Worst. Men's Underwear. Ever.

This piece of delectable underwear is available from the French men's clothing website Inderwear - and while they call it the 'String Latéral Flash Bleu Alter', we rather like the name Laughing Squid came up with: 'one-sided grape smugglers'. Described as an "original and ultra sexy string which encloses one side of the waist", the String Latéral Flash Bleu Alter can be yours for a mere €22. What are you waiting?!

The second coming of Facebook

Back in 2010 Mark Zuckerberg made a very bad decision. Instead of building separate apps for iPhones, Androids, BlackBerrys, Nokia devices, and, yes, even Microsoft phones, he put his engineers to work designing a version of Facebook that could operate on any smartphone. In effect, he was betting that as different operating systems jostled for control of mobile devices, standalone apps would go away and soon we would surf websites on our phones, just as we do on PCs. Zuckerberg was wrong. Google's Android and Apple's iOS quickly became the dominant mobile operating systems, and Facebook's applications, which were built with its CEO's web-centric worldview in mind, didn't work well on either platform. They were buggy and slow, crashing often. A 2011 update garnered 19,000 one-star reviews in the Apple App Store within the first month. "It's probably one of the biggest mistakes we've ever made," Zuckerberg tells me during an interview at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters in late March. Just six years after it had been founded, Facebook(FB) -- the company that had ushered in the social-networking era -- was missing the next big shift in technology. Around the world consumers were abandoning laptops for mobile devices, busying themselves with a dizzying array of downloaded apps designed specifically for small touchscreens and people on the go. (Have you ever seen anyone play Angry Birds on a desktop?) Facebook, meanwhile, had only one engineer dedicated to the iPhone; most of its mobile team was coding for mobile web browsers. Hidden among all the Silicon Valley success stories there are hundreds more companies that fail to catch the next wave and die. Zuckerberg was determined not to be among them. But to address his mobile problem, the wunderkind who had tasted enormous success so early in his career had to come to terms with failure, and he had to make sweeping structural and cultural changes at the young company -- moves that often went against his instincts. Instead of going faster (virtually a religion at Facebook), mobile developers had to take a pause on new releases. Instead of doubling down on the mobile web, they had to embrace apps. And instead of trying to reach the broadest possible audience with a killer product, Facebook ultimately would have to pick one operating system to show off what it could really do in mobile. "I can't overstate how much we had to retool the whole company's development processes," he says.

Nokia 105: colourful, durable and affordable

‘Connecting the next billion and beyond’ just got more colourful with the super-dependable Nokia 105, available in cyan and with a colour screen. Around 2.7 billion people around the world are yet to buy their first mobile, mostly due to financial restraints. The Nokia 105 is set to retail at just €15, making it the most affordable mobile phone in Nokia’s current range. Others are ready to buy a second phone, perhaps for emergencies, or for sports. That phone will need to be durable and long-lasting, and the Nokia 105 definitely fits the bill. Fundamental value The phone was created to offer the essentials – phone calls and SMS – but also some desirable extras. It has an FM radio*, a much-prized addition for people with limited personal entertainment options. Similarly, the phone features a flashlight, useful where reliable electricity is in short supply. The Nokia 105’s sturdy one-piece keymat is dust-proof and splash-proof. Tech specs System: Dual band, EGSM 900/1800 Size/weight: 107 x 44.8 x 14.3 mm; 70 g (including battery) Display: 1.45” 65k Colour TFT Display Memory: 8MB ROM Connectivity: 2.0 mm Charger Connector, 3.5 mm AV Connector Battery: standby time: up to 35 days; talk time: up to 12.5 hours *headset required. The battery life – up to 12.5 hours talk-time and 35 days standby – once again means you’ll be able to keep talking and texting for ages. The Nokia 105 carries the same design aesthetic found on our top-end devices, which makes the phone stand out from the crowd. Lead designer Sungwoo Cho said: “The very human curves and the clean, fresh design make it very distinct from our competitors’ devices in this price range, and utterly modern despite a traditional form factor. We’re also extremely happy to be able to offer the Nokia 105 in cyan, as well as black. This is pretty unique at this price point.” Product manager Tracy Chen told Conversations that “Nokia’s experience in optimising phone quality, combined with its global footprint and economies of scale, is a major contributor to being able to work to such a low price.” Working with thoroughly-tested hardware and software means there’s no drop in quality. Extra special powers While the major focus of creating the Nokia 105 was on covering the basics and achieving such an affordable price point, the product team also decided to include a speaking clock: “We wanted to be able to offer a bit of fun, an extra surprise that provides a talking point for the owners.” The Nokia 105 also comes with pre-loaded games, and the Nokia Life service will also be available in supported countries. The Nokia 105 marks the end of an era. With colour screens available at such a low price, Nokia officially says farewell to black-and-white screens. We don’t imagine many people will be sad about that! The Nokia 105 will start selling in the second quarter of 2013. read more at : http://www.techandteen.com/

I've been alone with you inside my mind

I've been alone with you inside my mind And in my dreams I've kissed your lips a thousand times I sometimes see you pass outside my door Hello, is it me you're looking for? I can see it in your eyes I can see it in your smile You're all I've ever wanted, (and) my arms are open wide 'Cause you know just what to say And you know just what to do And I want to tell you so much, I love you I long to see the sunlight in your hair And tell you time and time again how much I care Sometimes I feel my heart will overflow Hello, I've just got to let you know 'Cause I wonder where you are And I wonder what you do Are you somewhere feeling lonely, or is someone loving you? Tell me how to win your heart For I haven't got a clue But let me start by saying, I love you Hello, is it me you're looking for? 'Cause I wonder where you are And I wonder what you do Are you somewhere feeling lonely or is someone loving you? Tell me how to win your heart For I haven't got a clue But let me start by saying I love you ......................................Lionel Richie

HTC's ship is sinking

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. HTC, an early champion among Android manufacturers, is in dire straits. And those straits are about as dire as they could be – with disastrous quarterly results to prove it. How did this happen? Will the HTC One be enough to pull its head above water? Read on. Today HTC announced its results for Q1 2013. They ain’t pretty. The company’s revenues are down 37 percent from the same quarter last year. Compared to Q1 of 2011, they’re down 59 percent. But the revenue numbers don’t begin to paint the picture of HTC’s troubles. Profits are down year-over-year by 98 percent. Yes, you read that correctly: a 98 percent drop in profits. Ouch. This ship is sinking. And fast.

Modern life making us lonely

Studies have consistently shown that one in 10 of us is lonely, but a report by the Mental Health Foundation suggests loneliness among young people is increasing. At the same time, social changes such as the rise of the solo dweller and the surge in social networks, combined with an ageing population, are changing the way people interact with each other. So is modern life making us lonely? "It can be poor health, illness, money, children moving away, feeling cut off from family and friends and the community, friends dying, a lack of access to transport, redundancy or career problems or divorce. Often it's when people lose a sense of purpose and contribution.'' "We have data that suggests people's social networks have got smaller and families are not providing the same level of social context they may have done 50 years ago. "It's not because they are bad or uncaring families, but it's to do with geographical distance, marriage breakdown, multiple caring responsibilities and longer working hours" Social networking websites have also come under fire for reducing face-to-face contact and making people more isolated, although Mitchell says they can also some people stay in touch. But if modern society is making us more lonely, what can be done to counter it? "I think we'll look back and think 'how did we allow that to happen?' It's like looking back at the issue of children going to work at 12 - there's something so fundamentally wrong with what's happening,

Online translation

Google translates 65 languages and can be used on websites with speech recognition and as an app on mobile phones. You might use Google Translate to read a hard-to-find Manga comic book or to decipher an obscure recipe for authentic Polish blintzes. Or, like Phillip and Niki Smith in rural Mississippi, you could use it to rescue a Chinese orphan and fall in love at the same time. Google is now doing a record billion translations on any given day, as much text as you'd find in 1 million books for everything from understanding school lunch menus to gathering national security intelligence. It translates in 65 languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish, and can be used on websites, with speech recognition and as an app on mobile phones even if there is no connection. While the technology is exponentially evolving, Google's translation guru Franz Och's face lit up when he heard that the Smiths and their new daughter, 14-year-old Guan Ya, are settling into their new lives together this month communicating almost exclusively through Google Translate. "All day long I look at algorithms, algorithms and algorithms,'' he said. "It is so rewarding to hear that it is touching lives.'' In the Smiths' case, it changed theirs forever. The Smiths, who already have three children, first spotted Guan Ya less than a year ago when Niki Smith was looking at photos of hard to place orphans online, offering simple prayers for them one by one. With three children of her own, including a 3-year-old daughter adopted from China, she had no intention of adding to her family. Then she saw Guan Ya. "She was just our daughter,'' said Smith of that chance internet encounter nearly a year ago. "There was no doubt about it, from the first time we saw her on the internet.'' There were seemingly impossible obstacles to adopting the girl. Firstly, Guan Ya was months away from turning 14, the age at which Chinese law would make her ineligible for adoption. Not only could Guan Ya not speak English, she didn't speak at all. Guan Ya is deaf. Undeterred, the Smiths scrambled through the paperwork and home studies that are inherent to international adoptions. With support from both Chinese and US authorities, they expedited the bureaucracy by running a flurry of emails and forms through online translators. And one day Niki Smith received an email from her daughter-to-be, an unintelligible jumble of Chinese characters. "Well, I couldn't begin to read this letter,'' said Smith. That is where Google Translate came into play. Smith cut and pasted the letter into the empty rectangle for the programme in her internet browser and Guan Ya's thoughts magically appeared. Thus began their heartwarming virtual conversation of love, family and life. "The computers and software are tools, but I have no doubt that these tools made our bonding so much easier,'' said Niki Smith. Machine translation dates back to the end of World War II, when coders realised that cryptography and deciphering were, in part, math problems. In 1949, influential scientist Warren Weaver laid out a pivotal proposition that paved the way for today's computational linguistics: a theorem could be developed to solve the logical structure of languages. Yet almost 65 years since Weaver wrote that "it seems likely that the problem of translation can be attacked successfully, machine translation is far from perfect" A team of South African researchers at the Matieland Language Centre recently published a study comparing documents translated between Afrikaans and English by professional translators and then by Google Translate. The results weren't even close. For the machine-translated writings, "the quality was still below average, and the texts would require extensive post-editing for their function to be met,'' they found. "The general public thinks you can stick anything into machine translation and it's going to give you everything you need, but of course that's not the case,'' says Jamie Lucero, who heads the translation and interpretation program at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Wash. He said for high quality translations, literature, marketing materials or complex syntax, a human translator is still essential. But machines are helpful, he said, "for people who just want to get a basic message across.'' And he said some machine translators are better than others. While translate.google.com leads the market, Microsoft's www.bing.com/translator offers a similar, free service with 41 languages that users say outperforms Google's when it comes to language used in high tech and software. WorldLingo is emerging as a leading pay-for-use translator with machine and professional translations in more than 140 languages, for people who require accuracy. But any translation is a huge leap for communication, said Jennifer Uman , who co-authored a children's picture book, "Jemmy Button,'' with Italian collaborator Valerio Vidali, published this week. They met and then communicated for almost five years on the project almost exclusively through Google Translate. Initially, she said, the translations were strange. Uman would write, "It looks great,'' and Vidali would read "I hoist much illusion.'' "But over the years Google Translate got better and we got better,'' she said. "We kind of got the hang of how to use it, and it made it possible for us to collaborate.'' Angolan blogger Rosie Alves, who launched a poetic and often racy blog 'Sweet Cliche' a year ago, was confused when she saw that one in four readers were in the US. She blogs from her hometown Luanda in her native Portuguese, and counts 18,959 visits to date. In an email exchange with The Associated Press, she used Google Translate to answer questions: "I think it's very good although the translation is not 100 percent safe," she wrote. "The best part is knowing that there are people interested in what I write, and use the Google translator to understand my texts." Nine thousand miles away at Google's Mountain View headquarters, Och said he's hoping to launch translation services for several Indian languages next, including Malayalam, an official language of Kerala state spoken by millions of people. His team consists of computer scientists and programmers, not linguists. And there's not a single Yiddish-speaking babushka, Basque sheepherder or Vatican-trained Latinist onsite to help. Instead, the ever-improving algorithms detect patterns in texts already translated by humans, so the more "data" that exists in the form of books and documents, the more accurate the translation. When the system gets precise enough, they roll it out to the public. There have been a few early releases, said Och. When Iran sank rapidly into an election crisis in 2009, Google released a Persian translator, noting the programme was "a work in progress." And just days after a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, they launched a buggy Haitian Creole translator that, despite glitches, was widely used by rescuers and relief workers. Last week in a supermarket in Rienzi, Mississippi, a mother and daughter hovered over an iPhone, passing it back and forth as they strolled the aisles, chatting about what they wanted to cook for dinner. It was just a few short weeks since they'd met in person, since Guan Ya had emailed her family-to-be: "No, I have never been shopping. You do not need to bring me anything. I do not know the things I like. I guess I like chocolate. Have you come to China yet? I will not be afraid. I am very happy." When they met, she told her parents that more than anything, she wants to hear. And already doctors in Mississippi are suggesting that hearing aids and possibly a surgically implanted cochlear implant may help. "So many things had to fall in place on both sides that it is amazing to see how God worked to get her home!" said her mom. In those early emails, and on this day, the two typed back and forth the three English words, eight simple letters, and the three Chinese characters, a series of strokes and slashes, that mattered the most: "I love you!"

Facebook home

Facebook has unveiled a new product, Facebook Home, at an event everyone knew would have something to do with phones and apps and operating systems. "We're not building a phone and we're not building an operating system," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday. "But we're also building something that's a whole lot deeper than just another app."

Artificial Intelligence in Big Data, Commercial Apps, Mobility and Search

My new Research Published by Mindcommerce. Please look at the report. Artificial Intelligence (AI) facilitates the efficient and effective supply of information to enterprises for optimized business decision-making. Major IT and software vendor companies are investing billions to generate revenue from AI based commercial solutions in various areas including robotics, machine translators, chat bots, voice recognizers, business intelligence systems, mobility control systems, intelligent search, and more. The AI based solution market is valued at US$ 900 million globally by year end 2013 and is expected to grow exponentially over the next five years. Some of the biggest opportunity areas are commercial applications, search in the Big Data environment, and mobility control for generation of actionable business intelligence. The entire mobile/wireless ecosystem is well-positioned for AI via the growing adoption and expanded usage of consumer and enterprise electronics devices including smartphone, tablet, portable devices and wearable technologies. This research evaluates the market for AI solutions within commercial applications, business intelligence, search analytics in mobility environment, and more. This report analyzes the potential for enterprises to improve performance through AI, development of AI solution in cloud environment, and AI for Big Data control. The report also includes vendor analysis and market predictions. Target Audience: • AI companies • Big Data companies • Mobile network operators • Wireless device manufacturers • Wireless application developers • Analytics and data reporting companies • Cloud infrastructure and service providers Companies in Report: APPLE, GOOGLE, MICROSOFT, IBM, HP, INTEL, SAP, FACEBOOK, ORACLE, I2 TECHNOLOGIES, SAS SYSTEM, DELL, AMAZON, HTC, LG, SONY, NOKIA, LENOVO, SAMSUNG, OPTIMIZELY, NETFLEX, MOTOROLLA, TOSHIBA, DATLOGIC, HONEYWELL, TERADATA, TABLEU, QLIKTECH, TETAPP, FUZITSU, CLOUDERA, 10GEN, SPLUNK, ACTIAN, CISCO, ACCENTURE, HITACHI, VMWARE Table of Contents: Table of Contents: 1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5 2.0 INTRODUCTION 7 3.0 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 9 3.1.1 DEFINITIONS 9 3.1.2 PHILOSOPHY 10 3.1.3 THE BIRTH OF AI 11 3.1.4 AI TIMELINE 13 3.1.5 AI RESEARCH 14 3.1.6 RECENT AI RESEARCH AND IMPLEMENTATION 15 3.1.7 LOOKING FOR AI 15 3.1.8 FUNDAMENTAL CONCERN OF AI 16 3.1.9 AI TOOLS 18 4.0 BASIC ELEMENTS OF AI 20 4.1 STRONG ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 20 4.2 WEAK ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 20 4.3 AI AND NATURE 20 4.4 KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION 21 4.5 AI LANGUAGES AND TOOLS 22 4.6 PRINCIPAL AI APPLICATION AREAS 22 4.7 COMPARISON BETWEEN AI AND GENERAL PROGRAMMER 23 4.8 THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS 23 4.9 TURING TEST 24 5.0 AI FUTURE PREDICTION 26 5.1 AI DOMINANT GLOBAL MARKET AND DOMINANT GLOBAL PLAYERS 27 5.2 WHERE IS AI? 27 5.3 AI BASED APPLICATIONS 28 5.4 AI ULTIMATE FUTURE AND PREDICTION 29 5.5 AI MARKET 30 5.6 THE BUSINESS CASE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 30 6.0 BIG DATA CASE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 31 6.1 WHAT IS BIG DATA? 31 6.2 BIG DATA MEANS FIVE `V’ 31 6.3 THE APPLICATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 32 6.4 BIG DATA FORECASTS AND MARKET ESTIMATES 35 6.5 BIG DATA MARKET HIGHLIGHTS AND TRENDS 38 7.0 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN MOBILE DEVICES 44 7.1 AI ON YOUR SMARTPHONE IS HELPFUL 44 7.2 AI MOBILITY 45 7.3 MOBILE DATA AS THE ENGINE FOR AI 46 8.0 VENDOR ANALYSIS 48 8.1 IBM 48 8.2 OPTIMIZELY 48 8.3 AMAZON 48 8.4 NETFLIX 48 8.5 APPLE 49 9.0 APPS & FAQ 50 10.0 MOBILITY, SEARCH & BIG DATA 51 11.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 55 List of Graphs Figure 1: General Areas of Artificial Intelligence 10 Figure 2: Artificial Intelligence Breakthroughs 1950-2013 12 Figure 3: Artificial Intelligence Timeline1941-1991 13 Figure 4: The Basic Picture Underlying Russell’s Account of Intelligence/Rationality 16 Figure 5: Fundamental parts of AI 17 Figure 6: Neural Network 18 Figure 7: Elements of AI 21 Figure 8: AI Tools 22 Figure 9: Robot Laws 24 Figure 10: Turing Test system of AI Justify 24 Figure 11: AI Vendor Revenue 2012 26 Figure 12: AI Based Global Dominant Players 27 Figure 13: Where is AI? 27 Figure 14: AI Application Areas 29 Figure 15: AI Implementations Region 29 Figure 16: Big Data Market Overview 2013-2020 35 Figure 17: Big Data Revenue by Segments 2012-2013 39 Figure 18: Big Data Revenue by Type 2012-2013 40 Figure 19: Hadoop Based Company Revenues 2012-2013 41 Figure 20: Big Data Drivers 41 Figure 21: Big Data and Sample Application 42 Figure 22: Big Data and IT Spending 42 Figure 23: AI and Operating System Market Size 45 Figure 24: Mobile and AI sector Investment 2010-2013 46 Figure 25: Mobile Based AI Field Revenue CAGR 25% 46 Figure 26: Recent stored Data-Petabytes 47 Figure 27: AI Global Market Trends 2012-2220 51 Figure 28: BI market will Grow Smoothly 51 Figure 29: Big Data Search India-USA-Singapore-AUS-S. Korea 52 Figure 30: Big Data, AI, BI Search Comparison 52 Figure 31: AI Based New Sectors and Opportunity Smart Device Market Share% 53 Figure 32: AI Based JOB sector-Java, C+HTML,PHP 53 Figure 33: Top Auto Data Capture Suppliers Revenues 2013 54 List of Tables Table 1: Significant AI Researcher 14 Table 2: Four Possible Goals for AI 16 Table 3: AI’s Domain of Study 17 Table 4: Comparison of AI with Conventional Programming. 23 Table 5: AI Implemented Fields 28 Table 6: 2012 Worldwide Big Data Revenue $ 35 Table 7: Most Transformational Technologies 2013-2020 35 Table 8: Sector Sales Analysis 36 Table 9: Top Business Priorities in AI 38 Read more : http://www.techandteen.com/

Hunger strikers, Bangladeshi Revolution

Spokesperson from Shaheed Rumi Squad, Shejuti Nodi, made the remark to the press on Saturday during the protest in front of the National Museum, just beside the Gonojagaran Moncho, Shahbag. In her speech, she said, "The protest has passed 90 hours. After completing 100 hours of protest we will send a letter addressing the Prime Minster." "We will stay at this place until Jamaat-Shibir is banned from politics. We will stick to our demand till the end," Nodi said. "Some of the protesters became ill and were hospitalized. Yet, we are firm in our decision to resume protest until met," she added.