Software Development

Hardware: physical device containing software eg mobile phones etc
Software: contain instructions to operate hardware and carry out tasks within the computer
Application Software (photoshop, word etc) and System software (adobe, microsoft)
Embedded software: integral to some sort of electronic device and has minimal functionality specific to that device
Programming tools: Integrated Development Environments (IDE's) allow programmers to design, code, debug and reverse engineer
Software Development is the Design, Implementation, Testing, Maintenance, Modification of Software
Software Engineering adds the element of Quality Control to the Software Development process
Software Development Process is a structure imposed on the development of software - usually defined as a series of steps that the developer should go through to ensure the development of quality software.
Website: webpages with hyperlinks traditionally they're static and informative
A web application is a software application accessible on the web;

• Consists of programs rather than static pages
• Pages are dynamic - can change based on user
• Pages are interactive - user has input (Facebook, Twitter)

We need psychologists to figure out the problem and work with technologists to come up with a solution. It's all about the user!!!

quick look at the poster

Now just need references and if want me to make any changes, dont be afraid to say so :) I keep updating the poster here

Robots vs Humans

http://bit.ly/bZFxB5

Robot arm punches human to obey Asimov's rules

I’m discussing this article because it has a close relation to a similar topic we watched a video on in class that I found interesting. A Slovenian researcher called Povse went against Asimov’s first rule of robotics, which states: “a robot may not harm a human”. In his experiments he specifically programmed a robot to deliver predetermined hits to a human subject at varying locations and speed.

 He asked for ethical approval from a Slovenian university and then persuaded six of his male colleagues to volunteer to help develop robots’ reaction time to the presence of humans and determine the parameters within which they can safely operate in our vicinty. Povse borrowed a Japanese robot that was assembled to make coffe vending machines. This robot was programmed to move to a point in mid air where it would meet a specific point on the volunteer’s body. This test was tried with each colleagues eighteen times with the robot primed to strike at varying areas on their person.

The robot’s tools varied between a round, blunt, and sharper object. The volunters then were asked to determine the pain level of the collision ranging between painless, moderate, and even unbearable pain. Povse himself tried it and concluded that the pain factor was between “mild to moderate range”. They will continue testing with more severe pain factors using an artificial human arm. This is in order to develop robots into sensing when a human is close and realise to stop moving in time before hurting the people around it. Povse presented his work in the Systems, Man and Cybernetics in a conference in Turkey.

 A worker named Sami Haddadin specialising in human and robot safety in the German Aerospace Centre announced that; "Determining the limits of pain during robot-human impacts this way will allow the design of robot motions that cannot exceed these limits." This same man earlier on the year put his own arms in the way of a knife-wielding kitchen robot to show how intelligent the robots with these sensors. Therefore he said it is crucial to develop these sensors even further if robots will ever work closely with humans. Even though this is true a a biomechanics specialist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston called Liebschner argued that they shouldn’t test pain as it’s not essential to prevent pain but injuries.

 
I personally found this article very interesting since it didn’t only link with the videos we have been watching in the lectures but also because we can clearly see that our world is developing into more and more computerised machines. This means that the safer they are, the better the robots and humans can work together at the end.

Snake rescue

This is a fantastic article about how technology can change our lives or should I say save our lives. Gavin Miller researched snakes and realised that we should appreciate them more than we do today. Their perfect movements, their ability to survive in many places and so on. Therefore he created a robot that looks like a snake which can be used to find bodies after catastrophes such as earthquakes, where these snakes can help find people under the ruins. 

They tested one in the San Francisco Bay area after an earthquake. This robot snake has many wonderful functions or more like qualities that can help find people rescuers wouldn’t able to discover. This snake can be controlled by joysticks and it's made very easy. According to Miller they are radio controlled and they're untethered which means they carry their own computers and batteries. They were named S1, S2 and so on. They are kept in a two metre long tube which can be powered up. At it's head a camera is placed to make the search easier. This snake is also capable of automatically adapting to uneven ground which helps it to go under the ruins and look for survivors. There's a so called binaural stereo on the head of the snake which allows it to send back the sounds heard to the operator. As it approaches It sweeps the area around it with a pyroelectric device to look for body heat,In the event that the composite cable becomes tangled, or hinders the snakes movement it can detach from the tail and this can act as a base which enables the snake and the operator to communicate by a wireless device. 

The snake now runs on internal power. Using a sonar system, the snake can detect a hollow area below it which could contain survivors. To gain access to this location it can place a small detonation device found under its chin. Upon moving back a safe distance the device is set off and creates a small hole which the snake can lower its head through. It then uses an infra red camera and microphones to locate any survivors. The snake also contains a built in loud speaker through which the rescuers can communicate or converse with the survivor, determine how badly injured they are and also to let them know that help is on its way. Once found the robot relays back information relating to the exact location of the individual and the exact path it took and the obstacles in between so as rescuers can plan the safest route.

      

How to buy a laptop

I am prefectly aware that the title of my essay doesn’t include PC. My opininon is that PC’s are starting to become out of date and most people would prefer to buy a laptop rather than a home computer, therefore I’ll help you buy your laptop in an easy way.

First of all, I wouldn’t buy a laptop from online but I feel its a good start to look at what you’d like, since they can be seen and all of their most important information is explained perfectly. I would start looking at them from laptopsdirect.ie because they have all the trusted brands on their website. I especially like that website because it tells you in two ways about its product if not more. When you find a laptop you like the price and look of, you can see a product summary which is for people who has little knowledge of technology within computers. This summary consists of a brief summary of convincing you to pick their product and then the essentials that every people looks for in a laptop in the first place;             screen size is given in inches and milimetres which lets you know how big your laptop is. Usually I wouldn’t suggest any size since everybody prefers something different. As I am a college student I would require a smaller one around 14” that can be easily brought into college and still can beautifully see the images or movies scenes you need. Unfortunately those tend to cost more than the larger ones.

The next is the Processor. Basically it only means that the better it is the faster your computer runs. Intel’s new “i” series procesor is at the top end of the performance market. Using the latest technology in, low power consumption, multi-core and new supersmall chips. That is why I wouldn’t advice a mini laptop. They usually only have single-core pentium which means that the more applications you’re using, the slower you’re laptop gets. If you don’t care about this because you’re only using your laptop for a few things or you don’t have enough money then AMD based processors are the cheaper alternative that use slightly less high tech ideas and processes in ther chips. They use more power that the equivalent intel ones and are not as powerful. I just call them the cheaper student laptops.

                                The RAM is the Random Access Memory. This is the short term memory that helps open programs faster and has information on hand for the processor to read. DDR2 is the standard type of ram that runs our computers. Windows 7 requires at least 1GB of RAM, but in my experience, you need at least 2GB if not more. DDR3 is the new type of ram that is twice the speed of the DDR2 RAM. This means that it can transfer data more quickly between the RAM and the processor but it’s used in more top spec computers.

                Then there’s the hard drive. The standard type is a 7200 RPM spindle hard drive. This uses a small disk that is spinning inside the hard drive. This disk holds all the information. They are relatively fast and cheap to produce and they can range from 120GB to 640GB in a laptop which is more than enough for the average user. From this all we really need to know is that the sellers try to make the space available look bigger and use the number of GB’s before all the programs such as Windows 7 would be installed on it. Also this number tells you how much room will you have to download or keep your personal data. Solid State Drives (SSD) are the new cutting edge in technology, with blazing fast speed that leaves even the best spindle hard drive in the dust. They are very expensive and the GB/ euro is very low. They have no moving parts which means they last longer so if you have the money for it, don’t hesitate for even a second.

                The Graphics Card have two main companies making them; ATI and Nvidia are high quality, high performance graphics cards. One of these cards are essential if you use your computer for multimedia or gaming. Even business computers require a certain level of graphics power. There are a lot of factors that determine how good a graphics card is but generally, the more dedicated the RAM on the card, the better. Intel also have their own graphics cards but they are nowhere near as powerful as the ATI or Nvidia ones. They are cheaper solution used in computers where the user has no real desire to play demanding games or multimedia editing. They’re also much cheaper so usually depending on what’s in your pocket you’re allowed to be picky with them.

                The Optical drive is only where you put your DVDs and CDs. Nowadays loads of them can read and burn both CDs and DVDs. The new HD technology is Blue Ray, which you only have in more expensive laptops.

                Then the operation system isn’t so hard to figure out either. The two main ones are Windows 7 and Vista. I never tried Vista, but I heard very bad things about it so try to avoid it if you can.

This was the summary with a little bit of salt. If you’re even more into computing, then you’re better off looking at the Tech Spec information on the website.

FLIES

I know it's wrong, my friend commented on her friend's flies on facebook and I really liked it. It's very sick and funny at the same time so I couldn't help but steal it and show it to all of you. I think it's genius! :)

Secret Kitten

 I know it has nothing to do with ICT but I just couldn't leave it out :P

Had to repost it tho, since they deleted the other video :(