Browsing Category:
Communication, Coronavirus, Health, Hmm..., Technology
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New Pandemic-Related Disorder: ‘Zoom Fatigue’
by Shifra on June 8, 2020Looks like working from home turns out to be not so ‘perfect’ after all. Via WSJ. ….The affliction that’s come to be known as “Zoom fatigue” is way more than a byproduct of too many meetings. Social scientists say it’s the result of the sudden mass adoption of technology that’s disrupting the normal, instinctual and finely-tuned way of communicating that developed to help humans survive. “We’ve evolved to get meaning out of a flick of the eye. Our species has survived because we can produce those signals in a way that’s meaningful,” says Jeremy Bailenson, professor and director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. “Zoom smothers you with cues, and they aren’t synchronous. It takes a physiological toll.” Before...
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Video of Israeli Comic Trying To Teach His Mother to ‘Zoom’ Goes Viral
by Shifra on May 10, 2020Happy Mothers Day to mothers everywhere…especially to Moms who are learning from their children how to use Zoom 🙂 Via Times of Israel. Zoom. It’s one of the technological tools that’s helping many people muscle through the social distancing lifestyle created by the coronavirus…. Luckily, Yehudit Gruber Suliman, 59, a Jerusalem educator and lecturer, had her son, Yonatan Gruber, 31, to help her figure out how to Zoom…. Gruber, a comic, MC and member of Shlofta, an Israeli comic ensemble, was at home with his wife in Jaffa, recently returned from their South African honeymoon. With all his gigs canceled due to the pandemic, he was feeling a little down…. Gruber, the third of his mother’s five sons, spent more...
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ICYMI: Two Teens Totally Mystified By… Rotary Phone
by Shifra on January 13, 2019If you do not yet feel old, this video will do it for you. 🙂 Via Fox News. Kids today know plenty, whether it’s how to become a social media star on YouTube or how to navigate Snapchat. (It’s a snap.) And at every step, their cellphones are close at hand, part extra appendage, part security blanket. But cellphones are one thing. And rotary dial models, quite another….
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Paralyzed Man Finishes London Marathon With Aid of Israeli ‘ReWalk’ Robotic Suit
by Shifra on April 26, 2018The story about the miracle of technology…and the grit and determination of this thirty-four year old man. Via Times of Israel. Britain’s Simon Kindleysides, a 34-year old man paralyzed from the waist down, set out at 10 a.m. on Sunday and in 36 hours walked the London Marathon, becoming the first paralyzed man to complete the course on foot. To perform his feat, he used Israeli technology — the ReWalk exoskeleton, a suit for patients with spinal cord injuries that helps them walk independently with the help of computers and motion sensors…. “This is the furthest I have ever walked in my entire life,” he said at 22 miles. And at mile 25, he said, “Bring it on, I’m almost...
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Bizarre Glitch Let Chase Customers See Other People’s Accounts
by Tammy on February 22, 2018Sigh. Not a hacking, just their screw-up. I’m sure that doesn’t make their customers feel any better. Via NY Post. A bizarre glitch in Chase’s website late Wednesday briefly gave some of the bank’s customers access to other people’s accounts instead of their own. The temporary computer bug directed the Wall Street bank’s customers into the online accounts of other users, exposing their checking, savings and credit card accounts, as well as other personal information. “Today, I logged in using my own account information and the Chase system instead logged me into an entirely different person’s account, a person I have no knowledge of,” a Reddit user posted on Thursday morning. Other users confirmed that they found themselves mysteriously logged...
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Robots Used To Foil Homeless People
by Pat_S on December 12, 2017With people increasingly losing their jobs to robots, you could say this is adding insult to injury. The little crime-fighters scoot around sidewalks using lasers and sensors looking for criminal activity. The effect is to deter homeless people from camping along sidewalks. These robots have not been deployed by police however. They have been put to work by the San Francisco SPCA which ironically facilitates adoptions of homeless animals. Robots are being used to deter homeless people from setting up camp in San Francisco Krista Maloney, media relations manager for the SF SPCA, told Business Insider that staff wasn’t able to safely use the sidewalks at times because of the encampments. Maloney added that since the SPCA started guarding its facilities...
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Robots Are Replacing Fast Food Workers at New Shake Shack
by Tammy on October 3, 2017Another gigantic union success pushing for the $15-an-hour minimum wage and attempt to unionize fast food service workers. These jobs were originally meant for teenagers still living at home, serving as a first-time job experience. Now, with massive immigration, they’ve been taken over by adults with families. It’s just one example of how illegal immigration has so dramatically and negatively impacted the job market and wages. Great job liberals! Via NY Post. It’s the future of fast food bytes in the Big Apple. Robots will replace humans and cash won’t be accepted at a soon-to-open Shake Shack in the East Village, reps for the popular burger chain said Monday. Customers will place orders via an app and at touch-screen kiosks...
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Will Anti-Israel Boycotters Buy IPhoneX, With Israeli-Made Components?
by Shifra on September 24, 2017The hate-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) crowd should definitely refrain from buying the new iPhone. And there are many other items they should avoid like the plague if they want to show some consistency in boycotting Israeli technology: watch here Via Jerusalem Post. Supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement may face a dilemma over buying the new iPhone X, because some of its manufacturers are located in Israel. Apple unveiled its iPhone X last week for a market price of $1,000, along with launching the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus. Although the American tech giant is based in California and employs hundreds of sub-suppliers, many the components found inside Apple’s iPhones and products are built...
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Owner Shocked After Realizing Parrot Ordered Gift on ‘Alexa’
by Tammy on September 20, 2017Good birdie!! Via News Corp Australia. Buddy the parrot showed he’s a pretty clever boy by mimicking his owner to go shopping via Amazon’s Alexa voice-controlled system. Shocked owner Corienne Pretorius could not work out how she had requested a $16 set of gift boxes until she realised her African grey had bought them. The five-year-old pet had impersonated one of her conversations and placed the order while she was out. Buddy activated her $250 Amazon Echo smart speaker, which connects to the internet shopping giant’s artificial intelligence hub. Users can bark commands at it to control heating, order takeaway or access a host of other services. It responds to the name “Alexa” and hilarious footage filmed by South Africa-born...
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Video: Israel’s ‘Flying Car’ Passenger Drone Moves Closer to Delivery
by Shifra on January 4, 2017Wow. Just like George Jetson’s! Via Reuters. After 15 years of development, an Israeli tech firm is optimistic it will finally get its 1,500 kg (1.5 tonne) passenger carrying drone off the ground and into the market by 2020. The Cormorant, billed as a flying car, is capable of transporting 500kg (around half a tonne) of weight and traveling at 185 km (115 miles) per hour. It completed its first automated solo flight over terrain in November. Its total price is estimated at $14 million. Developers Urban Aeronautics believe the dark green drone, which uses internal rotors rather than helicopter propellers, could evacuate people from hostile environments and/or allow military forces safe access. “Just imagine a dirty bomb in a...
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St. Jude Warns Batteries in Up To 350K Defibrillators Worldwide Could Fail
by Tammy on October 11, 2016Awful. The problems in the world just keep cascading at every level, in every industry. Via Star Trib. Following deaths and injuries worldwide, Minnesota-based heart device maker St. Jude Medical announced Tuesday that nearly 350,000 of its defibrillators implanted in patients may be prone to short-circuiting in a way that causes the device to fail unexpectedly. Two deaths have been associated with situations where the devices failed to send lifesaving shocks to the heart, including one death in the U.S. In addition, 10 people have fainted and 37 more have reported dizziness after their defibrillators failed to keep their hearts beating in proper rhythm. “While it is a rare occurrence (0.21 percent), we want to ensure we are providing the...
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Samsung’s New ‘Safe’ Galaxy Note 7 Phones are Overheating & Exploding: Customers
by Tammy on September 28, 2016Oh boy. I love Samsung, both of my TVs are Samsungs and I think they’re a great company, so this is especially sad. Via Telegraph. Samsung is facing more turmoil after one of its supposedly safe new Note 7 handsets exploded in China. The company was forced to issue a recall of its new flagship smartphone this month, amid multiple reports that faulty batteries made the phones overheat, burst into flames and explode. It then began a costly replacement programme to give customers safe devices. But some of the new phones are already proving problematic, after reports that a device bought only this week in China has already burst into flames while charging. Others have reported that the new phones...
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Start-Ups Try To Solve How to Send Packages to Shoppers With No Addresses
by Shifra on July 17, 2016Mongolian yurt If your address is “200 meters south of the Pizza Hut,” this one’s for you: Via WSJ. A handful of startups are trying to solve one of the more vexing problems in e-commerce: how to deliver a package to a home or office that doesn’t have an address. That is a constant challenge for online retailers and delivery companies in many of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets, including India, and parts of the Middle East and Africa. Rather than having a conventional street address, an office in one these regions might give its location as “200 meters south of the Pizza Hut.” A home might have no identifier beyond a street name, or even just a part of town....
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Florida Man: I Invented iPhone, Apple Owes Me $10B
by Tammy on June 30, 2016You know you’re in for a doozy when the story starts, “Florida Man…” His claim seems weak, but it must really hurt to have had an idea, let it go, and then see something similar arrive later. I’ve always thought that ideas have time windows; as you’re getting an idea you should presume someone else is getting it around the same time, and the winner will be the person who acts first. This is why getting the idea is 85% of an effort, and implementing is 15%, but you must step up. Via Newser. A Florida man who says Apple ripped off his design for the iPhone is willing to let the matter drop for the modest sum of $10...
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EgyptAir Crash: Why Don’t More Airlines Stream Black Box Data?
by Maynard on June 2, 2016Maynard wonders… The plane is already in the clouds, so you’d expect modern aircraft to stream its data into the cloud instead of recording it in a hard-to-recover black box. The technology exists, but it’s slow to come due to cost. Via NBC News. In their quest to uncover what caused an EgyptAir jetliner’s fatal plunge into the Mediterranean Sea this month, searchers are conducting a costly, time-consuming hunt for the jet’s black box data recorders. But in an age where digital data can be easily transmitted and stored remotely, the use of black boxes to record critical flight data increasingly strikes many experts as antiquated. In fact, the technology already exists to stream the aircraft’s information to a ground...