Feel Good Accomplishments

There are days when you just not getting into the groove and that software development project has way too many bugs to tackle all at once. At times like these, try keeping a list of things that make you feel good. One of those things is fixing something....anything. The confidence that will come with it is astounding. You will be strutting around the place like you are magic worker or something. Another thing that can be totally rewarding is tackling that to-do list and getting everything done on it. At this point you could kick back and waste time on that mobile application or get the software development project finally accomplished. Better yet, you could create something. Whether it is a game, story, or a cabinet system, it is there because of you. Not to mention you will have great stories to share the following Monday.

Sense of Touch

Researchers have found a fascinating property in the metamaterial: the ability to hide or "cloak" the existence of foreign objects hidden within it. It works by being able to disperse the pressure from the other object so that it cannot be detected. It's a discovery that could lead to making everything from more comfortable camping gear to shoes that make you feel like you're walking on air. Of course there is the other side of the coin when people will want to hide things using this material. It might be able to cloak any weapons that someone might be trying to hide. Link this technology with software development or even mobile applications and the possibility become even more endless. Where do you think that this type of tech is headed?

There Can Be Too Much Communication

How often do you check your email, internet fax, and voicemails? I thought so. We live in a constantly connected world where you are probably thinking of checking it right now as you are reading this post considering that I have just reminded you that you need to get back to answering all those emails and meticulously going through them. Well hold on a moment. There is a spectrum here, Some people treat email like a constant stream of communications that they let go and only answer when they can without necessarily answering every one of them. On the other hand, there are some that let it pile up higher and higher until they just decide to delete it all and start fresh. Both ideas seem like the perfect way to slow down productivity and put a damper on your business. These communication services were meant to improve life and not destroy it. The first thing to do is to shut off those notifications and only check email three times a day. No more. Another solution is to use Unroll.me to unsubscribe from those emails that you constantly get and never get around to reading. Happy communicating!

Doing LinkedIn Right

If you are in the professional world, it is very important to have a LinkedIn account. Secondly, it is important to have a good LinkedIn account. It doesn't matter how well you can provide content management services, if you do not present a good image of yourself. Customers want to be able to see what they are buying. First of all, you need to include a profile picture, and a good one at that. The professional headline also needs to be good in the sense that it needs to be specific and be able to grab the attention of viewers. The summary section acts as an elevator pitch where you can talk about who you are, what you have done, and where do you hope to be professionally. It should make the reader want to scroll further down. Lastly, always be honest about your accomplishments because a lie like that is grounds for firing.

Future of Computing

When people speak of the future of computers it always seems a bit gloomy and reminiscent of the Terminator. It is not all completely bad. For one thing computers can store a lot of information and are great at retrieving it. The ultimate librarian. Many of the databases are used for research purposes so that scientists will be able to use the information to save time and money just by looking something up. Researchers are getting better at teaching robots how to read the syntax of human movement, so they can work more closely on more complicated projects. Machine learning isn’t just keeping the cloud services clutter-free; it’s going to turn smart phones into geniuses. Current machine learning programs can require hundreds or thousands of iterations, but researchers are building animal-inspired algorithms that can learn good from bad after only a few trials.

Connected Bikes

These days everything is connected and customized. We do not have the courage to go off the grid...ever. Even if we decide to go out for a nice bike ride, there are plenty of mobile applications that can be right there with you. If you decide to ditch your phone, you can use you bike to gather data about that bike ride. It isn't so leisurely and enjoyable anymore, is it? The Toronto-based Vanhawks crew went whole hog and put all of the “connected” functionality that the Helios bars have into a badass, heck of a good-looking bike. And they took “the internet of bikes” theme quite a bit further than Gibbs did, though he still has one thing on them -- his Helios bars have blinking directional lights, a safety feature we’re surprised the Valour doesn’t seem to have. Designed to make urban bike commuting safer, the Valour does, however, warn riders of dangers lurking in their blind spots. The bike’s mesh network, ultrasonic haptic feedback sensors detect nearby vehicles. When riders veer too close to traffic, the sensors trigger the handlebars to vibrate, another industry “first” the bike’s designers claim they boast the bragging rights to. What do you think of this bike?

The Internet: Again

How long can you go without being online? Would you be able to ignore those internet faxes or emails for more than a day? And what exactly did we do with our time before the internet? It is easy to hate the internet and what it has made us into. People used to have conversations face to face and spent their time meaningfully. Now many of us are checking our Facebook statuses and reading Twitter feeds in between the time we are playing riveting games of candy crush. Admit it, you know it sucks when you run out of lives in that game. These days we actually have to tell our kids that they should never type anything online that they could not say to their mother's face. Anonymity has given people a wall that they use for protection. Along the same lines, what if the internet have left some positive effects? It has been able to connect more people that live thousands of miles away. It has exposed many companies and businesses and made everything more transparent. People have more access to information. The question then becomes, are more people taking advantage of everything that the internet has to offer?