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Arquivo para 2013

Audacious Brazilian film

14 Dec

When checking the list of Oscar contenders , come something new in animation , the scene there is a Brazilian film : A Story of Love and Fury , joining politics, fiction and history.

Brazilian actors Selton Mello and Camila Pitanga are dubbing a couple in love at four different times of armed conflict , beginning in 1566 when Tupinabas are decimated by the Portuguese in Guanabara then jumped 200 years , the ” national hero ” Duque de Caxias contains the slave uprising of Maranhão ( besieged today by farmers colonels ) to Balaiada between 1968 and 1980 the military dictatorship that revisit life sentences of political prisoners , and finally give a jump from fiction to speak in 2096 of a Rio fully vertically January disputing drinking water routinely .

I have not seen the movie yet, but I think Luiz Bolognesi ( screenwriter in  Brainstorm – 2001 ) and The Best Things in the World -2010 , driven by the woman Lais Bodansky),  but now did something really new , and his films have call attention to criticism.

Does a Brazilian film will finally win the statuette Hollywood ? The film has already won in the first half of the Annecy Festival in France , known as the ” Cannes of animation .”

 

New version of Kindle Paperwhite

13 Dec

Since Wednesday ( 11/12 ) the new version of Kindle Paperwhite reader is on sale at AmazoKindleFiren online store in Brazil and in several resales various points of malls and stores authorized.

Battery With high durability , range of up to eight weeks of regular reading and weighing only 213 grams and a faster processor , the new version has screen with higher contrast and LED lighting, has Wi – Fi connection and memory that can store up to 1000 books .

Now the device is connected to the Wikipedia dictionary and also the X- Ray , plus a quick reference of vocabulary terms learned while reading .

The Wi – Fi with 3G version comes with free 3G internet plan.

But the launch is a contrast with the overseas release of the new Kindle Fire tablets HDX , with a 7 inch screen and another with 8.9-inch screen, lighter and more powerful than the previous generation of Kindle HD , and come with storage capacities of 16 GB , 32 GB and 64 GB .

In the online store Amazon in Brazil has 400,000 eBook titles.

 

Myths MOOCS discussed

12 Dec

In last Thursday (06/12) of more than 200 academic institutions from around theMOOCS world met at a conference organized by the University of Texas at Arlington to hear the preliminary results on the MOOC Research Initiative, a program funded by the grant Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and administered by Athabasca University in Canada .
 
Several institutions received $ 10 to $ 25 thousand to examine how MOOCS (Education Massive Online) can modify the higher education and the results will be in the next issue of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning as anticipates Inside Highred site .
 
The research presented on Thursday was perhaps best summarized by research Conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, Which Analyzed the study habits of 1 million students across 16 Coursera courses between June of 2012 and 2013.A research presented can be summarized with the work done by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education , which examined the study habits than 1 million students in 16 courses Coursera , between June 2012 and 2013 .

“Emerging data … show that online courses Massive Open ( MOOCs ) have relatively few active users, and that ‘ engagement ‘ user drops dramatically , especially after the first two weeks of a course , and that few users clearly persist until the end, ” can be read in a study summary .

This drops the myth that these courses would reach a few thousand students .

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But other expectations are maintained , the cost of production MOOC . that can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars to create ” classes” of MOOC that are consumed and produced by institutions MOOC create two groups of problems , the first is not wanting to seem elitist , while the second is to generate content rejected even by own faculty members .

Christopher Brooks , a researcher at the University of Michigan School of Information said ” maybe this seems obvious ,” he said “A lot of things seem obvious in retrospect,” but the main problem is not even funding .

“How do we make this incredible thing and get our ideas from everyone and not go bankrupt ? This is the challenge . ” This is the challenge.” Said Akiba Covitz , senior vice president of strategic relations for Academic Partnerships , referring to MIT and Harvard .

 

Virtual sightseeing tour in Street View

11 Dec

An application launched last Monday (9/12) allows you to create your own scriptPasseio USP in Street View, ie, looking at the scenery and tourist objects on the path.

The feature also allows the same point of the path is shown looking in different ways, for example, one side of a given street tourist spot or commercial establishment on the other, as if making a stop.

The feature is already available on Google Views, allowing the hosting of photos into 360 °, so you can document a path you did with a sequence of images.

So you do your script, and share documents with friends.

To use the new application you should be in the new Google Street View and the options now appear on the screen and smooth ride.

 

Open Letter to Washington

10 Dec

A public letter titled “Open Letter to Washington” Eight large technology companies,SecurityAndPrivacity including : Google , Microsoft , Apple , Facebook , Twitter , AOL , Yahoo! and LinkedIn was launched charging the government and the Congress in a review of systems spying and data collection certainly concerned about the business.

In a special site , the text of the letter , titled says they understand that governments have a duty to protect its citizens, but the revelations highlights an urgent need to reform the practices of government surveillance worldwide .

A text of the letter says : ” The security of user data is critical , which is why we have invested in both encryption and fight for transparency about requests for information by the government ,” which was replicated by Google CEO Larry Page on your website.

Another passage says: “This is affected by the apparent data collection wholesale, secret and without independent oversight , conducted by many governments around the world It is time to reform and asked the U.S. government to lead this way. . ”

The path that we’re still going strong there conflicts between citizen privacy and the security of the stat , this conflict should be spared area is the citizen.

 

Historic agreement in Bali

09 Dec

The meeting of the WTO (World Trade Organization) in Bali , Indonesia , in four days this firstBali2013 week of December, managed to unlock the Doha Round , a series of meetings initiated in 2001 , aimed to build rules to make more agile commerce between countries and that were stalled since 2008.

Brazilian Roberto Azevedo , took over the reins of the organization in September , oteve also a personal victory , the ambition to improve the performance of its predecessor, Pascal Lamy, who was to make the Doha Round forward .

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The Brazilian. director general of the organization , said: “For the first time in its history , the WTO fulfill their promises” and added “We again introduce the word ‘ world ‘ in the World Trade Organization I am very proud .”.

The impasse of Doha were: negotiation among its 159 countries of a package of new rules on liberalization and facilitation of trade – refused the U.S. and Europe to discuss subsidies to their agricultural sectors , which basically is disadvantage for countries in agricultural development.

But Europeans and Americans criticize the resistance from other countries to cede on issues such as liberalization of services sectors , intellectual property protection and the granting of preference to domestic products in government procurement .

I think the agreements are still shy and has a long way to go, but the whole step taken in Bali is hopeful for all mankind.

 

Thanks Mandela, what I’ve learned with you

06 Dec

“I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. mandelaDiedWhy we promoted the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all people can live in harmony and with equal opportunities. And ‘ an ideal which I hope to live , but if necessary , it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. ” Nelson Mandela ‘s speech at his trial in 1964.

The message “The question that remains to be asked is whether it is politically correct to continue preaching peace and non-violence when it comes to a government whose policies have brought so much suffering and misery for South Africans … I’ll be back ” read by his daughter Zinzi in the suburb of Soweto in 1985 , still under apartheid , when transferred to another prison.

“When I saw the crowd , I raised my right fist and took a scream. I had not been able to do that because there are 27 years old and I was flooded with a sense of joy and strength,” February 11, 1990 when it was dissolved .

” The value of our shared reward should be measured and peace will triumph. Why humanity that unites blacks and whites in a race to tell each of us that we must live as children of heaven ” ( awarded the Nobel Peace Prize , shared with South African President FW de Klerk in 1993 ) .

“Having strong beliefs is the key to survive the difficulties. Your spirit can be full even when your stomach is empty … A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, is trapped behind the bars of prejudice and the inability to see beyond … the oppressed and the oppressors are deprived of their humanity in the same way . “From his autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom 1994.

 

Tablets continue winning PCs

05 Dec

Study done by consulting firm IDC released this Wednesday ( 4/12 ) indicated that PCs TableXPc(personal computers) sales continue to plummet in Brazil , comparing the third quarters of 2012 and 2013 was 15%

In the same period there was an increase in the marketing of tablets coming to 134 % and the tablets were excluded from the category PC , considering only desktops and notebooks .

In the third quarter of this year were sold in Brazil about 3.4 million personal computers (excluding tablets), these 61% were laptops ( notebooks ) and 39 % , desktop computers (desktops).

Between July and September this year, were sold in Brazil 1.8 million tablets despite growth in comparison with 201 , there was a decrease of 2 % compared to the previous quarter.

The forecast for the fourth quarter is an even greater volume volume in the year , with 2.6 million units sold , making it a lock in with 7.9 million tablets, indicating growth of 142 % compared to 2012 .

The outlook for 2013 is to exceed the volume of 10 million tablets .

 

Sony obtains patent SmartWig

04 Dec

According to a BBC report, the SmartWig  can be used  “in addition to natural hair”, and will be able to process data and Cabeloscommunicate wirelessly with other external devices, but without clarifying how data is available, perhaps the famous glasses: Google Glass,  Vuzix, Telephaty and others.

Actually it is a wig, according to the definition of the patent at the USPTO (United States Trademark Office), the device is a ” Wearable computing device, comprising a wig that is adapted to cover at least a part of a head of a user, at least one sensor for providing input data, a processing unit that is coupled to the at least one sensor for processing said input data, and a communication interface that is coupled to the processing unit for communicating with a second computing device”, thus defined is the device of Japanese patent Sony.

Patent further states that have at least one sensor unit, “a processing unit and a communication interface” which are ´wig´ and at least ‘partially covered by wigs so as to be visually hidden during use”.

Also according to BBC News, citing analyst Andrew Milroy, the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, the BBC: “Wearable gadgets are definitely going to be one of the big areas of growth over the next two years” said Milroy.

 

Apps provoke controversy

03 Dec

Officially launched in Brazil for more than two weeks, the Lula application has had over 5 million downloads, but had a great Sheakesparecontroversy, since it allows them to evaluate men in anonymity , and there are already a number of court cases .
Last week, as if in answer to Lulu , another application was announced , now with reviews made ​​by men, Tubby .

The questions are about Lulu humor, manners, ambition, commitment , appearance and can also point out strengths and weaknesses and in the end it gives a score for reviews.

The comments made in the common form of hashtags make references to intimate aspects of reviews and this is one of the most clearly points invasion of privacy.

There is also offensive hashtags like #moreCheaperthanbreadwithegg and other unworthy even to be mentioned, some are pre-set by the application  the users can choose only what they deem most appropriate.

According to the president of the Lawyers Order of Brazil (OAB) of State of Amazonas , Alberto Simonetti, the Constitution preserves the privacy of the individual , and “that kind of anonymity makes it impossible to identify any libel or slander that may happen , it may not subsist “but the unfortunate is the application remain there.

There are already a lot of joke on the web, such as Shakespeare, as a #NerdofTheatre, which has lost many points , but the matter is serious .