Some Things to Know About Virtual Reality

First of all, I need to make it clear that there is a very important distinction between virtual reality and augmented reality. Virtual reality is being immersed completely in another world where you are blind and deaf to the real world. Augmented reality creates an overlay on the real world so that you can interact with both. I would argue that VR is more suited for gaming and experiences where you are completely immersed while AR can be used in education and engineering. All this is of course not for sale yet and will not be till next year. That will give you enough time to save up because it will be fairly expensive since it will need some serious graphics. This might also mean you will be updating your computer in order to run the software. That wonderful laptop will probably not work out too well. Lastly, you might want to take some anti-nausia pills before putting on the head gear because studies have shown that people tend to get really queasy after several minutes. One of the solutions to that problem is to add a virtual nose to the screen.

Last Interface: The Brain

The last frontier in software development is going to be an interface with the human mind. This sounds like the stuff of science fiction but if you really look at where we are today, it appears that we are getting closer and closer to that reality. Neural implants could accomplish things no external interface could: Virtual and augmented reality with all five senses; augmentation of human memory, attention, and learning speed; even multi-sense telepathy – sharing what we see, hear, touch, and even perhaps what we think and feel with others. There have already been interfaces with the mind, just look at DARPA and what scientists are able to do with rat memory. The current reality is that these devices are not tuned and the resolution, so to speak, is very low. The possibilities here are endless but you have to look at the other side of this sword. What will happen to privacy and hacking and what will be the value that we place on information? Then we can throw in the ultimate symbol that humans have come up with, money, into the mix and we will get all sort of class divisions. Are we really ready for this technology?

Some Cloud Computing Stats

Cloud computing is on the rise and the technologies are evolving extremely fast. Here are a couple stats to consider: 82% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy which is up 9% since 2014. 10% of businesses use a single public cloud and 5% use a single private cloud. The public cloud is more for companies that prefer a pay-as-you-go type of plan. The private cloud is for businesses with privacy concerns and who need to meet certain standards and compliances. The hybrid cloud is a mixture of both. There is a lot of data but they still have certain privacy concerns. One of the things that you should remember when deciding to go with one cloud over the other is that if you do not hold your data, most likely you do not own the data. This distinction can sometimes lead to legal disputes. What are your thoughts on cloud services?

Dropbox: Some Changes

Dropbox rolled out an update Tuesday that makes it easier for users to collaborate on shared files with a new commenting feature that allows people to have conversations within individual documents. This is one of the reasons that cloud services have become so great when it comes to collaborators and small businesses. You will be able to communicate with people on the go or if you are working from home. I have found that it saves a lot of time and even money being able to work on documents and data this way. Another great part of the new features is that you will be notified if other people make comments on the documents that you own. Dropbox also supports Office Online so all your documents can easily be synced and you will never have to worry about losing any data or information. Currently, the features are available on the website but not on the mobile applications, although the updates should be coming soon.

Freelance Writing

There are several rules that freelance writers should follow in order to preserve their sanity and even their jobs. First of all, know how to meet deadlines. If you are consistent in meeting deadlines and getting everything done in time, you will be more dependable and more people will be calling for your work. One of the ways to do this is to be very liberal when setting deadlines. Also, use the time zones to your advantage which can extend the deadline several hours. As a freelance writer, you should also specialize in a narrow field in order to be able to stand out from the competition. Now that you have your writing tactics down, you need to be able to find clients and for that, there needs to be a strategy. The best way to go about this is to work the connections you have or even offer pro-bono work for a friend or a local business. Sometimes the best marketing strategies are word of mouth. Lastly, you might write for a specific field but you also need to constantly be expanding your skill set and be able to crossover into web development or even social media.

Hearing Loss

It's not just old folks who suffer hearing loss. Just by listening to music at what you probably think is a normal level, or hanging out in loud bars, nightclubs and music and sporting events, you can permanently damage your hearing. The cold hard fact is that you cannot get it back once you lose your hearing. Most people do not realize the damage they are doing to their ears until it is too late and there is a serious problem. There should definitely be more education about this issue because so many people listen to music using their devices and mobile applications. You should also get noise canceling earbud or better yet some headphones so that you do not have to turn up the sound to hear against the ambient noise. It is also important to take listening breaks and not listen continuously for hours. When was the last time you got your hearing checked out?

Next Gen Storage: Your DNA

Your whole life is on that USB stick, from your data to your pictures to that awesome web development project. The sad truth is that these devices will not last. The solution being that data could be stored in something that we all already have: our DNA. So compact and complex are its strands that just 1 gram of DNA is theoretically capable of containing all the data of internet giants such as Google and Facebook, with room to spare. DNA can be fossilized and preserved for thousands of years. So far, scientists have extracted and sequenced the genome of a 110,000-year-old polar bear and more recently a 700,000-year-old horse. The cost of encoding just 83Kb of data cost about $2,000, making it a relatively expensive process, but that price will come down over time. Advances in technology for medical analysis are likely to help with this. Just look at genome sequencing and how much the price has dropped. There is so much data being generated that it is not a question of how long it is stored but is there is enough room for it. This will be very interesting to see how it develops.