About Me

Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom
HR Apprentice. Ex Media Studies student at Swansea University. This blog is a collection of links, articles, academic reference and random thoughts.

Friday 24 September 2010

Facebook Now Worth More Than Dell, eBay, Yahoo or Starbucks... on Paper

Facebook Now Worth More Than Dell, eBay, Yahoo or Starbucks... on Paper

Facebook’s actual value depends on who you ask, though. Forbes thinks it’s worth $23 billion. SharesPost pins its value at $26.3 billion. And finally, The Financial Times says it’s a $33 billion company.

These valuations are based on real-world trades and transactions. Still, you can’t help but be bewildered by Facebook’s soaring worth. In February 2009, Facebook valued itself at $3.7 billion. By November 2009, it tripled to $9.5 billion. And since then, it’s more than tripled again in value, if you rely on these private transactions for Facebook’s valuation.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Robots on TV: AI goes back to baby basics - tech - 22 September 2010 - New Scientist

Robots on TV: AI goes back to baby basics - tech - 22 September 2010 - New Scientist




A robot toddler could have much to teach artificial intelligence (AI) researchers and psychologists alike, by providing a simplified non-human model for early child development.

Sensorimotor theories of cognition argue that body posture and position affect perception. In one experiment, toddlers were presented with an object that was always in the same place – to their left, for example. If their attention was then drawn to that location when the object was absent and a keyword was spoken, the toddlers later associated the keyword with the object, and did so wherever it was presented to them – whether to their right or left.

Anthony Morse at the University of Plymouth, UK, is exploring whether the iCub robotic toddler can learn similar associations. "A lot of AI has been trying to run before it can walk," he says. "So a lot of the work that I'm involved with is going back to the basics – looking at the foundations of what happens in early childhood development."

The iCub robot, designed by a consortium of European universities, is equipped with two cameras and the ability to track moving objects. "So we place objects in front of it and it will look at them, and 'remember' where it was looking and what it saw," Morse says. He is testing whether iCub, like a real toddler, can associate a space with the word for an object, even in the object's absence.

"Having the iCub robot opens up these amazing possibilities – but there is a lot of work to be done to realise those possibilities," he says

Thursday 3 June 2010

Secretive Bilderberg Club ready for protests - Times Online

Secretive Bilderberg Club ready for protests - Times Online

Splash! Could that be the sound of Lord Mandelson hitting one of the Dolce hotel’s four pools? Or Robert Zoellick of the World Bank? Paul Volcker of the US Economic Recovery Advisory Board? Or merely the euro taking another dive?

That is the thing about the Bilderberg group’s top secret meetings: you never know quite what is going on behind the police checkpoints.

Across the world, secretaries to the rich and the powerful have blocked out the next three days in their bosses’ calendars for their annual gathering, this time at the Dolce in Sitges, one of Spain’s most exclusive resorts.

Monday 31 May 2010

Saturday 22 May 2010

Ahes to Ashes

"I'm arresting you for the murder of my Quattro", a perfect end for the fab five in Ashes to Ashes. Having watched since the Life on Mars days I was slightly apprehensive about watching the last episode in case I was disappointed. I wasn't, here's how it ends


Gene Hunt, Alex Drake, and their colleagues Ray Carling, Chris Skelton and Shaz Granger were in fact all dead - meaning 'life' at Fenchurch East CID was simply a 'purgatory' for dead police officers caught between Heaven and Hell.

After thinking she can return 'other world' before being allowed to go home, Drake realises instead of being in a coma she has died after being shot in 2008 and will never return to her daughter Molly.

The increasingly creepy complaints officer Jim Keats turns out to be the devil - luring the officers to joining him in the burning depths of Hell.

It appears Keats has already succeeded in bringing Viv James to Hell after he was seen cradling him in his last moments when he died in episode six.

Before Keats' role became clear, Skelton tells his colleagues he dreamt about Viv being surrounded by flames - alluding to Hell.

Keats gives Alex the location of a field in which he alludes to the presence of the remains of Sam Tyler. As Drake starts digging up the grave, Hunt demands that she stops... but when she finally comes across his body and pulls out his police badge, he is left unusually speechless when he remembers who he is.

Rather than the middle-aged man audiences have watched in the Seventies-set Life On Mars and its Eighties follow-up Ashes To Ashes, it turns out Hunt was just a rookie cop on his first week of the job when he was shot dead on Coronation Day in 1953.

Then out of the shadows came Keats, hoping to lure Drake to Hell by claiming Hunt is trying to keep her with him in limbo.

Meanwhile, back at Fenchurch East, Ray, Chris and Shaz also realise they're dead after watching videos of their deaths, cruelly left for them by Keats.

All three have been 'seeing stars' and been haunted by various eerie noises from the era they died in.

Ray watches himself sitting in an armchair struggling with depression before standing on a chair and hanging himself. His last words being 'sorry dad'.

He later explains he disappointed his dad by choosing to be a police officer rather than join the army.

One day, he took his anger out on a young man outside a pub, who ended up dying.

While his DCI helped Ray by covering up the man's death, living with the guilt prompted his suicide.

Chris then sees himself as an officer in the late Seventies or early Eighties, being led to his shooting death by his sergeant, who orders him into the line of fire.

Finally Shaz breaks down when she finds out she was a 26-year-old office from 1995 who ends up stabbed with screwdriver as she tries to stop a car thief.

As former fiance Chris rushes to comfort her, the reason behind her anger throughout the series finally becomes clear to her.

She cries: 'All this time I felt so angry, so frustrated, I thought it was the job. It isn't fair.'

The trio, furious with Hunt for keeping the truth for them, are given the option to 'transfer' to another department by Keats.

An incredulous Keats shouts: 'Oh come, you didn't think this was a real police station did you?'

As the trio follow Keats to his 'new department' in hell, Hunt lures them back for one last job and promises Shaz a promotion.

As the fab five carry out their last job together - stopping a jewel heist in the airport - Hunt's beloved Quattro ends up destroyed by gunfire.

A furious Hunt yells: 'He's bl**dy killed my Quattro... I'm arresting you for murdering my car, you dyke-digging t**spot..'

After the 'blag' is successfully completed, the gang all head back for a pint - but this time it's at the Railway Arms instead of Luigi's, which fans will remember from Life On Mars.

Walking out of the Railway Arms isn't Tyler - as many fans wondered if Simm would return - but the landlord Nelson (Tony Marshall) does return as a type of St Peter, welcoming people at the gates of Heaven.

It turns out there is no need to Tyler to come back - because he's already in Heaven.

As Hunt put it, 'Sam had to go, end of.'

Before entering the heavenly doors of the Railway Arms, Shaz and Chris reconcile after breaking off their engagement in between Series 2 and 3 as she tells him 'I love you, I'll always love you forever and a day, you got that'.

As Ray, Shaz and Chris 'pass over' into the Railway Arms, Drake thinks she can go home to her daughter Molly, but the look on Hunt's face makes her realise it isn't possible.

A devastated Drake finally realises she is dead and will never return to Molly, which she has been fighting to return to in 2008 for all three series.

Hunt assures her 'I know, I know. Way of the world, Alex. She'll be fine'.

Despite Drake's best efforts to stay with Hunt in his limbo world, Hunt tells her to follow the others, because they've 'got a saloon bar', while he will have to spend eternity 'sorting out the troubled souls of Her Majesty's constabulary' and 'those who have issues with their passing'.

The pair finally share a kiss and Hunt says 'see you around Bolly-kegs'.

With Drake and the others gone, Hunt is chided by his nemesis Keats, who has become increasingly more devil-like with his evil laughter and snakelike hissing.

He returns to Fenchurch East and find a brochure for a Mercedes Benz 190D - a stylish replacement for his poor old ruined Quattro.

Then a brand new officer bursts through the doors - very similarly to Tyler's entrance to 1973 in Life On Mars - demanding to know what is going on.

Clearly from the Noughties, just like Drake, he demands 'one of you jokers give me back my iPhone'.

So with Tyler and Drake gone, it looks like Hunt has another challenging working relationship on his hands.

He leans out of his office and says to the new recruit, 'A word in your shelllike...' and so his existence stuck between Heaven and Hell continues.

Extracts taken from The Daily Mail

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Everybody Hurts: the verdict

Story from THE TELEGRAPH Everybody Hurts: the verdict

Like sonic aftershocks that inevitably follow any modern disaster, the reverberations of the Haiti earthquake can be heard all over the airwaves, as celebrities raise their voice in song.

This week, not one but two all-star charity singles are being unveiled. First up from the UK is Simon Cowell’s version of REM’s ‘Everybody Hurts’, which will be swiftly followed from the US by Quincy Jones re-recording of ‘We Are The World.’ Between them, they have mustered about 100 pop stars, over emoting for a good cause. The message is coming through loud and clear: We have felt your pain … now its your turn to feel ours.

I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. There is an air of sanctity around charity records that effectively puts them beyond criticism. Indeed, when Radio One DJ Chris Moyle unveiled the Helping Haiti version of ‘Everybody Hurts’ on his show, his remarks were confined to noting where the money was going, concluding “It doesn’t matter whether you like it or not.”

I just can’t bring myself to be so circumspect. I write this from the position of a music critic, not a philanthropist. I already gave, and I’d give a bit more not to hear this record again, although I suspect it’s going to be hard to avoid.

I was anticipating the worst and Simon Cowell has not let me down. The record is truly awful. Its an excruciating, saccharine, overblown farrago performed by some of today’s blandest pop stars to a sentimental, orchestral, rock power ballad accompaniment. It is completely lacking in the restraint and toughness that lent the original its intimate, understated power. In place of Michael Stipe’s grit and gravel voice, we get lots of breathy warbling and tremulous vibrato from the likes of Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey, Cheryl Cole and Kylie Minogue and boy band harmonising from Take That, Westlife and X Factor runners up JLS. Its very much a pop affair, with only Rod Stewart and Jon Bon Jovi (wailing dreadfully) representing the veterans. There is neither sight nor sound of Britain’s contemporary rock fraternity but room for relative nonentities like Joe McElderry. It says something about the record that only Susan Boyle strikes the appropriate note of humble sincerity. It’s a recording with far too much ego and it reeks of the re-positioning of the Cowell brand, as the impresario gets to show his caring side with his stable of television talent. It even comes with the endorsement of Gordon Brown, who knows a bandwagon when he sees it.

The US charity recording is going for more of a Hollywood blockbuster approach, with a chorus of over 75 stars rounded up by Quincy Jones after the Grammy Awards, straight from one red carpet to another. We haven’t heard the song yet, but we have heard a lot of chatter about how exciting the experience was for the singers themselves, with Celine Dion calling it “an amazing opportunity to work with amazing people”. Cowell’s fellow American Idol judge Randy Jackson said “I think this is a great moment in time and I wasn’t going to miss it for anything,” presumably not a message aimed at Haitian survivors. I think the organisers may have missed a trick there. Why not make singers pay to appear on charity records? Just think, if we charged them $50,000 each, these songs would have already raised 5 million before they were even released.

Helping Haiti’s ‘Everybody Hurts’ will be available for download on Sunday 7th, and in stores on Monday 8th February

Monday 1 February 2010

Introducing the iPad, Wings not Included


Thanks to its feminine-hygiene-product overtones, the unfortunately evocatively named iPad that Apple have just unveiled for its new tablet PC is rapidly beoming an internet joke.

Soon after the launch Twitter was buzzing with tweets hashtagged with #itampon. In fact #itampon was trending before #ipad

The iPad measures 9.56 inches in height and is 7.47 inches wide. It weighs 1.5 kilograms. Full charged battery would last for about 10 hours at a stretch and 30 days in standby mode. It is not fully absorbent and does not come with wings.

Regardless of the name I am sure it will succeed and herald the next generation of computing however I don't think I will be buying one any time soon.

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