Blerds

October 3, 2014October 3, 2014

World’s Fastest Laser Could Change the Internet Forever

Researchers in Germany may have revolutionized the Web forever by creating what is possibly the world’s fastest laser.

The laser is able to turn on and off at record-breaking speeds, which would be used to speed up how quickly data can be sent through the Internet.

“If one can now switch the laser on and off very fast, then more information is transported for a given time frame,” said Carsten Ronning, a scientist at Germany’s Friedrich Schiller University Jena, according to Mashable.

A group of scientists from the university are responsible for the record-breaking laser as well as scientists from Imperial College London.

Two main factors set the laser apart from past lasers – material and size.

Most lasers place the zinc oxide nanowire material on glass. This new laser, on the other hand, places it on silver, the Imperial College London explained in a recent press release.

The next big factor is size.

Scientists were able to shrink down the diameter of the laser, allowing it to function faster than any other laser created before it.

According to the press release, the laser is a thousandth the size of a human hair.

This means researchers were able to pack even more light into a smaller space.

So just how much faster is this laser?

The thin laser produces as many as 1 trillion pulses per second, the press release claims.

If that’s true, the researchers’ new laser is indeed the fastest laser ever created.

While other uses for the laser have not been thoroughly explored, researchers are absolutely positive that the laser could be used to increase Internet speeds.

October 3, 2014October 3, 2014

Five Things To Consider Before Pursuing a Degree As a Computer Programmer

Determine what kind of programming you are interested in. Decide whether you want to develop software for the Web, mobile devices or the desktop. You can do a wide range of programming from application or system to game programming.

Learn the fundamentals of programming. You must learn how to program and you must learn how to use programming language through consistent practice and dedication. The way to be an expert is by doing the things you know how to do over and over. Work on free and open source projects. Build your own stuff for fun.

Choose a programming language. There are many computer programming languages such as C++, C#, Delphi, Java and Python. Take your time and explore some of these languages and determine if you like one more than the others. Solve a problem using one of these languages.

Pages: 1 2

October 3, 2014October 3, 2014

Apple and Google Face Off in a Battle of the Smart Watches

Apple and Google are at the forefront of discussions about technology’s latest craze – smart watches.

While both competitors prepared to duke it out to produce the preferred go-to smart watch, it seems many tech experts are having a hard time finding substantial differences between the two products.

In other words, Google may have closed the technology gap that used to exist between Android-operated and iOS-operated devices.

Quite frankly, the gap may have already been closed for quite some time.

Digital Trends took a close look at Android Wear and Apple’s soon-to-be released Apple Watch, but their stats reveal that the competitors may have more in common than they would like to admit.

Both watches will come packed full of useful features.

Android Wear will provide users with useful voice commands powered by Google Now while the Apple Watch will provide voice commands through Siri.

Both products will feature multiscreen functionality and fitness and health monitoring, according to Digital Trends.

Android Wear devices boast Google Fit while the Apple Watch will likely utilize the Healthbook app for its product.

One thing Android Wear has already provided that may not be available on the Apple Watch is location specific information.

According to Digital Trends, “Android Wear takes note of your exact location to give you issue relevant notifications and contextual reminders.”

With Apple’s smart watch not scheduled to be released until early 2015, these specifics have not been released just yet.

Tech experts believe, however, that Apple will likely take notes from Google’s device and include similar features.

While the watches seem relatively similar for the most part, outside of design aspects, the Apple Watch does boast some useful features that Google’s device doesn’t.

The Apple Watch will feature a “Digital Crown” dial that will allow users to interact with the watch without having to block the screen with their finger.

Also, the Apple Watch is promised to feature a heart rate sensor while the Android Wear’s heart rate sensor will depend on the manufacturer.

Both watches will have different versions that will also be waterproof.

As for those design features, the watches look just as you would expect an Apple and Google product to look.

Keeping in line with the sleek designs its brand has become known for, Apple’s smart watch looks like something out of a new science fiction flick.

The white watch features a black screen with sleek rounded corners on the rectangular face.

Designs for Android Wear, on the other hand, will vary based on which device you decide to go with.

Android Wear will give users the option of getting a square face or a round face.

If you’re looking for a larger variety in designs, however, Apple may still have its competitor beat.

While no rumors of a round-faced Apple Watch have surfaced, the tech giant will feature several different designs that are likely to appeal to a fashionable tech-savvy crowd.

One model will boast 18-karat gold while the Apple Watch Sport focuses on functionality and comfort over design aesthetics.

When it comes down to it, both watches seem to promise a good experience for users.

Some Android Wear models are available for as low as $250 while the Apple Watch prices will start at $350.

Either way, it seems like this tech battle will be determined by what phone consumers already have.

Neither of the devices seems to promise enough to have an iPhone user rushing to buy an Android device or vice versa.

October 2, 2014October 2, 2014

A New Wave of Black Filmmaking: Experimental and Black Speculative Indie Films

In recent years, it has become relatively easier to produce your own short films, TV shows, commercials and music videos. Increased access to technology and platforms on which to display films, such as smartphones, YouTube and Vimeo, and alternative resources for funding to create these films, such as crowdfunding and small artists grants, have ushered in a new era of filmmaking for Black creators. Increased access to the tools and technology for producing films has also given independent filmmakers space to experiment in their work. A brief survey of the contemporary Black independent film scene yields a long and ever-growing list of experimental and Black speculative (including horror, Afrofuturism, sci-fi, fantasy, fan fiction) short cinema, film trailers, music videos and other projects. There are enough Black experimental and speculative films out there to warrant their own festivals and screening series.

The BlackStar Film Festival, for example, is an annual, Philly-based film festival focused on work by and about people of African descent, featuring films that are often overlooked from directors, writers and producers working in narrative, documentary, experimental and music video filmmaking. This past year, BlackStar screened The Next Movement: Experimental Shorts, featuring, among others, Afronauts directed by Frances Bodomo, moonrising directed by Terrance Nance, and Negus: Lee “Scratch” Perry directed by Invernomuto. The Future Weird, a Brooklyn-based short film screening series curated by Derica Shields and Megan Eardley, features sci-fi, experimental, speculative and weird short films by directors from Africa and the Global South envisioning the future. The Future Weird screens films along several themed tracks, including Remote Control, Non-Resident Aliens, Visions of Excess, and In Search of a Black Atlantis; with each screening drawing on a range of materials: commercials, music videos, newsreels, and colonial archives, and frame films. Black Radical Imagination is a traveling short film series that focuses on futuristic, surreal, sci-fi, and experimental narratives that provide visions and commentary on post-modern society through the state of current Black culture. Curated by Erin Christovale and Amir George, Black Radical Imagination has themed installments that feature shorts by Jacolby Satterwhite, Cauleen Smith, Jabari Zuberi, and others.

If you aren’t within reach of a film festival and if an Afrofuturist film series isn’t traveling soon to a location near you, you are still in luck — many experimental, Black speculative short films are available online for free. Pumzi, a post-apocalyptic short sci-fi film by Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu, can be found on Youtube. Noise Gate by Donovan Vim Crony, an experimental sci-fi short film about a dimensional traveling scientist who is in search of the ultimate reality, can be screened online at Vimeo. Danger Word, directed by Luchina Fisher and adapted for the screen by award-winning writers Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep), is a short horror film about a 13-year-old girl and her grandfather who have survived the zombie plague in his wooded cabin – and how her birthday goes badly awry. The film is available on Youtube and some cable channels. FUTURESTATES.tv is a web series of short sci-fi films written and directed by veteran and emerging indie filmmakers, many of whom are people of color. The films explore possible futures through the prism of today’s global realities. Because these films are free and accessible, you can host your own mini-Black speculative film festival at your local library or community center, or gather up a few of your friends and have a Black speculative-themed movie night right in your own home.

If you enjoy these indie short films, you may be excited to know that there are several independent film projects in the works that could use your support. Nicole Sconiers, author of speculative novel Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage, has launched Lavender Pinnochio, a production company that produces digital content (short stories, trailers, short films) to inspire an international dialogue about the issues Black women face and create complex, entertaining, challenging but rewarding roles for Black actresses. Octavia: Elegy for a Vampire by poet, dramatist and guerrilla filmmaker Dennis Leroy Kangalee, is a non-traditional vampire film currently in development about a 150-year old Black vampire struggling with the enduring legacy of colonization. Actress Reagan Gomez is crowdfunding to develop a sci-fi Web series called Surviving the Dead about a nurse named Shayla whose city is overtaken by a deadly virus, with her father and the government somehow involved. On her Indiegogo page, Gomez says that her motivation in creating the show is because, although people of color love sci-fi movies and shows, we are rarely represented in them. “The running joke is, if there’s a Black guy in the movie, he dies first. And Black women, well … we aren’t considered at all. We’re never the hero. We never survive till the end. We’re never the stars. It’s time for that to change,” says Gomez.

That change has already begun, and if it isn’t already, Black speculative film is well on its way to becoming one facet of a new/renewed Black Arts Movement. I have highlighted only a small sample of the Black creators who are out here developing, financing, producing, writing and starring in our own films. These films are helping to decentralize the stereotypical, stale narratives and representations of the Black image that Hollywood and mainstream media have forged. The question is, will Black people support these multi-faceted representations of ourselves and our culture? Will we put our resources and attention back into our own communities so that we can continue to create and be the heroes and stars we wish to see?

Rasheedah Phillips is a Philadelphia public interest attorney, speculative fiction writer, the creator of The AfroFuturist Affair, and a founding member of Metropolarity.net. She recently independently published her first speculative fiction collection, “Recurrence Plot (and Other Time Travel Tales).”

October 1, 2014October 1, 2014

Microsoft Gets Behind African Startups as Demo Africa Gains Momentum

Microsoft is keeping a close eye on the innovation and tech-generated startups coming out of Africa lately and the IT giant is hinting at some major opportunities for the company and the emerging entrepreneurs.

Demo Africa aims to connect African startups to the global ecosystem by giving them a substantial platform with financial backing to launch and grow their businesses.

Apparently, Microsoft is on board with the plan and is ready to create serious opportunities for the young software innovators in Africa.

“For African investment it is an event that touches one of the core pillars of our drive around inspiring local economic development in the continent,” said Kabelo Makwane, the managing director of Microsoft SA, according to CNBC Africa.

Demo Africa is an affair that is sweeping the entire continent, but Makwane stressed the importance of seeing so much local participation in Nigeria.

“It is really encouraging because the same could not be said for the past where the momentum was a bit slow,” he said. “We have seen significant growth through public and private sector participation and also international donors and funders that have really risen to the occasion in helping to support these businesses to set up.”

He went on to say that Microsoft is always looking for opportunities in invest in something that will “contribute to real local economic development.”

Needless to say, the startups being launched through Demo Africa are exactly what they’re looking for.

“The first major reason is a very firm statement that Microsoft globally is very serious about Africa and is also very serious about Nigeria in terms of what this country represents in the broader context of the continent,” Makwane added.

Nigeria holds one of the continent’s largest markets, and, to Microsoft, that screams of opportunity.

“There is a nice catchphrase that says ‘Glocal,’ ” Makwane said. “We want to be more Glocal now as opposed to where we were in the past. So this means coming up with solutions and initiatives that are most relevant in a real way that can make a meaningful impact to the Nigerian context.”

October 1, 2014October 1, 2014

Paid Less and Paying More: Black College Graduates Drowning in Student Loan Debt

University researchers revealed that Black college graduates are typically forced to take on much more student loan debt than their white counterparts.

At the end of what seems like an endless journey for a diploma, many Black college graduates are finding that their diploma was much more expensive than they could have even imagined.

Half of all Black graduates said they had to take on at least $25,000 in student loans before they completed their undergraduate degrees between 2000 and 2014.

Less than 35 percent of white graduates had to take on that same amount.

According to Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, the difference is all about income.

“It’s about the fact that there is a black-white gap in income and wealth, and that’s what underlies this gap in borrowing as well,” Rouse told The Atlantic.

With Black households typically having less income than white households, there is less money to invest in a child’s education.

The Atlantic reports that the average Black household in the U.S. makes less than one-tenth of the accumulated wealth of the average white household and that income gap has only grown over time.

According to researchers at Brandeis University, the wealth gap between Black and white households has tripled over the past 25 years.

With Black graduates drowning in debt after they graduate, it becomes nearly impossible for many of them to fully reap the benefits of the diploma they just borrowed thousands of dollars for.

“If the debt burden is too high, students from low- and moderate-income families will have trouble making the economic gains that we all know a college degree offers,” said Elizabeth Baylor, associate director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress.

To make matters worse, those same Black graduates are struggling to find well-paying jobs.

A large number of Black college graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 are being forced to settle for jobs that don’t require college degrees or severely underpay them.

Black graduates are paying more for their diplomas and getting paid less for their work despite earning degrees in their perspective fields.

With that troubling fact in mind, Rouse still hopes to encourage minorities to pursue higher education.

“Education remains a very solid investment for students in terms of increasing their earning capacity and future labor-market outcomes,” she said.

Rouse believes students should become more aware of the different repayment options they have available to them instead of refusing to pay for college at all.

State governments should also find ways to invest in education, according to Baylor.

“Students of color are increasingly a larger part of our higher education system,” Baylor said. “So as state investment in public colleges has retreated in the past decade, it’s important to make sure that those schools remain affordable to students of color who are a big share of public colleges.”

September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

A Look Back in History: Inventor Virgie M. Ammons

Virgie M. Ammons was born on Dec. 29, 1908, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. At a young age, her family relocated to West Virginia, where she spent the rest of her life. Ammons was a self-employed caretaker and a Muslim woman by faith, attending services in Temple Hills. She died on July 12, 2000, in Preston County, West Virginia.

Ammons invented the Fireplace Damper Actuating Tool, which allowed the chimney damper to be locked in the closed position. This prevents cold air and dust from blowing down the chimney and back into the house. She was granted a patent for her invention on Sept. 30, 1975.

September 30, 2014September 30, 2014

How I Managed the Disappointment of Not Getting on ‘Shark Tank’

Disappointment is a part of life. This may be a biased comment, but disappointment feels more acute for people like entrepreneurs, who risk everything to make their dreams a reality.

Entrepreneurs quit their jobs, sacrifice relationships with friends and family, cash out their 401(k)s and run head-first into the unknown — that place in the universe filled with possibilities, tremendous joy and fulfillment. But also with lots of disappointment.

I’d like to share how I overcame the disappointment of not making it to the final round of auditions to get my company, WeMontage, on the incredibly popular TV show Shark Tank.

Why I Wanted to Get on Shark Tank

I recently listened to a great audio book by Ben Horowitz called, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. I had one really great takeaway from the book:

When things get hard in your business and you’re not sure if there is anything you can do to make a difference, you ALWAYS have a move.

Let me repeat that. You ALWAYS have a move.

Things have been extremely challenging at WeMontage since we ran out of funding back in the spring. I have a great product with hundreds of happy customers, but the biggest issue for the business is lack of consistent national exposure.

Shark Tank has 20 million viewers. So, while it was a complete long-shot, getting on the show was my move. And doing so obviously would have addressed what I’ve identified as the major issue for the business.

I made it to the next-to-last round of auditions, but did not get the call to go to LA to pitch to the Sharks. Cause for disappointment? Perhaps…

How I Handled the Disappointment of Not Getting on Shark Tank

I initially thought I didn’t make it to the second round of auditions because people in line around me at the audition got their call back and I hadn’t; I was really upset about this because the producer said my pitch was great. I eventually did get the call a few days later and was super-pumped about it.

After I prepared my nine-minute pitch video for the producers and submitted my lengthy application, a funny thing occurred. I made a conscious decision that it didn’t matter what happened next, as I knew I had put forth my absolute best effort. I think that choice was inspired by something Ariana Huffington said in an interview about her new book, Thrive.

Ariana, a super-Type A personality, said she realized she can only control 10 percent of what happens in life, so she does her 10 percent at 100 percent of her ability and trusts the Universe to handle the other 90 percent. So, maybe that’s what I did, too. Or maybe I just released the whole thing because I’ve learned that my greatest disappointments in life have been when I expected a certain outcome and it didn’t come to pass. Or maybe it was some subconscious effort to protect my mental health. I actually think it was a combination of all three of these things.

Surprisingly though, I wasn’t disappointed to learn I didn’t make it to Shark Tank.

Disappointment of Others Who Support You

My wife has been incredibly supportive throughout this entrepreneurial journey. When I didn’t hear back about making it to LA, she was still optimistic it was going to happen. Once the trailers for the new season of Shark Tank started airing, the reality set in that I wasn’t going to be on the show and I could tell she was disappointed. And for the first time in the last three years, she began to question the feasibility of me accomplishing my dream of making WeMontage a household name.

She asked me, “Do you think WeMontage is going to happen.” My answer surprised even me. I didn’t hesitate in my response, “Yes, I do. I don’t know exactly how at this point, but I’m OK with that. I have a few tangible things coming up soon, that should make a huge difference.”

I was grateful she accepted that answer without hesitation. I was even more impressed that I still had the resilience in me to respond so affirmatively and so quickly in that way.

Suggestions for Managing Disappointment

I looked around the Internet to see what others recommend for handling disappointment. I found a few practical, platitude-free suggestions in an article over at PsychCentral.com. Here are six recommendations in the article for how to effectively cope with disappointment.

1. Manage emotion
2. Don’t take it personally
3. Review expectations
4. Take a big picture perspective
5. Try again — or try another tack

I think I’ve used all of these tips during the last three years of chasing my dream. The thing I think I’m best at on this list though is number “6”, which is being resilient.

Resilience Matters

In my experience, the one thing that has consistently kept me moving forward, other than the support of my amazing wife, loving family and friends, is resilience.

There have been plenty of times I’ve wanted to quit, but I haven’t.

I still might quit…

But not today.

How have you dealt with disappointment as it relates to being an entrepreneur? Are there things you can share that might help others? Please do so in the comments.

James Oliver, Jr. is a husband to an amazing wife, Ayana, and co-founder of the world’s cutest twins, Thaddeus and Zoe. James is a tech entrepreneur who successfully raised private investment capital for his startup, WeMontage, the world’s only website that lets you turn your photos into large collages on removable wallpaper. James graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse Collage and has an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill. Follow @jamesoliverjr on twitter and via treplifedad on Facebook and G+. You can connect with James via his lifestyle blog for parent entrepreneurs:www.treplifedad.com.