The head of the Federal Communications Commissionis urging his fellow commissioners to block state laws that would prevent cities and towns from building out their own government-run Internet services.
Chairman Tom Wheeler this week will circulate a draft decision to nullify laws in Tennessee and North Carolina, after receiving a request from towns in each of those states.
Cities across the country “should be able to make their own decisions about building the networks they need to thrive,” Wheeler said in a statement on Monday.
“After looking carefully at petitions by two community broadband providers asking the FCC to preempt provisions of state laws preventing expansion of their very successful networks, I recommend approval by the commission so that these two forward-thinking cities can serve the many citizens clamoring for a better broadband future.”
NJ TRANSIT ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF MOBILE TICKETING TO BUS ROUTES BETWEEN NJ AND NYC
Convenient, Easy Monthly Pass Purchases Available through MyTix App on Interstate Bus Routes
January 28, 2015
NEWARK, NJ — As part of an ongoing effort to improve the overall customer experience, NJ TRANSIT today announced the expansion of its MyTixmobile ticketing app to interstate routes between New Jersey and New York City. Currently available on all rail lines and most South Jersey bus routes, beginning January 28 MyTix will enable bus customers on routes serving Port Authority Bus Terminal, Lower Manhattan and George Washington Bridge to purchase and display monthly interstate bus passes on their mobile devices.
“Following the successful rollout of this technology to our South Jersey bus customers last fall, we have been working to bring the MyTix app to bus customers riding between New Jersey and New York City as well, to make traveling on the NJ TRANSIT system even more convenient for them,” said Transportation Commissioner and NJ TRANSIT Board Chairman Jamie Fox.
The next phase of the rollout will include monthly passes via MyTix for intrastate (local) bus customers.
“With bus riders being our largest customer base, it’s critical that we roll this out gradually to ensure the technology keeps up with the demand, and we resolve any issues before taking the next step,” said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Veronique “Ronnie” Hakim. “This expansion of the mobile ticketing app is another step toward giving all of our bus customers the ability to treat their smart phones as both a ticket vending machine and monthly bus pass all in one.”
MyTix is available for free download on any web-enabled iOS or Android device, via the App Store or Google Play. To purchase monthly bus passes via MyTix, customers must first install the app and then create an account, which will securely save customers’ profile information and purchase history for ease of use. Bus monthly passes self-activate at midnight on the first day of the calendar month for which they are valid and remain active throughout the entire month. Customers then simply display the monthly pass on their mobile device to the bus operator when boarding the bus.
NJ TRANSIT first introduced MyTix in April 2013 as a pilot program for rail customers on the Pascack Valley Line, as well as between Penn Station New York and the Meadowlands Rail Station for special events, to test the functionality of the app and determine the feasibility of expanding it to other rail lines. In September 2013, NJ TRANSIT expanded MyTix to the Main/Bergen County and Port Jervis lines, followed in October by the Montclair-Boonton and Morris & Essex lines, and in November to the North Jersey Coast and Raritan Valley lines. The rail systemwide rollout was completed in December 2013 with the inclusion of the Northeast Corridor and Atlantic City Rail Line. In September 2014, MyTix was first introduced to bus customers in South Jersey on 59 bus routes, serving communities throughout South Jersey, as well as Philadelphia.
Many improvements made to the agency’s MyTix app were the direct result of valuable feedback from customers using the app during the gradual rollout.
Since its 2013 introduction, MyTix has already become very popular among NJ TRANSIT customers. To date, customers have established nearly 400,000 accounts through MyTix and purchased over 3.7 million tickets.
For more information on MyTix, visit njtransit.com and go to “Ticket Options,” then click on “MyTix” from the drop-down menu.
In North Jersey, libraries of tomorrow are ready to turn the page
JANUARY 25, 2015, 9:24 PM LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2015, 10:05 PM
BY NICHOLAS PUGLIESE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
It looks like a scene from Google headquarters. A group of young inventors darts around the room, tackling a new experiment each week: build a flying machine, print a 3D object, design a new instrument, make an explosion with Popsicle sticks. The energetic buzz is punctuated by the occasional exclamation, “That’s so cool!”
But this is no Google headquarters. This is the Hillsdale Public Library, and its dedication to hands-on collaborative learning exemplifies a movement by libraries nationwide to redefine themselves in the digital age.
“Rather than it being a solitary place to come on your own, we’re seeing it now as a place for people to come together and share their expertise,” said Dave Franz, the library director. While libraries were created to give people access to information, he added, now they are being expanded to include access to tools.
Franz was among the first in the state to dedicate a section of the library to do-it-yourself endeavors — what he calls a “makerspace.” In 2011, he cleared out an unused office — about the size of a walk-in closet — and jampacked it with the most modern, sexiest gadgets he could find: an iMac video-editing station, a stop-motion camera, a digital fabric-cutter, a 3D printer, robotics kits, soldering tools, and a dizzying array of craft supplies.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: “The Internet Will Disappear”s
by Georg Szalai
1/22/2015 11:10am PST
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on Thursday predicted the end of the Internet as we know it.
At the end of a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where his comments were webcast, he was asked for his prediction on the future of the Web. “I will answer very simply that the Internet will disappear,” Schmidt said.
“There will be so many IP addresses…so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it,” he explained. “It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room.”
VC Firms Rain Down Cash on Tech Startups, Is Bubble Brewing?
SAN FRANCISCO — Jan 16, 2015, 6:16 PM ET
By BRANDON BAILEY AP Technology Writer
Cash rained down on startups in 2014, as venture capitalists poured a whopping $48.3 billion into new U.S. companies — levels not seen since before the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. Strong technology IPOs are luring investors chasing the next big return, but with valuations this high, critics suggest some investors may be setting themselves up for a major fall.
“It’s not that many businesses aren’t viable, but the question is, what are you paying for them?” said Mark Cannice, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of San Francisco.
Venture funding surged more than 60 percent in 2014 from the prior year, most often fueling software and biotechnology companies, according to a new “MoneyTree Report” issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters. But the money wasn’t spread around to buoy many more companies. A few just got huge piles of cash.
Last year saw a record 47 “mega-deals,” defined as investments of more than $100 million. That’s nearly twice as many as reported in 2013, said Mark McCaffrey of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who leads the accounting and consulting firm’s global software practice.
Uber Technologies, the ride-hailing service disrupting the transportation industry and generating plenty of press, received the top two biggest rounds of investment last year. Each raised $1.2 billion for Uber, and the company’s value is now pegged at $41 billion. Other major deals included $542 million (mostly from Google Inc.) invested in Magic Leap Inc., a secretive startup working on virtual reality technology; $500 million in Vice Media, which operates online news and video channels; and $485 million in SnapChat, the popular messaging service.
The largest science extravaganza in northern New Jersey, this year’s Super Science Saturday will feature the incredible 25-foot egg drop challenge; the traditional great paper airplance contest and the live rocket launch, in addition to project presentations by students.
Admission is Free
Location: RHS
9 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
1.12.15: Workshop Dates are Announced
A three-session workshop will be held on February 13, 20 and 26 from 4:15-6 p.m. at Benjamin Franklin Middle School. This workshop will provide an opportunity for students to choose a project, set it up and lay it out. Click here for more information.
Full details of the day, including registration forms, can be found on the Super Science Saturday website atwww.supersciencesaturday.org.
At top: Apple CEO Tim Cook and U2′s Bono weren’t smiling for long after launching U2′s new album on everyone’s iTunes accounts in September. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
The 5 biggest tech fails of 2014
In the tech world, we can’t all be winners all the time. 2014 saw some rather spectacular failures. Here are our top (bottom?) five:
As Robots Grow Smarter, American Workers Struggle to Keep Up
DEC. 15, 2014
Claire Cain Miller
A machine that administers sedatives recently began treating patients at a Seattle hospital. At a Silicon Valley hotel, a bellhop robot delivers items to people’s rooms. Last spring, a software algorithm wrote a breaking news article about an earthquake that The Los Angeles Times published.
Although fears that technology will displace jobs are at least as old as the Luddites, there are signs that this time may really be different. The technological breakthroughs of recent years — allowing machines to mimic the human mind — are enabling machines to do knowledge jobs and service jobs, in addition to factory and clerical work.
And over the same 15-year period that digital technology has inserted itself into nearly every aspect of life, the job market has fallen into a long malaise. Even with the economy’s recent improvement, the share of working-age adults who are working is substantially lower than a decade ago — and lower than any point in the 1990s.
Ridgewood High School library gets 21st century update
November 17, 2014 Last updated: Monday, November 17, 2014, 11:20 AM
By Jodi Weinberger
Staff Writer | The Ridgewood New
School leaders last week celebrated the opening of the Learning Commons at Ridgewood High School, a project driven by a multi-year effort from residents and the district to upgrade the decades-old library.
For months during construction, students had been sitting on the floors and in the cafeteria during their free periods without a space to study, but school officials said the wait was worth it.
“A little inconvenience brings us a great facility for all our students at Ridgewood High School,” said Superintendent Daniel Fishbein.
The space doubles the amount of seating, to 200 for students, providing them with cubby spaces to work independently and conferences rooms to work in groups.
Curved tables in the Commons’ open area were designed for more than just aesthetic appeal. They can fit together like puzzle pieces to accommodate large classes and can be pulled apart for just one or two students.
There is bar-style seating where kids can do homework and oversized comfy chairs and large colorful couches for reading.
The light from the library’s existing windows was maximized by lowering the height of the bookshelves. Windows were created facing out into the hallway to make the space seem even bigger.
50% of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025: Report
Press Trust of India | Mumbai
November 7, 2014 Last Updated at 21:40 IST
A paradigm shift is expected to be witnessed in the way workplaces operate over the next 15 years, making nearly 50 per cent of occupations existing today redundant by 2025, a report has said.
Artificial intelligence will transform businesses and the work that people do. Process work, customer work and vast swathes of middle management will simply disappear, it said.
The report titled ‘Fast Forward 2030: The Future of Work and the Workplace’ has been prepared by realty consulting firm CBRE and China-based Genesis, a property developer, after interviewing 220 experts, business leaders and young people from Asia, Europe and North America.
“Nearly 50 per cent of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025. New jobs will require creative intelligence, social and emotional intelligence and ability to leverage artificial intelligence. Those jobs will be immensely more fulfilling than today’s jobs,” the report said.
Memories >>>During a televised hearing, Feynman demonstrated that the material used in the shuttle’s O-ringsbecame less resilient in cold weather by compressing a sample of the material in a clamp and immersing it in ice-cold water.
Virgin ‘ignored’ space safety warnings before crash: expert
Los Angeles (AFP) – A rocket science safety expert on Sunday said Virgin Galactic “ignored” safety warnings in the years leading up to the deadly crash of its spacecraft in California, as investigators hunted for clues to accident’s cause.
Carolynne Campbell, a rocket propulsion expert with the Netherlands-based International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, said she could not speculate on the cause of Friday’s crash without “all the data.”
However, she said multiple warnings had been issued to Virgin since 2007, when three engineers died testing a rocket on the ground.
“Based on the work we’ve done, including me writing a paper on the handling of nitrous oxide, we were concerned about what was going on at Virgin Galactic,” she told AFP.
“I sent copies of the paper to various people at Virgin Galactic in 2009, and they were ignored,” she said.
Drones Could Be Next Tool for Ridgewood Real Estate Agents Real Estate News Jan 2, 2014 By: Erik Gunther
Scott Gerami says he’s always “had a passion for gadgets and technology,” and after 26 years in real estate, he’s still looking for an edge to make his listings stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Over the past year, the REALTOR® and managing broker of RE/MAX in Naperville, IL, has been tinkering with a camera-equipped drone aircraft to make his real estate photography really soar.
Folks in the Chicago suburb shouldn’t be alarmed if they see Gerami standing outside a home with a control panel, piloting one of his do-it-yourself flying machines overhead.
The intrepid Gerami is not alone. According to The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, the next trend in real estate photography is being deployed in increasing numbers to capture new angles on high-end homes for sale.
While regulatory issues on these unmanned aircraft are still being sorted out, the birds-eye views are enticing to agents such as Gerami. “I’m looking for unique ideas to set myself apart,” he said.
After watching one of Gerami’s drone-driven videos, you’ll get a sense of how the next wave in real estate photography is taking flight. He first built a couple of “rough and crude” devices “from the ground up,” but he’s continued to make refinements that have allowed him to explore new ways of deploying his flying machine.
He said his latest model, his fourth, cost him about $1,200 to build.
Steve Jobs didn’t let his kids use iPads Posted on Monday, September 15 at 5:03am | By Amy Graff
Steve Jobs was the father of two teenage girls and a son when he passed away in 2011. These kids grew up with a visionary father who co-founded one of the best-known tech companies. Jobs led the world into the digital age with gadgets that transformed the way we listen to music, watch movies, communicate, live our lives.
You would imagine that his children’s rooms would have been filled with iPods, iPhones and iPads.
That’s not the case.In an article in the Sunday New York Times, reporter Nick Bilton says he once asked Jobs “So, your kids must love the iPad?”
Jobs response: “They haven’t used it. We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
The Times article examines the growing trend among the California Silicon Valley tech set to limit children’s technology use. Many of the people behind the social media platforms, gadgets and games that are consuming our kids’ time and minds aren’t actually allowing their own children to waste an entire Saturday afternoon playing Minecraft on the iPad.
A quote in The Times from Chris Anderson, father of five and chief executive of 3D Robotics, pretty much defines why Anderson and his colleagues are limiting technology at home. “My kids accuse me and my wife of being fascists and overly concerned about tech, and they say that none of their friends have the same rules,” says Anderson, formerly the editor of Wired. “That’s because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I’ve seen it in myself, I don’t want to see that happen to my kids.”
Some of these Silicon Valley engineers and execs are even going to the extreme of sending their kids to computer-free schools. A Times story from 2011 reported that engineers and execs from Apple, eBay, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Yahoo are sending their kids to a Waldorf elementary school in Los Altos, Calif., where you won’t find a single computer or screen of any sort. Also, kids are discouraged from watching television or logging on at home.
Katie Couric Interviews Bionic Arm Inventor Dean Kamen
Back in 1980, when Luke Skywalker was fitted with a robotic limb after losing his hand in the film “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back,” it was pure science fiction. But what was once fantasy is now a reality.
Inventor Dean Kamen and his team at DEKA Research and Development, based in New Hampshire, have developed “Luke,” a robotic prosthetic arm, aptly nicknamed after Luke Skywalker. The arm is considered a game changer for amputees. “Instead of giving them a metal hook that they can’t do anything with, what if we can give them a bunch of grips to do the things you do in daily living? Pick up a spoon or pick up an electric drill or open a door,” says Kamen.
The idea first came about when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) approached Kamen about building a better prosthetic for soldiers who have lost an arm in combat. “They said, ‘Give us a real hand that works, that has all the fingers and the thumb that can move in every direction. Give us an arm that really functions,'” says Kamen.
Students at Deep Springs College in the California desert, near the Nevada border, where education involves ranching, farming, and self-governance in addition to academics
The Hi-Tech Mess of Higher Education
David Bromwich AUGUST 14, 2014 ISSUE
Ivory Tower
a film directed by Andrew Rossi
Andrew Rossi’s documentary Ivory Tower prods us to think about the crisis of higher education. But is there a crisis? Expensive gambles, unforeseen losses, and investments whose soundness has yet to be decided have raised the price of a college education so high that today on average it costs eleven times as much as it did in 1978. Underlying the anxiety about the worth of a college degree is a suspicion that old methods and the old knowledge will soon be eclipsed by technology.
Indeed, as the film accurately records, our education leaders seem to believe technology is a force that—independent of human intervention—will help or hurt the standing of universities in the next generation. Perhaps, they think, it will perform the work of natural selection by weeding out the ill-adapted species of teaching and learning. A potent fear is that all but a few colleges and universities will soon be driven out of business.
It used to be supposed that a degree from a respected state or private university brought with it a job after graduation, a job with enough earning power to start a life away from one’s parents. But parents now are paying more than ever for college; and the jobs are not reliably waiting at the other end. “Even with a master’s,” says an articulate young woman in the film, a graduate of Hunter College, “I couldn’t get a job cleaning toilets at a local hotel.” The colleges are blamed for the absence of jobs, though for reasons that are sometimes obscure. They teach too many things, it is said, or they impart knowledge that is insufficiently useful; they ask too much of students or they ask too little. Above all, they are not wired in to the parts of the economy in which desirable jobs are to be found.
