Arquivo para February, 2014
A dialogue between texts production & Technology
28
Feb
The Job is of the researcher Melina Aparecida Custódio, guided by the professor Roxane Rojo of the IEL, Institute of Linguistic Studies at Unicamp, who realized that individualized and hierarchical knowledge did not motivate the students. 
Observing the way the youth interacted in and with internet and working with the fiction/novel gender, she decided to use collaborative skills and knowledge that are part of their reality for the production of texts and noticed that it was working better for involving the students.
Without forgetting social and cultural issues which are in the many uses of the language, for her (Melina Custódio) “it it is most appropriate concerning the discussion of the role of the teacher, which facing this perspective, cannot have his role reduced to a simple transmission of data”, according to the site of Unicamp
.
In the development of the topic “Written production at school, the new technologies and the youth cultures: possible dialogues” master’s thesis, she (Melina Custódio) concluded that the change in the student’s attitude happens when students themselves take on the role of the teacher and can manifest themselves on the mistakes of their colleagues such as those related to formal rules of the language.
Another open source smartphone
27
Feb
The popular version of Linux, open source operating system, built in the 1990s by millions of hobbyists who joined Linus Torvalds, and created a crowdsourcing phenomenon, later a popular version is called Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning “being with others”, now also wants to launch its smartphone and compete in the very strong European and Chinese markets, this is what its director, Mark Shuttleworth, said to the CNET News.
The operating system is called Canonical, because of the company that maintains Ubuntu.
The celular phones will be manufactured by a partnership between the Meizu Chinese Company and the Bq Spanish Company, and will be available worldwide in the third quarter of this year.
The director says that the design will be attractive and that it is faster compared to the Firefox Operational System, its direct competitor in the open source market.
The sale of WhatsApp to Face
26
Feb
Despite the sale of WhatsApp to Facebook, the services should not be included/integrated, is what says, also one of the creators, Jan Kou, of the application, sold for $ 16 million, as informed in interview to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, giving examples of other integrations which did not work out, such as Geocities, Flickr and Altavista.
The business executive said that the WhatsApp team is small, with only 55 people, and that the application will continue operating the way it operates today, maintaining/keeping the client´s privacy, their big business brand that has made many people migrate from other messengers.
However, the business executive who helped stabilize the system, which was off the air on Saturday, said the tuition could rise from the current U.S. $ 0.99 per year, which is a bad news.
The application has 450 million users, with the highest daily growth of an application, an average of 1 million new customers every day, and allows you to send text messages, photos, videos and audios by cellular phones.
The users are following carefully to know the changes that Facebook may do. A friend just posted Viber (a phone connection) with WhatsApp.
Bitcoin: the digital coin
25
Feb
Although thought of as currency coin, with all the nuances of a currency, changes in rates and prices, in practice, works as virtual chips and its value depends on the amount of people who are willing to trade them thru the internet. Mainly used in games, often, to buy some items in a game it must be paid in a national currency; you can also process transactions in Bitcoin through a procedure called “mining” where the computer solves a difficult math problem getting a solution of 64 bits.
This is different because it´s the first time in history that a “pure ” intellectual procedure is rewarded with cash without any real equivalent .
It is mining and not the banks that manage the Bitcoins, as the number of coins is limited and demand has increased the coin has been valued.
There have been thefts of Bitcoins, as occurred with the company MtGox (see in Wired magazine) and this caught the attention of regulators, who if were, in fact, can make the coin/currency “legal” and marketable in many social places.
Mobile with free software at U$25
25
Feb
Is what the Chinese company Spreadtrum, of components for mobile phones and computers and cell phones, promises, they still did not have their own machine, but will now enter the mobile market with SC 6821 processor.
The device was presented on Monday during the Mobile World Congress fair show in Barcelona, with a 3.5 inch HVGA display, Wifi and Bluetooth.
With the use of the Mozilla Firefox scenery, the apparatus/equipment has camera and FM radio integrated in its circuit, and comes with applications that enable free access to Web and promises the best interface with HTML 5.
Among the many applications that already have a version for Firefox OS, are the social networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter, the Youtube channel of videos, the navigation apps like EverNav and HERE, the chat LINE and the audio platform SoundCloud.
The hobbyists and the open source developers thank and wait.
Printed wikipedia!
24
Feb
The PediaPress publisher wants to print a thousand books from the English Wikipedia, the online edition has over 4 million articles only in this language, and its goal is to raise $ 50K with crowdfunding, and each copy should have 1.2 million pages.
The books will be displayed in London Wikimania, an annual conference of the Wikipedia community, and since it wants to make a thousand copies in print duplex, it should reach 600 thousand sheets of paper, but the company guarantees that it will use trees from sustainable forests for the paper and the hardcover.
The participation in the project is made by the site: Indiegogo, of collective funding, the publisher’s headquartered is in Germany and it has 47 days for the event to reach the value, we entered the site and at the moment of this post, there were just over $ 10,000 collected.
Ukraine release
22
Feb
According to the news paper, The Guardian, the photograph came from Yulia Tymoshenko, apparently on board of a plane that was going to Kiev.
Her smile clearly reveals delight at her unexpected release from incarceration.
The parliament approved the impeachment of the President Viktor Yanukovych and called for elections on May 25th.
The protesters remain in the square and there is information that the president is in the city that has border with Russia.
Protests growing in Ukraine
21
Feb
The protests in Ukraine began in November after the president gave in to the pressure from Russia and gave up on a commercial trade treaty with the European Union, even if the majority of the population was in favor of the European Union.
The protests are growing, and the government tightened using lethal weapons in many manifestations, there is already a law voted in Congress forbidding the use of these weapons, but it depends on the sanction of the government which will not do it, unless under international pressure.
Yesterday there was a violent repression and the numbers of deaths vary according to the source, from 25 to 100 people dead, the Ukrainian protester Zhukovskaya Olesya, 21 year old, announced in a popular social network in Ukraine and in Twitter the phrase: “I’m dying,” after being shot in the neck by government security forces.
A video called “I am an Ukrainian” widespread on YouTube became viral on social networks, explaining the struggle of Ukrainians against the tyranny in their country and that they may have the internet and telephone blocked.
But the massacre in the public square, yesterday in Kiev, Ukraine, gained worldwide publicity, the European Union has begun to manifest itself by imposing sanctions to the country.
Forbers Magazine and hackers
20
Feb
Hackers supposedly linked to the Syrian government reportedly invaded the website of Forbes magazine, changed reports of the blog and captured more than a million data that the magazine has, since it is specialized in economics and publishes some data on big fortunes.
The information was published later by an account of this group on Twitter and confirmed by Forbes on its Facebook page, but Forbes did not say exactly which volume and what data was stolen, only advised users to change the password.
The group has reportedly conducted 25 attacks and there are speculations that it could make a cyber attack together with Iran against the United States.
Forbes magazine on the other hand, had recently launched an overpriced digital media companies rank, highlighting the company LinkedIn, with Facebook in second and Apple third place.
The rank takes into account only companies that have income over $ 150 million or more have a minimum market value of $ 500 million and are publicly traded. That is why companies like Twitter will not appear, and Google appears only in 17th place..
Hamburg: city green
19
Feb
An ambitious plan was announced to create the first city completely sustainable, Hamburg called the European Green City in 2011, now wants to have the incredible 27 square miles of new and existing green areas all over the city of Hamburg in Germany.
The result expected is that it becomes a city that puts nature within easier reach of every resident; becomes more resilient to flooding caused by global warming; and provides enough connectivity for walking and cycling to become car-optional citywide in 20 years.
Angelika Fritsch, a spokeswoman for the city’s department of urban planning and the environment said to the news paper, The Guardian:
“[The plan] will connect parks, leisure areas, playgrounds, gardens and cemeteries through green paths. Other cities, including London, have green rings, but the green network will be unique in covering an area from the outskirts to the city centre. In 15 to 20 years you’ll be able to explore the city exclusively on bike and on foot.”
