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- How to Create a Google+ Profile Banner in 5 Minutes
- Tinkering with evolution: Ecological implications of modular software networks
- Samsung Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03)
- The role of social media in protests
- Twitter gets $300m Saudi cash injection
| How to Create a Google+ Profile Banner in 5 Minutes Posted: 19 Dec 2011 06:01 PM PST How to Create a Google+ Profile Banner in 5 MinutesIn addition to setting up a Google+ page for your businessand taking advantage of our handy Google+ tips and tricks, check out how to quickly and easily create a profile banner. We've found a neat photo cropping tool that will help you create an eye-catching Google+ profile photo banner in five minutes. So take a look through this simple gallery walkthrough. Link us in the comments to any creative uses of the Google+ photo banner you've seen — or better still, created on your own! 1. Google+ Profile Photo BannersCustomize the Google+ banner at the top of your profile to represent your business or personal brand. 2. Head to GPlusBanner.comGPlusBanner.com offers a simple way to chop up a photo into five banner-optimized mini-pics to add to your profile. For best results start with an image that's already 685 x 125 pixels. 3. Save Your PicsOnce you've upload your photo, hit "Render," then right click each image to save. Do make sure you label each pic so you remember their correct order. You'll be glad to know that GPlusBanner doesn't add a watermark to your pics, unlike other services. 4. Change Your Profile PicNow head over Google+ and click the "Edit profile" icon at the top-right of your profile. If you also want to change your profile pic at this point, select "Change photo" under the current image. 5. Add Your New Scrapbook ImagesNow click "Add some photos here" and upload your five images in left-to-right order. 6. Save Your ChangesEnsure the images' privacy level is set to public (it may already default to "Anyone on the web"), then hit save. 7. Voila!A personalized Google+ photo banner for your profile in no time at all. Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tinkering with evolution: Ecological implications of modular software networks Posted: 19 Dec 2011 05:50 PM PST Tinkering with evolution: Ecological implications of modular software networks
In the 1960s, Dr. Lawrence J. Fogel introduced what would come to be known as evolutionary programming to the nascent field of Artificial Intelligence in an attempt to produce intelligent software without relying on neural networks modeled on the brain or human expert-based heuristic programming. Now, researchers in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University have shown the inverse – namely, that network theory, when applied to software systems, provides surprising insights into biology, ecology and evolution. Specifically, they explored evolutionary behavior in complex systems by analyzing how the Debian GNU/Linux operating system utilizes modular code. The researchers found that how the network becomes more modular over time in various OS installations often parallels that of ecological relationships between interacting species. Lead researcher Miguel A. Fortuna, who worked with Juan A. Bonachelaand Prof. Simon A. Levin, Director of Princeton's Center for BioComplexity, describes the main challenges they encountered in designing and implementing the methods used to analyze OS the evolution. "The main difficulty we had was getting, organizing, and storing the data," says Fortuna. "Notice that the network of interdependent packages of the last release analyzed was composed by more than 100,000 dependencies. "This complexity required that they use structuring query languages (SQL) for managing databases. "We were very careful when identifying software packages through different release – sometimes there could be different versions of the same package within the same release due to the improvements made by developers." While Fortuna notes that quantifying the increase of the code's modular structure time was the main insight of their study, he points out that reuse of code and software's hierarchical structure were suggested by the pioneering work of Ricard V. Solé and Sergi Valverde in the early 2000s. "The interest that our paper has drawn has helped us to discover work we did not know about software systems. The idea of using the network of dependencies and conflicts of different releases of the Debian operating system as a case study has facilitated the understanding of how code development evolves over time without the need to go deeper into the details of the code itself." Another key innovation cited by Fortuna was the team's use of a very precise method to detect the modular structure of the operating system. "We borrowed an algorithm developed by physicists and widely used in ecology nowadays. In fact, this work has been constantly enriched by an interdisciplinary mixture of ideas from biology and physics." The team already has its eye on ways of improving and extending the current experimental design. "The most important follow-up of our study would be the exploration of proprietary software like the Microsoft Windows operating system," Fortuna comments. "Since Debian is the result of a volunteer effort to create a free operating system, you have the freedom to distribute copies, receive source code, modify the software or use pieces of it in new free programs. The question then becomes, what does the software development pattern looks like when the company developing code doesn't offer this freedom to their users? A comparison of the structure of both development strategies would be more than interesting." They are also developing a dynamical model to mimic the growth of Debian over time – an effort which, if successful, might let them predict how many packages, dependencies, and conflicts will arise in the next release of the operating system. An interesting question would be," he conjectures, "if there are limits to the number of packages that an operating system can offer to the users without jeopardizing its functionality and robustness. Following our analogy with the biological evolution, we could ask if there is a limit to biodiversity, that is, to the number of species that can coexist in our planet." Regarding potential analogies with evolution and ecology, Fortuna points to macroevolution – that is, speciation and extinction processes – that he sees as being in some ways equivalent to the creation of new packages and the deprecation of those rendered obsolete from one release to the next. "Does the probability of a species becoming extinct depend on how long it's been on the planet? In other words, are the most ancient species, like crocodiles, the ones with higher risk of extinction? We can formulate the question, which was already explored by Van Valen in the 1970′s, by replacing species with software packages. Why do some packages not exist after a subsequent release? Does a new software package created in one of the earliest releases have a high probability to persist over time? What does it depend on? We can calculate these probabilities following the identity of the packages of the Debian operating system through time. The data to do it are available, and we therefore might learn something from software studies that help us answer the biological question – because evolution works as a tinkerer in both cases." In relation to the ecological processes, Fortuna illustrates, "When an oceanic island is created colonization and extinction are the main mechanisms that leads to the establishment of a stable community. This community assembly would be equivalent to the package installation process in a local computer. For example, dependencies and conflicts between packages mimic predator-prey interactions and competitive exclusion relationships, respectively. A predator can colonize the island only if the prey it feeds on is already there." In Fortuna's view, the same thing happens with software packages. "A package can be installed in a computer only if the packages it depends on are already installed. Ecologically similar prey species are going to compete with each other in the island for light and nutrients so that the best competitor is going to displace the others, which can then become extinct. Predators feeding on extinct prey are going to disappear as well. Conflicts between software packages have the same consequences: one package cannot be installed in the computer if it has a conflict with an already installed one, so that those packages depending on it cannot be installed either. This parallelism can help us understand the general principles operating on systems of different nature." Reminiscent of AI-based evolutionary programming, Fortuna also says that their work might well lead to improved in silico models of evolutionary biology and population ecology. "Charles Ofria and his lab at Michigan State University are studying evolution by using self-replicating computer programs able to mutate and evolve over time." The genome of these programs consists of a set of instructions that are executed by the central processing unit (CPU). Some of the mutations imply the insertion of random instructions into the genome. If the mutant program is able to reproduce faster than the others, its genome is going to persist through time. "It could be interesting to explore to what extent new instructions added to the genome interact with the preexisting ones – that is, whether or not there is a reuse of the genome instructions of these digital organisms and its resemblance with a modular structural pattern," Fortuna observes. "The interplay between ecology and computer science is much more evident if we take a look at the work developed by Luis Zaman, Ofria's graduate student, who is incorporating host-parasite interactions into these computer programs." Looking further afield, Fortuna describes how other models or applications might be targeted using the team's findings. "The closest study would be the comparison with the development pattern of other GNU/Linux distributions – openSuse, Fedora, Gentoo, and so on – as well as proprietary operating systems like Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X. The information needed to accomplish this task would easily be compiled for the first ones – but it will be much more difficult to get it for the last ones. The algorithms for detecting modular structures are publicly available. There are also powerful free SQL relational database management systems like PostgreSQL and MySQL to store, organize, and manage the information. So,' he concludes, "the bottleneck is once again data availability." Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Samsung Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03) Posted: 19 Dec 2011 05:40 PM PST Samsung Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03)
Elegant design and feature set. Bright hi-res screen and backlit keyboard. Swift boot and resume times.
DVD, not Blu-ray, drive. Non-removable battery. No WiDi.
A bit pricey by PC standards but $500 under a MacBook Pro, the Samsung Series 7 is a winning desktop replacement. I'm a sucker for skinny chassis with slot-loading optical drives. The Samsung Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03) ($1,299 list) laptop combines an elegantly slim (under one inch thick) aluminum case with slot-loading DVD±RW drive; sunny 15.6-inch screen and backlit keyboard; quad-core Intel Core i7 power; 8GB of RAM; and a roomy 750GB hard drive yoked to a small solid-state drive or 8GB of cache storage to boost boot and application loading times—all in a package about as light as desktop replacements get, 5.2 pounds. In size, shape, CPU, and slot-loading, it's impossible not to compare the Samsung Series 7 with Apple's MacBook Pro 15-inch (late 2011) ($1,799 direct, 4 stars), an equally elegant slab of aluminum with the same 2.2GHz processor. The slightly heavier (5.5 pounds) MacBook Pro comes with OS X Lion, the operating system PCMag.com praises as consumers' best choice, versus the business favorite Windows 7 Professional. It has a Thunderbolt port versus the Samsung's two USB 3.0 ports. And it has half the memory, a lower-resolution screen, and a smaller hard disk without solid-state assistance, for a price tag $500 higher. Lion is admirable, but it's not irresistible. For style, performance, and value, the Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03) replaces the MacBook Pro as our desktop replacement Editors' Choice. Design The Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03) offers a 15.6-inch, matte-finish screen with 1,600 by 900 resolution; both figures are fractionally better than the MacBook Pro's, whose 15.4-inch display totals 1,440 by 900 pixels. The extra sharpness and application window space compared to the standard 1,366 by 768 screens of systems like the Dell XPS 15z (Microsoft) ($999 direct, 4 stars) and Toshiba Satellite P755-S5269 ($979.99 list, 4 stars) is most welcome. So is the screen's 300-nit brightness—sufficient to dial the backlight down to a battery-saving three-quarters or two-thirds intensity without eyestrain. The system's speakers pump out decent sound, though without exceptional highs or lows. Features The 750GB, 7,200-rpm hard disk is divided into a 270GB C: drive and a 404GB D: drive, plus a system recovery partition. The 8GB solid-state drive on the motherboard doesn't appear as a drive letter, but makes the Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03) feel noticeably snappier than laptops without bonus flash—our test unit booted in 29 seconds and awoke from sleep in 3.5 seconds in unofficial stopwatch tests. The software bundle ranges from bloatware (WildTangent games) to useful if short-lived (a 60-day trial of Norton Internet Security) to a mostly handy collection of Samsung-brand utilities, such as an Easy Settings menu that provides an alternative to poking through Windows' Control Panel for a variety of system options and an Easy Software Manager for centralizing drivers, versions, and updates. Samsung supports the Series 7 with a one-year parts-and-labor warranty. Performance With 8GB of RAM and a 2.2GHz quad-core, eight-thread Intel Core i7-2675QM processor, the Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03) is a strong contender in PC Labs' performance benchmarks, with its hybrid storage system helping it to a best-in-class score of 2,697 in PCMark 7 (ahead of 2,480 for the speedy HP Pavilion dv6-6173cl and 2,235 for the MacBook Pro). Its Photoshop CS5 time of 3 minutes and 39 seconds tied the Apple's, while its Handbrake video encoding time of 1:37 joined the Toshiba P755-S5269 and Samsung NP700Z5B-W01UB in a group just a tick behind. As for graphics, the Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03) joined the 10,000-point club in 3DMark 06 (score 10,807, though both the MacBook Pro and HP dv6-6173cl scored higher still at 11,180 and 12,030 respectively) and posted playable frame rates of 49.0 frames per second in Crysis and 64.3 fps in Lost Planet 2 at 1,024 by 768 resolution. One note: While the system does let you switch between the power-saving Intel integrated graphics and the faster AMD Radeon HD 6750M adapter, it's a dorky affair of right-clicking on the desktop and choosing "Configure switchable graphics" to select specific applications, not the ingenious, automatic switching based on application needs of laptops with Nvidia's Optimus technology. The Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03)'s battery lasted 6 hours 41 minutes in our MobileMark 2007 rundown test, which is fine for a desktop replacement—topping the MacBook Pro's 5:26 and Toshiba P755-S5269′s 5:07—but not a record—trailing the Dell XPS 15z's 7:13 and Samsung NP700Z5B's 8:18. The sealed-inside-the-case battery can't be swapped for a spare, but Samsung claims an Easy Settings option that caps battery charge at 80 percent (not used in our testing) increases its life for many more charge/discharge cycles. Users who want the smoothest integration of hardware and software on the market will forsake Windows for the MacBook Pro 15-inch, while those who balk at the Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03)'s price can check out its Samsung NP700Z5B-W01UB sibling (which subtracts 2GB of RAM, the backlit keyboard, and the solid-state cache and substitutes a tamer graphics chip). But if you're looking for a deftly engineered desktop replacement that combines cutting-edge tech with style and class, definitely check out our newest Editors' Choice. Spec Data
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| The role of social media in protests Posted: 19 Dec 2011 05:21 PM PST The role of social media in protests
A study has explored the dynamics behind social network sites in recruiting and spreading calls for action that contribute to riots, revolutions and protests. Led by Oxford University and published in the journal Scientific Reports, the study finds that the most influential group consists of a small group of users close to the center of a network. This group, described by the researchers as the 'spreaders', plays a critical role in triggering chains of messages reaching huge numbers of people. However, early participants in the protest and those starting the recruitment process, have no characteristic position within the network: they are the leaders of the movement and first movers in their local networks. They spark the initial online activity that recruits the spreaders, but they are scattered all over the network, suggests the study. Lead researcher Dr. Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at Oxford University, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Zaragoza, Spain, led by Dr. Yamir Moreno, analysed Twitter activity data during mass protests in Spain in May 2011. These protests were sparked by the political response to the financial crisis, resulting in demands for new forms of democratic representation. The main target of the campaign was an organised protest on 15 May which brought tens of thousands of people to the streets of 59 cities all over the country. After the march, hundreds of participants camped in the city squares until 22 May, the date for local and regional elections, with crowded demonstrations taking place daily during that week. Researchers followed the posting behavior of 87,569 users and tracked a total of 581,750 protest messages over a 30-day period. They found that the growth of the movement was driven by two parallel processes: the recruitment of users, started by early participants who provided what the study calls 'random seeding'; and the diffusion of information, which made the movement grow from those roots by means of the 'spreaders'. The latter were more central in the network not necessarily because they had a higher number of connections but because they were connected to others with equally good connections. The time at which different users first got involved and started emitting messages allowed the researchers to distinguish between activists who were leading the protests and those who responded later on. They found that when calls to action came from many different sources within a short time window, their effects were amplified, resulting in 'recruitment bursts'. The vast majority of users were recruited this way responding to the collective behaviour of others, says the study. Lead author Dr. Sandra Gonzalez-Bailon, Research Fellow at the OII, said: “Digital media has played an important role both in the recent wave of mobilisations in the Arab world and in protests across Western countries, such as the Occupy movement across cities worldwide. This is the first empirical study analysing the mechanisms behind protest recruitment by means of online networks. It shows that mass mobilisations depend not on the influence of central users, who are nonetheless crucial for their growth, but on the actions of many users in local networks that will ultimately reach the influential core.” “Why people back a cause is based on many factors and relates to what is happening in the offline world. By examining the collective behaviour of online users, we have established that most people are influenced by what those around them do. If they are exposed to many messages calling for action within a short time frame, they are more likely to respond to this apparent urgency and join in. This creates recruitment bursts that can translate into a global cascade with truly dramatic effects, as the massive demonstrations and the wave of occupations that followed shows.” The authors caution that because they did not control for users' demographic information or for exposure to offline media, further research would be needed to account for these factors and to eventually lead to a proper understanding of how social media and online networks mediate the coordination of collective action and mobilizations. Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Twitter gets $300m Saudi cash injection Posted: 19 Dec 2011 05:16 PM PST Twitter gets $300m Saudi cash injection
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Company has announced a $300m (£194m) investment in social media site Twitter. The investment follows “several months of negotiations”, a company statement to the Saudi stock exchange said. The prince, who is one of the world’s richest men, owns stakes in many well-known companies, including News Corporation. He also has investments in a number of media groups in the Arab world. “Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact,” Prince Alwaleed said. Share and Enjoy• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • StumbleUpon • Reddit • Google Buzz • FriendFeed • MySpace • Add to favorites • Email • Print • PDF |
Evolution of the modular structure of the network of dependencies between packages of the Debian GNU/Linux operating system. Packages are represented by nodes. A green arrow from package i to package j indicates that package i depends on package j, and a red arrow indicates that package i has a conflict with package j. Packages within a module (depicted by a big circle) have many dependencies between themselves and only a few with packages from other modules. During the growth of the operating system, the modular structure of the network of dependencies has increased: (I) The new packages added in successive releases depended mainly on previously existing packages within the same module, and hence, the size of the modules created in earlier releases increased over time; (ii) the number of modules also increased, although the new modules consisted only of a few new packages; and (iii) the relative number of dependencies between packages from different modules decreased. Moreover, the relative number of conflicts between packages from different modules decreased, whereas those within modules increased through the different releases of the operating system.
Researchers tracked 581,750 protest messages over a 30-day period
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