Technology

Antonio claimed in the future we´ll use QR-codes and our phones to identify ourselves online: [tweet https://twitter.com/zugaldia/status/157946012005183489 align=‘center’] I tend to agree, and this is one way, I think, it could work. Just scanning 2 QR-Codes either by using your phone’s camera or the computer´s camera. Your computer has a camera. The server (e.g. Gmail) asks who you are. You show your QR-code. That code would be created on the phone using the algorithm that changes the pattern every few seconds. The QR-code is read by the integrated camera most computers now have. The server accepts the ID, but still needs to confirm he is a trustworthy server and that that the login/QR-code was just not used by someone else. The server connects with the phone (since it knows the info from the QR-code) and sends a random number with which the phone makes another QR-Code. The user has to show the new QR-code.You are now sure that the person holding the phone is the person trying to access the account. [Extra] The server (or the phone) shows few pieces of information only the user would know. Some correct, some not. If you click the wrong one, you are out. Both server and phone log you out. If the phone has a camera: ...

Via Hackers News I found this post by Pau Ramon about the difficult experience of being recruited in the USA. I went through a similar process twice. First to work at a space and rocket lab, then to work at an NGO. I'll try to summarize it, hoping it might help others. As a research postdoc: I sent three emails to those places I wanted to work with. Short email with three short paragraphs: My name and affiliation, why I like what they do and why I think I can help them with their research. CV was linked (not attached to keep the email light) ...

[Cross posted at the Global Adaptation Institute News.] Report from the World Climate Summit, Dec. 3-4, in Durban, South Africa. The World Climate Summit (WCS) began with a keynote from President Zuma, followed by a set of 7 high level speakers who discussed how greening the global economy is not simply a reactive “who pays the bill” debate, but a whole new direction for better growth. The question is: is change happening at the pace it could and should, and if not, why not? ...

[Cross posted at the Global Adaptation Institute News.] Reporting from Durban, with contributions from Ian Noble watching from the web. In the morning I joined the Climate Communications Day. Attendees were mainly environmental journalists. It is part of a continuing process to assist journalists, especially those from developing countries, to understand both the process of climate change and the state of the negotiations. After all, what society will hear mostly comes from the media, not scientists directly. ...

[Cross posted at the Global Adaptation Institute News.] Development Seed published today an interview we made about the climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa. We discussed the importance of open data in the climate mitigation and adaptation movements. The interview also highlights how the Global Adaptation Index is a groundbreaking tool that utilizes open data to help countries adapt to climate change and other global forces: ...

[More or less a transcription of the speech I gave today] Thank you very much for the invitation to join the Kick-off of the Water Hackathon. The topic at hand is extremely important. Water is essential, yet billions of people face aggravating challenges with water quality, quantity, or even basic access to it. The challenge here is to help solve these real identified problems with pragmatic software-based solutions. And I know, we know, that we can make great contributions. We, participants, as many as we are, we are not alone, as you can see. This event has the support of the World Bank, NASA, governments, Universities and companies around the world. Why? Because it’s working. The growth of this movement is based on its success, which I see is based on 3 ingredients. ...

Last Friday the US State Department hosted its 5th Tech@State, where technologist and diplomats unite to pursue goals in education, health, and welfare worldwide. The topic for this year was Open Source Software. All sessions are available in Ustream. I would especially recommend the one by Maccon Phillips, Dr. Linton Wells and Jeremy Allison. The feeling is that the model has changed. It is not anymore about hiring a company to provide a closed product and give support until they stop providing service or a new one is needed. The model now is to open the data, let everyone access as much information as possible. Anyone can then build (open) products that the agencies can evaluate and use. Every agency has now the power to create such open competitions. Agencies are keen to use open source software, as they realize it has many more benefits and fewer problems. They typically hire a company to adapt the product and provide service. The extra mile comes when they liberate the improvements for everyone to use, when they adopt the winning apps on competitions, when everyone can be engaged in the innovation, and everyone benefits from it. ...

This [free as pdf] NAP book is a report from the 2008 NRC Board of Atmospheric Sciences workshop: “Progress and Priorities of U.S. Weather Research and Research-to-Operations Activities”. Despite the chaotic nature of Weather, scientist are currently able to measure (nowcast) and predict (forecast) weather with unprecedented accuracy. Almost certainty within hours, and maybe a week at best with 50% chance. But: Do we need to improve our capabilities? Can we? The report says yes. What can we do? Once we have the forecast of an impending weather event, are we acting accordingly upon predictions? The report says not really. The U.S.A. has the world´s most sophisticated and well-developed weather forecast infrastructure. The federal government also spends, annually, $5 billion in research and operations only in NOAA, and $6 billion for a dedicated agency on disasters (FEMA). Academia and private partners are also tightly involved. Only the generation of weather forecasts costs overall $5 billion annually, but its benefits are (quoted on the book as) 6 times the cost. Despite these impressive benefits on paper, there is much room for improvement. ...

The video above shows the map of the Sun from 2007 to 2010. The map calculates the image as if neither the Sun or the Earth rotated, leaving thus a black region that corresponds to the section of the Sun that can´t be seen from Earth. But they do rotate, so the black region shifts in time. The interesting bit is that the solar features remain in place. This allows us to see that certain features survive several months and are indeed recurrent. ...

Name: That´s not really important, but it can be “predictive behaviour logics” or “Guess Action Algorithm” Concept: A big-ish widget on the screen of your smart phone (or computer, but I´ll think on mobiles for now) that shows what you most likely want to do, based on your patterns of use and other information like location, time, weather, agenda, emails, ... Need: Think about it. Phones today can do millions of things. But when you take your phone, you are only interested in one, and many times is highly predictable, based on time and location. Most of these actions are not addressed by the notifications the phone already has, and we all end up with too many shortcuts in too many home screen. -When you commute everyday on the metro, if you get your phone, you most likely want to open the News, the Kindle app, or the Angry Birds. ...