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International Space Apps Challenge Puts ‘Citizen Scientists’ to the Test

When a group of people come together to contemplate how to use certain data from space to benefit people here on Earth, it’s easy to assume that this crowd would consist of veteran scientists or elite researchers.

From April 10 to 12, however, anyone from the general public will have the chance to take part in the 2015 International Space Apps Challenge.

The challenge calls for “citizen scientists” all over the world to use those three days to come up with creative ways to use data from space in order to solve modern-day issues.

These people will be provided with a plethora of information collected by space probes and other high-end space-agency instruments to help them “develop mobile applications, software, hardware, data visualization tools and platforms” that could revolutionize the way people function and operate across the globe, NBC News reports.

While the participants themselves may not be STEM elite, there will be experts on hand at the annual code-a-thon.

Astronaut Cade Coleman and NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan will be present at the event in New York City, but it isn’t clear just how much help they will be able to provide to the contestants.

So what kind of development platform will be used to host the massive crowd of innovators?

Thanks to IBM, the participants will have access to state-of-the-art resources in every way possible, even when it comes to the very platform they are building their apps on.

IBM is granting the crowd of developers free access to its Bluemix cloud-development platform, according to NBC News.

This means, in addition to the resources provided by NASA, they will also be able to draw their apps using IBM’s ever-expanding collection of cloud-based development tools.

Among these tools are IBM’s famed Watson Analytics.

Outside of the bare foundation of the annual challenge, the rules allow the public to have quite a bit of flexibility when it comes to how they want to work and what exactly they want to accomplish with their app.

NASA provides the group with over 30 different suggested challenges that fall into four main categories including human health research and robotics.

Participants are welcome to kick off their own challenge and are not obligated to stick to NASA’s suggestions.

It’s also up to each individual to decide if they would like to work in a team with other people or take on the coding challenge by themselves.

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10 of the Best Apps for Parents Home-Schooling Their Children

homeschool helper

Homeschool Helper

This tablet app has been frequently cited as one of the best apps for parents creating lesson plans and tracking the academic progress of their kids while being home-schooled. The app allows students to easily calculate grades, keep up with any progression or regression in scores, plan lessons throughout the entire semester, manage book and assignment lists, plan field trips and so much more. It helps turn home-schooling into a more organized experience than it might be if tracking progress was still up to nothing more than pen and paper. The app, which is available on iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook and Android tablets, will only cost parents around $5.

iPlanLessons

iPlanLessons

One major concern for home-schooling parents is making sure their children are not only getting a personalized education but also making sure their children are keeping up with state requirements. Every state has a different set of requirements that parents need to be aware of, and that’s where iPlanLessons shines. The app allows parents to get a clear breakdown of all the subject matter and course content that is required for their particular state as well as track a student’s progress.

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Twitter’s New ‘Retweet with Comment’ Feature Garners Mixed Reviews as It Symbolizes the Platform’s Ongoing Evolution

Depending on what kind of social circle you have immersed yourself into in the Twitterverse, your timeline may have been excitedly squealing about Twitter’s new “Retweet with Comment” feature or angrily smashing their keyboards to push out expletive-filled tweets cursing the new feature’s existence.

It’s one of the moments that truly underlines the great Twitter divide that tends to exist between the social media platforms original, classic users and the newer users who are turning to Twitter as a blogging platform.

The new addition at the center of the digital discourse is the “Retweet with Comment” feature that the tech giant has been testing since last summer.

The feature allows users to add a comment within a retweet to make adding commentary to tweets easier and more convenient.

The feature is being rolled out on the site’s iPhone app, but the site promises that the feature will be coming to its Android app in the future.

From a general view, it’s a new feature that adds a lot more flexibility for users and caters to the desire to make ongoing dialogue easier to follow.

Previously, if users wanted to comment on a retweet they would have to make due with whatever space was left in the already short 140-character limit.

This often resulted in users shortening the original tweet, which could sometimes alter the context of the message. In other instances, users would have to significantly shorten their own comments or use other third-party apps to find their way around the character limit.

This new feature gives users their own additional 140 characters to use to comment on whatever interesting tweets they decide to share on their timeline.

Seems like there is very little not to like about the new feature if you are a part of a growing community of bloggers who use Twitter as a space for dialogue and general dissemination of news.

This is a population that is relatively new to the Twitterverse.

Long before the arrival of a wave of users driving extensive dialogue on the site, however, the brevity of 140 characters was an essential part of the platform’s appeal.

It was a restriction that presented a challenge for those who originally ushered Twitter into social media spotlight — the virtual comedians.

It’s a culture that’s hard to explain but easy to witness if you find yourself in certain digital subcultures like that of Black Twitter.

The brevity of the messages when commenting on retweets laid the foundation for certain emojis to be granted new meanings, shortened phrases and hashtags to hold greater context and essentially helped formulate secondary digital languages within certain subgroups on Twitter.

While commenting within the same retweet was often messy, difficult for some to follow and lacked any real sense of organization, it was also a cherished part of the Twitter experience.

For that reason, some users aren’t taking too kindly to the new feature that seems to have a Facebook-ish design behind it.

Retweet With Comment When the official Twitter page sent out a tweet to demonstrate the new feature, these users were quick to urge the social media giant to take another stab at the new addition.

“Revamped? It’s garbage,” one user replied to the tweet.

Another user wrote, “Change it … it looks atrocious.”

“I HATE IT,” another added.

Others voiced their frustrations that they would now have to seek a different Twitter app to use while the official Twitter app would now be boasting the new “Retweet with Comment” feature.

Others, of course, were excited about the feature’s arrival.

A series of thumbs-up emojis flooded Twitter’s replies along with tweets like “finally!” and “THANK YOU.”

Others didn’t seem too interested in the feature and instead suggested Twitter should have been working on a way to allow users to save .gifs from tweets or be alerted of people taking screenshots of their tweets.

It’s also important to note that it is not possible to embed the full retweet with comment to other platforms and websites.

For now, Twitter users remain extremely divided on the new feature’s arrival, but there is also a simple solution for the users who aren’t happy about the feature’s appearance or how it may impact the platform’s previous strictly enforced culture of brevity.

Don’t use the new feature.

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Funding and Fear: Two Gatekeepers Barring Black Tech Startup Founders From Entering Silicon Valley

When the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley was brought to the nation’s attention, tech lovers and entrepreneurs from all backgrounds quickly began discussing exactly what was keeping Black people barred from the world of tech.

Disparities in quality of education, lack of access to resources for students interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and racially biased hiring practices quickly emerged as some of the most popular ideas.

Statistically speaking, there is more than enough data to back up these claims and suggest that fixing these issues could be key to diversifying the world of tech.

As the national discourse continues, however, some tech entrepreneurs are highlighting two more major obstacles that are preventing Black people from not only getting into tech but also discouraging them from launching their own startups.

Funding and fear.

This intimidating duo could possibly be among the great adversaries for aspiring Black business owners, especially in the world of tech.

The number of Black employees at tech giants like Google and Facebook was well below the 5 percent mark in recent years. The number of Black tech-savvy entrepreneurs who launched their own startups plummets to a measly 1 percent.

One key reason for this is the lack of funding.

Even outside the world of tech, Black people have historically faced much greater obstacles than their white counterparts when it comes to seeking financial assistance via loans, grants, investments or donations.

Without the necessary funding to get a startup off the ground, it may be nearly impossible for Black-owned startups to stand a chance in the rapidly expanding tech field.

Companies like Y Combinator are hoping to level the playing the field.

Y Combinator is a major incubator for startups and provides seed money to projects that show great potential.

In the past, the company has backed startups like Airbnb and Dropbox.

Now the company is expanding its reach with a particular focus on Black entrepreneurs.

Even as other programs like Y Combinator have started to shift focus in order to find more Black entrepreneurs with promising tech startups, it’s the other enemy that is still causing many to shy away from opportunity — fear.

At least, that’s how Michael Seibel sees it.

Seibel, the first Black partner at Y Combinator, explained that many Black people have a negative perception of launching their own startups.

“We have to convince Black engineers that they have more control of their careers than they realize and they will always be in demand,” Seibel told The Root.

Statistics would also work to support Seibel’s point.

Less than 5 percent of Y Combinator applicants for the winter program were Black.

It suggests that these entrepreneurs simply don’t know about the opportunity or are convincing themselves to not even take a chance in stepping out on their own.

As frightening of a decision as that may be, it’s a decision that has already led Black entrepreneurs like Riana Lynn and Talib Graves-Manns to life-changing opportunities.

Both of the Black startup founders were announced as a part of the first class of entrepreneurs in residence under Google and Code2040.

The coveted title means they will have access to free office space, mentoring teams from both Google and Code 2040 along with a $40,000 stipend.

They are both urging other Black entrepreneurs to overcome the fear of Silicon Valley and take a massive leap forward with their own tech startup.

Lynn explained that a part of the fear could come from a lack of knowledge or not feeling like one has enough experience in the field. It may seem like a legitimate reason to stay out of Silicon Valley’s deep waters, but Lynn says the solution to such a problem is simple.

“If you don’t have the skills to build exactly what you need, then you should at least have team members or freelancers that can help you move things along faster,” she told The Root. “Then you can also understand a little more about how long the project is supposed to take or how much it may cost, and that’s really key to launching a project as a startup founder with little or no capital.”

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Digital Comic Book Platform Seeking Black Creators

Peep Game Comix, a digital comic book platform dedicated to the work of African-American creators (authors, artists, publishers), is looking to expand its catalog of Black comic books to 100.

Peep Game’s current catalog consists of 67 titles representing close to 30 African-American creators and 18 African-American-owned publishing companies.

Popular titles include Dawud Anyabwile’s “Brotherman,” Robert Jeffrey’s “Route 3” and Alverne Ball’s “Virgin Wolf.”

Peep Game is currently looking for Black independent creators with comic books that may appeal to a primarily urban audience — especially titles by African-American women and kid-friendly, all-ages books.

Peep Game Comix vendors receive 75 percent of each sale of their title, retain all rights to their work and are welcome to sell their work on other digital platforms around the Web. For more submission guidelines and terms, visit Peepgamecomix.com/submission-guidelines.

Peep Game hopes to reach its goal of 100 books by June 1. At which point, it will no longer take unsolicited submissions.

Read more from Jamie Broadnax at Blackgirlnerds.com

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6 Little-Known Facts About Blacks in Gaming

playstation-4Black Gamers Play Video Games More

In 2011, there were many different reports that made the case that Black and Hispanic gamers were the most active gamers out there. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “African American youth between the ages of 8 and 18 play games 30 minutes more per day than white youth, while Hispanics play an average of 10 minutes more.” A Nielsen study came to the conclusion that Black gamers from 18 to 49 spent 16 minutes using a TV to play console games. Both studies conclude that Black gamers play games more than anyone else due to socioeconomic determinants, but that has not been proven by data.

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Google Expands Chrome-Based Empire With Portable Stick That Can Turn Nearly Any TV Into a Computer

After celebrating four years of Chromebook success and experiencing the rising popularity of Chromecast, Google has unveiled another device that could add to its Chrome-centric tech takeover.

Google recently announced the release of the Asus Chromebit, a device that adds a new level to portability when it comes to computers.

The small, sleek dongle has the ability to turn nearly any TV screen into a fully-functioning computer, and it will cost consumers less than $100.

This differs from Google’s Chromecast, which is anchored in useful apps as opposed to providing full browser-based computer capabilities.

To be clear, the Chromebit is many things — convenient, stylish, affordable and impressive overall — but it wouldn’t quite make the cut as being innovative.

Google is a tad bit late to the computer-in-my-pocket party after Intel announced its Intel Computer Stick back in January. Not to mention China-based companies have been pushing out Android HMDI dongle-computers for almost a year now.

The Intel and China-based versions of the devices boast Windows 8.1 operating systems and Rockchip RK3288 processors, respectively.

Google, after already utilizing the same Rockchip processors for its Chromebook, will continue to hold on to its Rockchip ties while adding a list of additional, impressive features.

“In addition to your Rockship RK3288 (with quad-core Mali 760 graphics) you get 2GB of RAM, 16GB of solid state storage, 2×2 dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a single full-size USB 2.0 port on one end,” Gizmodo reports.

While Google may have lagged slightly behind its competitors when it comes to the new dongles, the tech giant dealt with its tardiness in its usual ways — be fashionably late.

Of all the dongle-computers being introduced to consumers, Chromebit is the most aesthetically pleasing.

It comes in three different colors and flaunts a sleek, functional design that even Intel missed the mark on.

The Chromebit boasts a swivel design that ensures users can plug the device into any HDMI socket without much fuss or stress.

It’s also priced much lower than its Intel rival, which touts a price tag of roughly $150.

The new device is slated to hit shelves this summer and is sure to be followed by a host of other tech giants tossing their own dongle-computers into the ring.

Perhaps this tech battle will heed more impressive competitors than the much-hyped and quickly dismissed battle of the smartwatches.