New Upcoming Technology – Inflatable Moon Bases

Soon, you will be able to live on the Moon, in a bubble! NASA has made a “Bigelow Expandable Activity Module” (BEAM) that is a room that can be folded to fit in the trunk of a spacecraft. A picture below shows it computer generated on the moon. These BEAMs would greatly increase the availability for everyone to go to space and live there for a while. Imagine living on the cheese?!

bigelow-moon-base-1

New Upcoming Technology – Vintage Piano Toy Synthesizer

piano

Recognize this? It’s a little wooden piano toy, from when you were little. Remember the dinky little sound it made? Well, here’s an upgrade!

pianocool

This is a Wooden Toy Synthesizer, or a toy piano from space. Inside it’s shell is a normal synthesizer mechanics connected to the keys. The dials on top control the sounds. Cool huh? You upload any sound from your computer and then play it with the piano. So, go on, give it a try!

New Upcoming Technology – Spherical Tires

“Goodyear thinks that if we’re going to reinvent the car, we might as well reinvent the tires too.”  Goodyear has came out with a design of spherical tires that would be attached to the growing production of self driving tires with a magnetic force. Rides would be smoother and quieter and potholes would no longer be a problem. Goodyear says that the tires would be condition adapting and rotating so traction would be at it’s best and not wear out as fast. Check out the video for more.

 

160308141206-goodyear-spherical-tire-2-780x439

Video

New Upcoming Technology – Virtual Reality Real Roller Coasters

Samsung and Six Flags have done it! They have now created virtual worlds that can be experience while you ride a thrilling roller coaster. Click the link to see more.

Video

You could soar with superman, fight aliens, and cruise through space, all from the seat of a coaster. It takes a spin off of the ‘adventure coasters’ and adds so much more ‘adventure’. So check it out when it becomes available to every Six Flags!

 

http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/03/technology/samsung-virtual-reality-roller-coaster/index.html

Scratch Project

We have been working on Scratch the last couple weeks. I have created on in a few short days. Here, try it out! It’s really simple.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/92883770/

New Upcoming Technology – Form 2

We’ve all known about 3D printers for a while now, since they are making a big difference in manufacturing. But now you can welcome Form 2 into your home, for your wildest dreams. This is a major upgrade from the previous Form 1+.  Take a look at the important upgrades:

                                     FORM 1+                           FORM 2

Dimensions:          3o x 28 x 45 cm                    35 x 33 x 52 cm

12 x 11 x 18 in                       13.5 x 13 x 20.5 in

Weight:                   8 kg                                       13 kg

18 lbs                                    28.5 lbs

Build Volume:     125 x 125 x 165 mm            145 x 145 x 175 mm

4.9 x 4.9 x 6.5 in                  5.7 x 5.7 x 6.9 in

To watch the overview of the Form 2, watch here: Inside the Form 2: Deep Dive

New Upcoming Technology – Microsoft Surface Book

It’s happening again: The PC War. You can thank Microsoft when they came out with the new laptop, Surface Book. They also came out with a Surface Pro 4, but that is just an add to the tablet family. The Surface Book makes us feel like we’re back in the 1990s where the only thing different was that it was Mac vs. PC. Microsoft’s Surface leader, Panos Panay, says the Surface Pro 4 is 50% faster than the MacBook Air, and the Surface Book laptop twice as fast as the MacBook Pro. His whole interview was held in New York, and was streamed to the web, live.
The Surface Pro upgrade is thinner than the Pro 3, measuring 8.4 mm. It has a 12.3 inch screen (diagonal) and has a major terabyte of storage. It has 16 GB of RAM also. It will process Windows 10, and will be in different models, all with different storage.
There is a new “toy” that goes with this Surface Pro 4, called the Surface Pen. It includes a “eraser” at the end, an all year battery and magnets to attach to the Surface’s keyboard cover. The pen comes with interchangeable tips for different styles. There is also a docking station that can be used with the Surface Pro 3. The Surface Pro Type Cover is now thinner, and a much better track pad, using glass instead of the same plastic that makes up the keys. The cover is sturdier now, so usage on a non flat area will be improved.
The biggest reveal would be of the new Surface Book that has a sturdy hinge so typing even on your lap can be comfortable. The screen is able to be flipped, (still attached to the keyboard) and used as a tablet. Also, so you don’t start typing with your knees, the keyboard turns off when the screen is flipped back. The screen is also detachable completely.

Panay called the Surface Book the ideal portable system for gamers, architects, video producers and others with a need for heavy-duty computing capability. He also claimed it is the fastest 13-inch laptop ever, but perhaps even more impressive is the claim of 12 hours of battery life per charge.

 

I think that the computer is really cool, specially since you can flip it to be a tablet or pull it off it’s keyboard, making it more mobile. I’d rather have the computer than the tablet.

Pre Orders start Wednesday (Oct. 28)

Microsoft’s Surface Book and Surface Pro 4

New Upcoming Technology – oPhone

First thing that pops in your mind when you hear “oPhone,” is a phone, kinda based off the iPhone. But you don’t call people with this phone, you smell. The developer, David Edwards, created this ‘phone’ to send and receive scents to one another like text messaging. With the help of the iPhone app “oSnap,” you can send complex smell messages to share the wonderful experience.
But why would you want to smell what someone else smells? Imagine walking into a chocolate shop and smelling the most delicious homemade chocolate. You could send your friend a picture, but it’s not the same experience. David Edwards says that receiving a smell instead of a picture or sound will give you a completely different experience. “They elicit memories, dismiss stress, and excite emotions.” With all the culinary pictures on Instagram, you just wish you were there, and with the oPhone, you would feel like you were.
Inside each phone is a “smell vocabulary” with over 300,000 unique aromas that you can mix and match to create the smell you want to send. The oChip, which holds the vocabulary can be taken out and connect to an Iphone directly and quickly send out small smells on the go. There are 8 oChips to each oPhone. Each oChip has 4 primary smells and so 32 primary smells to each oPhone. oChips are like ink cartridges, for aromas.
Of course, aromas are things that are very tricky to change. It would be hard to go from smelling an orange to delicious chocolate cake without smelling the orange as well. “Aromas are great environment creators.” This is where the name “oPhone” really makes sense. It treats the aromas as voices in a call, where they end when you “hang up,” and can’t be heard (smelled) again until you “pick up.” It basically turns on and off a smell someone sends you.
Soon, when someone sends pictures of a delicious meal they’re recommending, you see if it smells like it looks! Hopefully one day we could experience all 5 senses through technology.

Networking – What and Why?

Instead of businesses hand delivering papers to businesses across the world, businesses can use computers to digitally send the documents in matter of moments. But the documents don’t get there by magic, the computers use a network. There are two types of networks that are easy to remember and recognize.

The first one is LAN, or Local Area Network. LANs connect many relatively close devices over a small area. Buildings use LAN to share things with each other. A library uses a LAN when they use their database about due and checked out books. Homes with their own network typically use LAN so that the whole house is connected.

The next network is WAN, or Wide Area Network. They connect smaller amounts of devices but over a large span of area. If two libraries in different cities wanted to share their catalogs, they would use a WAN. Companies would use a WAN to connect to other companies’s information.

But why would you want a network? In the new age of fast paced technology, it’s important to stay connected. The sole purpose of a network is sharing information and getting work done faster. You even use a network almost everyday! The biggest network around today is called the Internet. Without networking, you couldn’t Google how to tie your shoes! Many people believe that networking only deals with computer technicians, when really, you use one all the time!

Shameless Self Promotion

As many people have heard, job hunting is hard. When you are looking for a job for a certain major or even just a skill, it makes it more difficult. One way to get yourself that second interview is “self-promotion.” Now, there are great benefits from self promotion, just don’t get too crazy!
By Forbes.com’s post, “Self-Promotion is not crucial (unless you want to get ahead!)” As the writer, Margie Warrell, says in her book, Stop Playing Safe, “Failing to toot your horn – with the right people, in the right way, and at the right time – doesn’t serve anyone.”
(Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2013/04/29/self-promotion-is-not-crucial-unless-you-want-to-get-ahead/)
In Margo Arnold’s book, “Shameless Self-Promotion!”, she talks about advantages and disadvantages of types of self-promotion. She mentions 7 ways to self promote.
1. In Person
2. By Traditional Mail
3. By Phone
4. By Fax
5. By Email
6. On the Web
7. Social Media
She states self promoting on Social Media these days is the best idea, as businesses are moving to the digital age. She said it allows your Facebook “friends” get to know you, trust you, buy from you and even hire.

So while you are debating about promoting your self to gain that new job promotion, just know, if you feel in your job “prime,” show it! There is no shame in shameless self promotion!