Will ARKYD – OUR own FRACKING satellite – make it? It’s in your hands

Come on. Less that 10% of the way to go. This project is for all of us. It is our own satellite.

A People’s Satellite paid for by the people.

We will all be part of history as we near the end of the ARKYD project. Or we will watch as the first direct public funding of a project in low Earth orbit fails.

Don’t be that person who waits too long. $10 will have a huge impact. $99 has the possibility of changing the life of a child while also snagging a once-in-a-lifetime trinket for yourself. 

And if you are any kind of amateur astronomer, there are perks that put you in control of the People’s Satellite.

I started this project as a way to learn about crowd funding while working on something that I believe can have a huge impact on our future.

We are so close to meeting our goal. And one thing I know from crowd funding projects is what a nailbiter the last few days can be.

I need you to just make a couple of clicks and make a difference, while getting something nice for yourself.

If you have already provided support, thanks so much. Now tell everyone in your networks about ARKYD, put it on Facebook and tweet your followers. 

This is something positive in a world full of so much negative.

Be a part of it.

Could Apple win the eBook trial because it uses Macs?

Least Surprising Tidbit From Apple-DOJ E-Book Trial
[Via Daring Fireball]

Brian X. Chen, reporting for the NYT from the e-book price-fixing trial:

Both parties showed their evidence on a projector screen. Apple’s legal team used a MacBook to shuffle between evidence documents, stacking them side by side in split screens and zooming in on specific paragraphs.

In contrast, the Justice Department’s lawyers could show only one piece of evidence at a time. One video that Mr. Buterman played as evidence failed to produce the audio commentary needed to make his point.

[More]

An interesting comment. The Mac when your presentation absolutely has to work.

Apple security and its users – they can’t get our iMessages

 by Daniel Dudek-Corrigan

Apple issues rare public comment on its ‘commitment to customer privacy’
[Via AppleInsider]

Apple published a rare public comment discussing “Apple?s Commitment to Customer Privacy” in the wake of reports on the United States’ “Prism” surveillance program.

[More]

So Apple gets permission to reveal how many government requests it gets and what it does. Not too suprising

But the interesting thing in their response is this:

For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data.

I wrote about al of this before all the news broke. The government WILL find a way to read your digital communications in real time unless we stop them. Apple encrypts their data from user to user so well that the Feds complained and were trying to get Apple to give them a key.

Doesn’t this sound very different today than it did a few months ago?

 ”iMessages between two Apple devices are considered encrypted communication and cannot be intercepted, regardless of the cell phone service provider.”

If you have been using iMessages or Facetime, the Feds can only see you have sent them, not what is inside.

So I guess they can get meta-data of a sort but none of the actual information. As I said, encryption should be used by every teleco. Why in the world are our emails sent in the open (with the passwords) without high level encryption?

I htink this is why they are so upset about this going mainstream. 

I wonder when we will see the first ads from Apple stating that iMessages are safe from government intrusion?

Will iOS 7 disruption be an opportunity or a deathknell?

by m:eightysix

Fertile Ground
[Via Marco.org]

One of my favorite patterns in our industry is when the old and established are wiped out by disruption, irrelevance, or changing fashions. Like a forest fire, clearing out the old is very destructive and shouldn’t be taken lightly. But what’s left behind is a clean slate and immense opportunity.

I don’t think we’ve ever had such an opportunity en masse on iOS. After what we saw of iOS 7 yesterday, I believe this fall, we’ll get our chance.

The App Store is crowded: almost every common app type is well-served by at least one or two dominant players. They’ve been able to keep their leads by evolving alongside iOS: when the OS would add a new API or icon size, developers could just add them incrementally and be done with it. Established players only became more established.

iOS 7 is different. It isn’t just a new skin: it introduces entirely new navigational and structural standards far beyond the extent of any previous UI changes. Existing apps can support iOS 7 fairly easily without looking broken, but they’ll look and feel ancient. Their developers are in a tough position:

• Most can’t afford to drop support for iOS 6 yet. (Many apps still need to support iOS 5. Some unlucky souls even need to support 4.3.) So they need to design for backwards compatibility, which will be extremely limiting in iOS 7.
• Most can’t afford to write two separate interfaces. (It’s a terrible idea anyway.)
• Most have established features or designs that won’t fit well into a good iOS 7 design and will need to be redesigned or removed, which many existing customers (or the developers themselves) will resist.

[More]

One of the times when it might be easier to start up a new app than convert an old one. If you don’t have a business model that can deal with this, you will be in trouble.

People making their own dents in the universe

by perpetualplum

Jobs, while famously misquoted, did say this:

We attract a different type of person‐‑a person who doesn’t want to wait five or ten years to have someone take a giant risk on him or her. Someone who really wants to get in a little over his head and make a little dent in the universe.

Jobs certainly did make a dent in the universe. And Apple deserves some credit for making it possible for just regular people to make their own dents in the universe.

Sure this is a marketing video but is one of the best filmed, edited and paced ones I have ever seen. I want to see a TV show which just examines the worldwide effects of  mobile apps.

Not a single Apple employee is identified in the video. It focusses on people, working in the places they live around the world from Africa to the Arctic.

It also shows just how different the world is today than 5 or even 3 years ago. Things are getting so much better in so many bottom-up ways that have a hard time getting the attention that top-down “The End is Near” approaches clammer for.

While Apple’s devices are featured here, there is so much more, so many instances of what people can do with technology The health official riding an easily maintained motorcycle whose mobile app help provides medical care, the parathlete with state-of the art prosthetics controlled by an app so she can row and wear high heels, the Inuit woman working to save the language of her people by speaking into a portable super-computer,  the 10-year old disabled child who ‘spoke’ for the first time on the day he got a tablet, 

I dare anyone whose heart still beats to make ti through this video and not be joyful at what people have done. The ability to craft solutions that fit their personal needs is a hallmark of the current age.

Instead of mass-marketed tools, they can have personalized ones. We would have gotten here eventually but Apple, with its disruption of the mobile market and the creation of the app economy, deserves credit.

We can now all make our own dents in the universe.

As long as Federighi is at Apple it will be fine

by Compudemano

Apple’s Federighi thrust into spotlight with successful WWDC keynote performance
[Via AppleInsider]

During Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday, the most stage time wasn’t allotted CEO Tim Cook, or marketing head Phil Schiller, but to Craig Federighi, the software chief who stepped out from his “behind-the-scenes” role and into the spotlight.

[More]

I wrote about Federighi a while ago. He was at NeXT with Jobs, came over to Apple  a bit ago and now is the face of all Apple software. I expect we will see much more of him.

What everyone seems to say about him is that he not only gets the programming aspect, he knows how to bring people together to solve problems., even people who are lousy at collaboration.

Rumors were that iOS7 was behind schedule, as was the OS X timeline, and might not even make the unveiling that the developers conference. Yet both were unveiled in very useful ways.

And Apple may need a better ‘spokeperson’ than either Cook, who while brilliant in his balliwick, is not the most inspiring, or Ive, who simply does not want the job.

Here you can see an early example of his coolness, as he reveals his name is “Hair Force One.”

And here he is from Monday, providing the sort of awe-struck observation, mixed with inside jokes, that made Steve Jobs so much fun.

But that is what Jobs had – the ability to bring disparate groups together and get them to produce. Will we see more of him?

I bet we find out.

No official facial recognition apps for Google Glass – “at this time”

by sndrv

Google forbids facial recognition apps on Glass in the name of privacy
[Via Ars Technica]

If you run into a complete stranger wearing Google Glass, that person might take your picture with just a wink. But rest assured that Glass probably won’t be able to tell its wearer your name, date of birth, and turn-offs.

In a Google+ post Friday, the Project Glass team noted that “many have expressed both interest and concern around the possibilities of facial recognition in Glass.” For now, Google is playing it safe on facial recognition. “As Google has said for several years, we won’t add facial recognition features to our products without having strong privacy protections in place,” Google said. “With that in mind, we won’t be approving any facial recognition Glassware at this time.”

[More]

Of course, this just means that Google will not officially be responsible – to many lawsuits I guess. But since Google Glass is extremely hackable – there are already ways to turn off the recording light or to control things by a wink –  this will not really do much.

In fact, it might be nice to have facial recognition tied to my contact list, allowing my memory to be refreshed without embarrassment. And since Google already has a lot of such access – personal photos, etc. – it does seem like in their wheelhouse.

But at the moment, no such official app. Lots of unofficial apps I expect.

Those that want to (ab)use Google Glass will be able to with little problem. And Google can change their view at any time.

Updates: Information about asteroid prospecting

UPDATE: The pictures are huge so I just have a link to make loading the page easier.

Here are a few infographics regarding Planetary Resources and asteroids. More fun than prospecting for gold in Alaska.

The Space Economy

What the asteroids are made of

How to prospect

Helping launch a public satellite

The ARKYD satellite

I’m helping Planetary Resources with a new project called ARKYD: A Space Telescope for Everyone at Kickstarter.

They will launch the first public satellite, one that can be controlled by you and me. One way is for the satellite to take a picture for you. You can upload a selfie (or some other picture) to the satellite. There is a monitor and a camera, placed to it can take a picture of the Earth in the background.

So you can get a documented picture of your choice taken by a satellite you helped pay for.

Other levels allow you to control what  to take a picture of  as well as sponsor classrooms in their explorations.

They need to raise $1 million over the next 30 days. So far, they have raised over $125,000 with more than1000 supporters.

Become part of the new frontier.

FDA approval may be needed for urinalysis app

by juhansonin

iPhone urinalysis app draws scrutiny from FDA
[Via AppleInsider]

Biosense Technologies’ uChek system turns Apple’s iPhone into a capable urinalysis device, and now the Food and Drug Administration is saying that it may need to clear the medical app lest developers risk violating federal law.

[More]

I was wondering about this. If you are going to produce something that people will make medical decisions regarding, you need to show the FDA that it has been validated.

Especially if you are going to have the people use test strips that have only been validated for visual use. 

This sort of approval is why Scanadu is crowdsourcing their validation efforts.

The FDA is figuring out how to deal with this new app economy and its impact on medical decisions. I can see their point. If someone makes a medical decision based on data from a poorly validated app, then pretty nasty consequences could occur.

The estate of a dead patient could sue, I guess, if the app maker is still in business.

Lets just hope the FDA takes a more modern approach to producing  validation results. Like allowing easier crowdsourcing trials.

And by biometrics on the iWatch, he means health data

Apple’s iWatch to come in late 2014 with focus on biometrics, analyst says
[Via AppleInsider]

Noted KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple’s much-rumored iWatch will hit store shelves late next year, not in 2013 as many market watchers expect, with a 1.5- to 2-inch screen, focus on biometrics and deep integration with existing iOS devices.

[More]

Generation of personal health data is going to explode in the next year. As I wrote yesterday, Scanadu will provide a ton of data.

With biometrics, the iWatch can better safeguard an owner from unwanted user access, while providing advanced healthcare features

What happens if we can wear the device that gets our walking data – like the FitBit does – and heart rate and who knows what else? And that data is communicated wireless to the iOS device in our pocket?

It may well be that the reason for the 2014 date is not only due to its development. It may, just as the Scanadu Scout must, have to pass some FDA approval processes if it can act as a medical device.

We shall see.

First ‘tricorder’ as a crowdsourcing project for FDA approval

Scanadu asks Indiegogo users to test its “tricorder,” but don’t call it a pre-order
[Via PandoDaily]

Scanadu, the healthcare company trying to build a real-world version of “Star Trek’s” tricorder, is looking to raise $100,000 on Indiegogo, but it would prefer that you don’t refer to its campaign as crowd-funding or pre-ordering its Scout device. It’s using Indiegogo to crowd-source the hunt for willing participants in a usability trial required by FDA — the money is secondary, or at least that’s how Scanadu views the initiative.

“We’ll learn a lot about how end users are going to treat the medical readings,” says Scanadu CEO Walter de Broweur. “If they want to, and are going to, change based on these readings.” He says that interest in the company’s product has far exceeded expectations — unsurprising, given the constant “Star Trek” references — and the campaign will allow Scanadu to learn from a few of its more fervent fans.

Scout has changed since last November, when de Brouwer showed me the device’s capabilities in a crowded Starbucks. It’s more circular and more powerful — de Brouwer says that it’s the same size but weighs a bit more — and, due to popular demand, is no longer restricted to one user per device. The new Scout will allow you to collect your children’s and parents’ heart rate, blood oxygenation, and, yes, temperature, among a slew of other stats.

[More]

An innovative way to garner FDA approval! This is how they descirbe this effort:

We are creating a medical-grade device, which is not yet fully accurate and not FDA-approved. Hence this is not a medical device. Via this campaign, you may contribute and your input may affect the final design and characteristics of this revolutionary tool.

The exploratory version of the Scanadu Scout™ is not a medical device and makes no medical claims. As a research tool, it can be used to collect data that will be submitted in a marketing application to the regulatory authorities.

Before Scanadu Scout™ can become a medical device it will have to go through the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval process and this is where your help comes in. With the Scanadu Scout™ you will help us by Scouting yourself and giving us feedback to refine the Scanadu Scout™.

This will happen in the framework of official clinical studies in which you will be invited to partake, ONLY IF YOU OPT-IN. For each study, some of you will be contacted and will have to sign an Informed Consent form. With your help we can put Scanadu Scout™ through FDA to become an over-the-counter consumer-grade diagnostic tool.

When do I get to sign the Informed Consent document? At several moments. When you receive your Scanadu Scout™, you will also be receive the Informed Consent document which will enable you to take part in the community, participate in our usability study, and help us define the final properties of the device.

Damn. I’m too late to get the special deal. And their project is already well overfunded. 

The Scout will be able to determine a lot of useful information. 

But what is kind of cool here is that the FDA requires all sorts of validation data for medical devices. Usually the company has to pay a lot of people to accomplish this. Validation costs  money.

Here, they are recruiting 1000 people – who all paid to be part of the trial – to help gather the data the FDA requires. A great idea.

And they will be validating their ScanaFlo – a urine testing device – in a similar fashion. Stay tuned.

Printing food is more disruptive than printing guns

by FUNKYAH

3D-printable food? NASA wants a taste
[Via Ars Technica]

NASA has bestowed a $125,000 grant upon a research corporation to pursue the development of 3D-printable food, according to a report from Quartz. Anjan Contractor, who runs Systems & Materials Research Corporation, hopes to design a system that will turn shelf-stable cartridges of sugars, complex carbs, and protein into edible food on demand.

Contractor asserts that by the time the population reaches 12 billion people (“peak human” for Earth being around 9.5 billion to 10 billion people), we will have to change our perceptions of what “food” is in order to sustain everyone. A modified RepRap 3D printer serves as Contractor’s theoretical prototype design for printing food.

Contractor plans to keep the printer open-source and envisions situations where recipes can be traded and tweaked by users. The printer could even theoretically produce foods based on the optimal nutritional makeup for the consumer, whether it’s a young boy, old woman, or hung-over college student.

[More]

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. I’m expecting that special materials will be used that permit the actual simulation of connective tissue, viscera  and intercellular connections that give food its texture as well as taste. 

And of course, it will have to be fairly rapid printing. No one is going to use this at home  if it take 4 hours to produce a steak. Also, printer jams have to be very rare.

Just think of the effects on the food producing industry if this gets perfected. Why raise cattle is the steak can be replicated at home? Why would McDonald’s exist if you can make a hamburger at home?

I’d expect some of the corporations to be pushing to outlaw printing food at home. Maybe by making a regulatory play about food safety? 

Because if it gets perfected, the reason for a McDonalds, for a Taco Bell and perhaps even for most supermarkets, will be greatly reduced. 

However, it may not be possible to print some ice cream so Ben and Jerry’s will probably hold on.

Crowdsourcing boycotts, umm, buycotts

 by andrefaria

Finally an App That Reveals the True Story Behind the Brands You Buy
[Via Big Think]

You only know how hard it is to be a responsible consumer after you’ve tried it – running laps around isles trying to find that one brand you know is free-trade, reading labels to avoid carcinogenic ingredients, or looking for the organic produce sticker (5 digit code starting with 9 means organic, while 5 digit code starting with 8 means GMO). Still, after every anti-GMO petition you sign and every documentary on food you watch, the feeling of not doing enough doesn’t go away.

[More]

An interesting app. Scan a bar code and find out if the company is in conflict with any boycott campaign you are a part of.

It is decidedly non-partisan in that you can target companies whose policies you don’t like or support those companies you do like. You join the campaign you want for the objectives you want.

So, if you hate Monsanto, or if you love Monsanto, you’ll get the information you need.

The database is also being created by the very people who are using the app. So it will get better the more it is used.

You only know how hard it is to be a responsible consumer after you’ve tried it – running laps around isles trying to find that one brand you know is free-trade, reading labels to avoid carcinogenic ingredients, or looking for the organic produce sticker (5 digit code starting with 9 means organic, while 5 digit code starting with 8 means GMO). Still, after every anti-GMO petition you sign and every documentary on food you watch, the feeling of not doing enough doesn’t go away.

Going to Space Camp – How community changed the life of a young girl, first for ill and then for good.

Teenage chemistry enthusiast won’t be charged with felony, will go to space camp
[Via Boing Boing]

Kiera Wilmot — the Florida 16-year-old who created a small explosion just outside her school before classes started by mixing cleaning solution and tin foil (she was just curious, nobody was harmed) — will not be charged with a felony, after all. Florida State Attorneys dropped the charges against Wilmot yesterday. After her case garnered national attention, she ended up with a lawyer who has defended her mostly for free. There’s no word yet on whether she’ll be allowed to return to the school that expelled her and pressed charges in the first place.

[More]

Not a felon. Going to Space Camp. I just love stories like this.

This shows that new communities  created on the Internet can be smarter than zero-tolerance laws. 

First her community expelled her, threatened to send her to jail and possible mark her as a felon for her life. For something that hurt no one, that many people have done and that was at most a poor choice – something that teenagers really should be allowed to make. Because… zero-tolerance.

But, because the internet can create ad hoc communities of real social power, with tools to affect rapid change, it did not stop there. Strangers stepped up to raise their voices and to help her. She got a good lawyer to step up. The social pushback stopped the previous process and allowed cooler, smarter decisions to be made.

And what is really great is people did more than just raise their voices. There are tools to allow them to put their money where their mouth is.

So a fund was created to pay for her defense. Over $8000 was raised. After any remaining legal expenses are paid for, the money will be used in a trust for her education.

However the really great thing was started by Homer Hickam, the former NASA engineer whose story is told in October Sky – he built rockets as a teenager, really high powered ones. It would not be surprising to have seen him put in a similar position today as Kiera.

Homer set up a crowdfunding project to send Kiera and her sister to Space Camp! More than enough money has been rasied to send them. Homer just added this:

We have the girls scheduled now, their tuition paid, their flight suits purchased, and nearly everything arranged.  They’re excited and so are we!

What a great story. Instead of destroying this girl’s life, the community actually taught the lesson it needed to (get some oversight before any science work, just to double check?) and then provided her opportunities she did not even have before. 

And the rapidity at which this happened demonstrates that we are beginning to create the social norms to balance safety to a community vs freedom for the individual.

Instead of going to jail, Kiera is going to learn about space. Amazing.