger, Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power, Crown publishers, juin 2012.
O2 mobile wallet app launches text message paymentsO2 Wallet The app has a range of services, including a money management facilityContinue reading the main storyRelated Stories UK moves closer to mobile wallet Google to show off mobile wallet In search of the mobile walletMobile network O2 has launched a smartphone app that allows users to transfer up to 500 via text message.It also allows customers to "digitise" their debit and credit cards to speed up purchases from online stores.The firm also intends to allow users of phones with near-field communication (NFC) chips to make contactless payments in high street shops.It is the latest of several firms to charge retailers a transaction fee for making it easier to shop.The service will be free to consumers at first, but O2 said that it would charge 15p for each money message sent by text at a later date.The network provider said that more than 100 retailers had agreed to accept payments from the service. They include Debenhams, Comet, Sainsbury's Direct and Tesco Direct.Users can also benefit from a search facility that compares how much goods cost, the ability to load money onto the app from their debit cards and a "transaction history" that keeps track of what they have spent.The firm said it had held off introducing contactless payments as only a handful of retailers had installed the necessary systems.Continue reading the main storyimage of Rory Cellan-Jones Analysis Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondentEvery week seems to bring news of a mobile money product launch - but so far British consumers have proved lukewarm about the idea that their phones can substitute for their wallets.What's intriguing about O2's new venture is that it's the biggest attempt so far by a mobile operator, rather than a bank or credit card issuer, to enter this market.In developing countries like Kenya it is mobile firms which have successfully pioneered mobile money innovation - but that's because products are aimed at the many who don't have bank accounts.In the UK, where that isn't the case, O2 will have to convince customers that their money is safe on their mobiles.If and when UK phone users do get enthusiastic about mobile money, there's a very lucrative business opportunity - and mobile operators will find themselves in a battle with the banks to grasp it. Read more from RoryIt added that it was also in discussions with a rail operator to add a button to buy train tickets.Security risksJames Le Brocq, managing director at O2 Money said: "We believe it will transform the way people manage their finances and spend money."One of the biggest stumbling blocks for uptake of such technology is fears about security. He noted that all personal details, pin codes, passwords and other financial data were held on remote central servers rather than on the mobile device."O2 wallet has been trialled internally for months and has undergone extensive 'stress-testing' with security experts," he added."This is, we believe, the safest and most secure way to deliver mobile payment services."Project OscarEden Zoller, analyst at Ovum, said the service was part of a wider
plan.O2 and its rivals Vodafone and EverythingEverywhere are working on a national mobile payments service - dubbed Project Oscar. They had hoped to have it up and running in time for the London Olympics.But the project is held up in Brussels, subject to an anti-competitive investigation."For O2 if this project is in danger of being stalled or even derailed it make sense to move ahead with a solo initiative," said Ms Zoller.Phone with O2 Wallet app opened The app can also scan barcodes and search for cheaper productsIt is not the first time O2 has experimented with mobile wallets. In 2009 it tested using mobiles as an Oyster card replacement to pay for travel on London's Underground network.Last summer saw the launch of the UK's first mobile payment service with Orange and Barclaycard teaming up to offer contactless payments in a range of stores, including Pret a Manger, Little Chef and the National Trust.Juniper Research estimates that one in six mobile devices will be NFC-enabled by 2014.O2 currently has 200,000 customers with NFC-enabled phones in the UK.
Investors losing faith that Nokia can stop the rotBy Tarmo VirkiHELSINKI | Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:07am EDT(Reuters) - Ailing cellphone maker Nokia has the cash to survive seven quarters like the last, but investors are losing faith that it can break the vicious circle that keeps customers and in turn application developers from its new phones.Chief Executive Stephen Elop, who joined from Microsoft in 2010, gambled last year that ditching Nokia's homegrown Symbian phone software in favor of a largely untried version from his old employer would put the company back in the driving seat.On Wednesday it warned that it would make losses in the first two quarters of this year, after demand for the moribund Symbian phones collapsed, while sales of its new Windows Phone models are a long way short of compensating.The market took fright when Elop made the decision, and tumbled again on the loss warnings. Any investors still holding the stock after a year-long white-knuckle ride have lost two-thirds of their investment. On Thursday, the stock was down about 7 percent after a 15 percent fall a day earlier.Despite getting the new Windows Phone models out at breakneck speed, it has sold fewer than expected, as consumers remain wedded to Apple's iPhones or Samsung models running Google's Android system, both of which come with a bigger range of applications supported by a much larger population of developers."It is too early to write Nokia off," said analyst Peter Cunningham at Canalys. "It is still in the middle of its transition to Windows Phone, but it doesn't have the luxury of time. The next six months will be critical in the company's long-term future. The Lumia 610 needs to be a success, and it needs some hit products in the market in time for Christmas."VOLUMESIn the first quarter Nokia sold just over 2 million Lumia phones, compared with expected sales of 31 million iPhones and the 37 million smartphones Samsung is expected to sell in the quarter, according to a Reuters poll.The market consensus is that it needs to sell 27 million this year, 55 million next year, and 94 million in 2014, according to analysts polled by Reuters."If they can show the volume, then the next Nokia tune is 'Stairway to Heaven'. If not, it is 'How Low Can You Go', or 'Bye Bye Baby'," said John Strand, founder of Danish research firm Strand Consult.To make the volumes, the company needs to resolve a Catch-22 dilemma; to sell more phones, you need more apps, but to attract app developers, you need to sell more phones.There are about 80,000 applications that owners of models running Windows Phone can enjoy, a drop in the ocean compared with the half a billion available to Apple and Android users.Nokia burned through 700 million euros of cash in the first quarter, leaving 4.9 billion euros ($6.4 billion) at the end of March, but as its share price tumbles, it might run out of time before it runs out of cash.Its market value, about a tenth of its recent peak in 2007, the year
the iPhone stormed the market, is just 11.3 billion euros, making it increasingly attractive as a takeover target, though industry followers said predators would likely move only after some evidence that the Windows Phone strategy was working.A Reuters poll showed Nokia likely lost its position as the world's largest cellphone maker in the first quarter to rival Samsung Electronics, after dominating the market for 14 years."At the moment it seems that the strategic decisions were not correct," said Timo Rothovius, Chairman of the Finnish Shareholders Union, which represents small-cap local investors who have increased their holdings during the freefall."It might be that the Windows phones still take off, but at the moment it is hard to see any light at the end of the tunnel. Something radical has to be done. The company's credibility in the market is weak, and it suggests that maybe betting everything on one card wasn't a good thing," Rothovius said.(Additional reporting by Eero Vassinen and Terhi Kinnunen in Helsinki and Georgina Prodhan in London; Editing by Will Waterman)
specific task in mind, Flame was much more sophisticated."Whereas Stuxnet just had one purpose in life, Flame is a toolkit, so they can go after just about everything they can get their hands on."Once the initial Flame malware has infected a machine, additional modules can be added to perform specific tasks - almost in the same manner as adding apps to a smartphone.More Technology stories Samsung Galaxy S3 phoneSamsung Galaxy S3 launch delays Samsung says there will be a short supply of blue models of its new smartphone in order to meet internal quality standards. Self-drive 'convoy' hits the road Facebook phone 'due next year'BBCBBC 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/04/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/8930/Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?Social mediafrom Facebook to Twitterhave made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill. A report on what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and our society.By Stephen MarcheImage credit: Phillip ToledanoYvette Vickers, a former Playboy playmate and B-movie star, best known for her role in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, would have been 83 last August, but nobody knows exactly how old she was when she died. According to the Los Angeles coroners report, she lay dead for the better part of a year before a neighbor and fellow actress, a woman named Susan Savage, noticed cobwebs and yellowing letters in her mailbox, reached through a broken window to unlock the door, and pushed her way through the piles of junk mail and mounds of clothing that barricaded the house. Upstairs, she found Vickerss body, mummified, near a heater that was still running. Her computer was on too, its glow permeating the empty space.The Los Angeles Times posted a story headlined Mummified Body of Former Playboy Playmate Yvette Vickers Found in Her Benedict Canyon Home, which quickly went viral. Within two weeks, by Technoratis count, Vickerss lonesome death was already the subject of 16,057 Facebook posts and 881 tweets. She had long been a horror-movie icon, a symbol of Hollywoods capacity to exploit our most basic fears in the silliest ways; now she was an icon of a new and different kind of horror: our growing fear of loneliness. Certainly she received much more attention in death than she did in the final years of her life. With no children, no religious group, and no immediate social circle of any kind, she had begun, as an elderly woman, to look elsewhere for companionship. Savage later told Los Angeles magazine that she had searched Vickerss phone bills for clues about the life that led to such an end. In the months before her grotesque death, Vickers had made calls not to friends or family but to distant fans who had found her through fan conventions and Internet sites.Vickerss web of connections had grown broader but shallower, as has happened for many of us. We are living in an isolation that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors, and yet we have never been more accessible. Over the past three decades, technology has delivered to us a world in which we need not be out of contact for a fraction of a moment. In 2010, at a cost of $300 million, 800 miles of fiber-optic cable was laid between the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange to shave three milliseconds off trading times. Yet within this world of instant and absolute communication, unbounded by limits of time or space, we suffer from unprecedented alienation. We have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier. In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we
have less and less actual society. We live in an accelerating contradiction: the more connected we become, the lonelier we are. We were promised a global village; instead we inhabit the drab cul-de-sacs and endless freeways of a vast suburb of information.At the forefront of all this unexpectedly lonely interactivity is Facebook, with 845 million users and $3.7 billion in revenue last year. The company hopes to raise $5 billion in an initial public offering later this spring, which will make it by far the largest Internet IPO in history. Some recent estimates put the companys potential value at $100 billion, which would make it larger than the global coffee industryone addiction preparing to surpass the other. Facebooks scale and reach are hard to comprehend: last summer, Facebook became, by some counts, the first Web site to receive 1 trillion page views in a month. In the last three months of 2011, users generated an average of 2.7 billion likes and comments every day. On whatever scale you care to judge Facebookas a company, as a culture, as a countryit is vast beyond imagination.Despite its immense popularity, or more likely because of it, Facebook has, from the beginning, been under something of a cloud of suspicion. The depiction of Mark Zuckerberg, in The Social Network, as a bastard with symptoms of Aspergers syndrome, was nonsense. But it felt true. It felt true to Facebook, if not to Zuckerberg. The films most indelible scene, the one that may well have earned it an Oscar, was the final, silent shot of an anomic Zuckerberg sending out a friend request to his ex-girlfriend, then waiting and clicking and waiting and clickinga moment of superconnected loneliness preserved in amber. We have all been in that scene: transfixed by the glare of a screen, hungering for response.When you sign up for Google+ and set up your Friends circle, the program specifies that you should include only your real friends, the ones you feel comfortable sharing private details with. That one little phrase, Your real friendsso quaint, so charmingly motheringperfectly encapsulates the anxieties that social media have produced: the fears that Facebook is interfering with our real friendships, distancing us from each other, making us lonelier; and that social networking might be spreading the very isolation it seemed designed to conquer.Facebook arrived in the middle of a dramatic increase in the quantity and intensity of human loneliness, a rise that initially made the sites promise of greater connection seem deeply attractive. Americans are more solitary than ever before. In 1950, less than 10 percent of American households contained only one person. By 2010, nearly 27 percent of households had just one person. Solitary living does not guarantee a life of unhappiness, of course. In his recent book about the trend toward living alone, Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at NYU, writes: Reams of published research show that its the quality, not the quantity of social interaction, that best predicts loneliness. True. But before we begin the fantasies of happily eccentric singledom, of divorcees dropping by their knitting circles after