Text messaging apps stand to get a whole lot better — and, yes, likely will include Google's own Hangouts app
The Android Developers blog wants the people developing third-party SMS apps to get ready for some big changes to come with KitKat.
The short version is that you can now "officially" make an application the default for sending and receiving SMS and MMS messages, as opposed to the old way of using hidden (not public) APIs and intents. That sort of coding works, but it's subject to change at any time and break all the apps that use it. The new method allows the system to receive and send messages, then use system defaults to decide where to display it. Developers should be sure to give the blog post a read, as the concept and new requirements are laid out nicely.
Now, what does that mean for us? Everyone wants the Hangouts app to send and receive SMS messages. The first step needed for that to happen is to make receiving a message (and sending one) a system function that can be handled by any default application. That's what Google is doing here. With this new method and API set in place, your Android phone doesn't need to ship with a "dedicated" SMS app, and you're free to download one that does things the way you like — or use the bundled Hangouts app.
Of course, there are other reasons they may be doing this. Getting rid of a dedicated Google Voice application (that is in sore need of a revamp) is one of them. Or maybe they all really like using Handcent. We should know more very soon.
New device harnesses sun and sewage to produce hydrogen fuel
Public release date: 10-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Tim Stephens stephens@ucsc.edu 831-459-2495 University of California - Santa Cruz
PEC-MFC device achieves self-biased solar hydrogen generation through microbial electrohydrogenesis at lab scale
A novel device that uses only sunlight and wastewater to produce hydrogen gas could provide a sustainable energy source while improving the efficiency of wastewater treatment.
A research team led by Yat Li, associate professor of chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz, developed the solar-microbial device and reported their results in a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano. The hybrid device combines a microbial fuel cell (MFC) and a type of solar cell called a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC). In the MFC component, bacteria degrade organic matter in the wastewater, generating electricity in the process. The biologically generated electricity is delivered to the PEC component to assist the solar-powered splitting of water (electrolysis) that generates hydrogen and oxygen.
Either a PEC or MFC device can be used alone to produce hydrogen gas. Both, however, require a small additional voltage (an "external bias") to overcome the thermodynamic energy barrier for proton reduction into hydrogen gas. The need to incorporate an additional electric power element adds significantly to the cost and complication of these types of energy conversion devices, especially at large scales. In comparison, Li's hybrid solar-microbial device is self-driven and self-sustained, because the combined energy from the organic matter (harvested by the MFC) and sunlight (captured by the PEC) is sufficient to drive electrolysis of water.
In effect, the MFC component can be regarded as a self-sustained "bio-battery" that provides extra voltage and energy to the PEC for hydrogen gas generation. "The only energy sources are wastewater and sunlight," Li said. "The successful demonstration of such a self-biased, sustainable microbial device for hydrogen generation could provide a new solution that can simultaneously address the need for wastewater treatment and the increasing demand for clean energy."
Microbial fuel cells rely on unusual bacteria, known as electrogenic bacteria, that are able to generate electricity by transferring metabolically-generated electrons across their cell membranes to an external electrode. Li's group collaborated with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) who have been studying electrogenic bacteria and working to enhance MFC performance. Initial "proof-of-concept" tests of the solar-microbial (PEC-MFC) device used a well-studied strain of electrogenic bacteria grown in the lab on artificial growth medium. Subsequent tests used untreated municipal wastewater from the Livermore Water Reclamation Plant. The wastewater contained both rich organic nutrients and a diverse mix of microbes that feed on those nutrients, including naturally occurring strains of electrogenic bacteria.
When fed with wastewater and illuminated in a solar simulator, the PEC-MFC device showed continuous production of hydrogen gas at an average rate of 0.05 m3/day, according to LLNL researcher and coauthor Fang Qian. At the same time, the turbid black wastewater became clearer. The soluble chemical oxygen demand--a measure of the amount of organic compounds in water, widely used as a water quality test--declined by 67 percent over 48 hours.
The researchers also noted that hydrogen generation declined over time as the bacteria used up the organic matter in the wastewater. Replenishment of the wastewater in each feeding cycle led to complete restoration of electric current generation and hydrogen gas production.
Qian said the researchers are optimistic about the commercial potential for their invention. Currently they are planning to scale up the small laboratory device to make a larger 40-liter prototype continuously fed with municipal wastewater. If results from the 40-liter prototype are promising, they will test the device on site at the wastewater treatment plant.
"The MFC will be integrated with the existing pipelines of the plant for continuous wastewater feeding, and the PEC will be set up outdoors to receive natural solar illumination," Qian said.
"Fortunately, the Golden State is blessed with abundant sunlight that can be used for the field test," Li added.
###
Qian and Hanyu Wang, a graduate student in Li's lab at UC Santa Cruz, are co-first authors of the ACS Nano paper. The other coauthors include UCSC graduate student Gongming Wang; LLNL researcher Yongqin Jiao; and Zhen He of Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy.
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New device harnesses sun and sewage to produce hydrogen fuel
Public release date: 10-Oct-2013 [
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| Share
]
Contact: Tim Stephens stephens@ucsc.edu 831-459-2495 University of California - Santa Cruz
PEC-MFC device achieves self-biased solar hydrogen generation through microbial electrohydrogenesis at lab scale
A novel device that uses only sunlight and wastewater to produce hydrogen gas could provide a sustainable energy source while improving the efficiency of wastewater treatment.
A research team led by Yat Li, associate professor of chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz, developed the solar-microbial device and reported their results in a paper published in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano. The hybrid device combines a microbial fuel cell (MFC) and a type of solar cell called a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC). In the MFC component, bacteria degrade organic matter in the wastewater, generating electricity in the process. The biologically generated electricity is delivered to the PEC component to assist the solar-powered splitting of water (electrolysis) that generates hydrogen and oxygen.
Either a PEC or MFC device can be used alone to produce hydrogen gas. Both, however, require a small additional voltage (an "external bias") to overcome the thermodynamic energy barrier for proton reduction into hydrogen gas. The need to incorporate an additional electric power element adds significantly to the cost and complication of these types of energy conversion devices, especially at large scales. In comparison, Li's hybrid solar-microbial device is self-driven and self-sustained, because the combined energy from the organic matter (harvested by the MFC) and sunlight (captured by the PEC) is sufficient to drive electrolysis of water.
In effect, the MFC component can be regarded as a self-sustained "bio-battery" that provides extra voltage and energy to the PEC for hydrogen gas generation. "The only energy sources are wastewater and sunlight," Li said. "The successful demonstration of such a self-biased, sustainable microbial device for hydrogen generation could provide a new solution that can simultaneously address the need for wastewater treatment and the increasing demand for clean energy."
Microbial fuel cells rely on unusual bacteria, known as electrogenic bacteria, that are able to generate electricity by transferring metabolically-generated electrons across their cell membranes to an external electrode. Li's group collaborated with researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) who have been studying electrogenic bacteria and working to enhance MFC performance. Initial "proof-of-concept" tests of the solar-microbial (PEC-MFC) device used a well-studied strain of electrogenic bacteria grown in the lab on artificial growth medium. Subsequent tests used untreated municipal wastewater from the Livermore Water Reclamation Plant. The wastewater contained both rich organic nutrients and a diverse mix of microbes that feed on those nutrients, including naturally occurring strains of electrogenic bacteria.
When fed with wastewater and illuminated in a solar simulator, the PEC-MFC device showed continuous production of hydrogen gas at an average rate of 0.05 m3/day, according to LLNL researcher and coauthor Fang Qian. At the same time, the turbid black wastewater became clearer. The soluble chemical oxygen demand--a measure of the amount of organic compounds in water, widely used as a water quality test--declined by 67 percent over 48 hours.
The researchers also noted that hydrogen generation declined over time as the bacteria used up the organic matter in the wastewater. Replenishment of the wastewater in each feeding cycle led to complete restoration of electric current generation and hydrogen gas production.
Qian said the researchers are optimistic about the commercial potential for their invention. Currently they are planning to scale up the small laboratory device to make a larger 40-liter prototype continuously fed with municipal wastewater. If results from the 40-liter prototype are promising, they will test the device on site at the wastewater treatment plant.
"The MFC will be integrated with the existing pipelines of the plant for continuous wastewater feeding, and the PEC will be set up outdoors to receive natural solar illumination," Qian said.
"Fortunately, the Golden State is blessed with abundant sunlight that can be used for the field test," Li added.
###
Qian and Hanyu Wang, a graduate student in Li's lab at UC Santa Cruz, are co-first authors of the ACS Nano paper. The other coauthors include UCSC graduate student Gongming Wang; LLNL researcher Yongqin Jiao; and Zhen He of Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BANGKOK (AP) -- World stock markets were boosted Friday by a glimmer of progress in resolving the U.S. budget row that has threatened to leave the U.S. unable to pay its bills.
The gains came after Republican leaders said Thursday they would vote to extend the government's borrowing authority for six weeks. A spokesman for President Barack Obama said he would "likely" sign a bill to increase the nation's ability to borrow money.
The Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 300 points Thursday, breaking a three-week funk in stocks.
The budget impasse has resulted in a partial shutdown of the U.S. government but the bigger worry has been a looming deadline for the U.S. to raise its borrowing limit. Without that authority from lawmakers, the government could default on its debts, sending shockwaves through the global financial system and economy.
In early European trading, France's CAC 40 was up 0.1 percent at 4,220.03 and Germany's DAX gained 0.4 percent to 8,716.69.
Futures pointed to modest gains on Wall Street with Dow futures up 0.2 percent at 15,059. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent to 1,687.
Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 1.5 percent to 14,404.74 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.2 percent to 23,218.32. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.6 percent to 5,230.90. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.7 percent to 2,228.15.
Markets were higher in Singapore, South Korea, India and elsewhere in the region.
Among individual stocks, Toyota Motor Corp. rose 0.9 percent in Tokyo after a U.S. jury ruled that the automaker is not liable for the death of a woman who was killed when her 2006 Camry apparently accelerated and crashed despite her efforts to stop.
The outcome of the lawsuit could influence whether Toyota should be held responsible for sudden unintended acceleration as part of a larger group of lawsuits filed in U.S. state courts following a series of massive recalls for quality defects.
In energy trading, benchmark crude for November delivery was down $1.22 at $101.78 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.40 to close at $103.01 on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3576 from $1.3526 late Thursday. The dollar rose to 98.32 yen from 98.16 yen.
by Alexander Green, Investment U Chief Investment Strategist Monday, March 4, 2013: Issue #1982
Sometimes I almost feel sorry for the market timers.
There?s a reason famed money manager Ken Fisher calls the stock market ?The Great Humiliator.?
Nobody can know with any certainty what the stock market will do next week, next month, or next year. The sooner you recognize that, the sooner you can start making money in stocks?
I learned this lesson from three world-beaters: Warren Buffett, John Templeton and Peter Lynch.
Going Outside My Research Department?
As a young man starting out in a stock brokerage 27 years ago, I made a startling discovery. The ?analysts? at my firm picking stocks for clients weren?t just bad? they were awful. I soon found myself looking for ideas outside my ?research department.?
After six months of sheer frustration, I had an epiphany?
If I were going to learn from someone else, why not the best?
Instead of listening to the talking heads at my firm, why shouldn?t I listen to the greatest investors in the world?
As this was the early 80s, it was Warren Buffett, who ran Berkshire Hathaway, Peter Lynch, who managed the Fidelity Magellan Fund, and John Templeton, who headed the Templeton Growth Fund.
These men had very little in common in their investment approaches:
Buffett was (and is) a value guy.
Lynch was a growth analyst.
Templeton was a global markets pioneer.
But they all started from the same premise: They didn?t have a clue what the broad stock market was going to do.
That was fine, because they knew something much more valuable: how to identify companies selling for far less than their intrinsic worth. And when the market recognized that value, they sold them.
11 Lessons From Peter Lynch
For instance, Peter Lynch taught me:
Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it?s doing.
Never invest in any idea you can?t illustrate with a crayon.
Over the short term, there may be no correlation between the success of a company?s operations and the success of its stock. Over the long term, there?s a 100% correlation.
Buying stocks without studying the companies is the same as playing poker ? and never looking at your cards.
Time is on your side when you own shares of superior companies.
Owning stock is like having children. Don?t get involved with more than you can handle.
When the insiders are buying, it?s a good sign.
Unless you?re a short seller, it never pays to be pessimistic.
A stock market decline is as predictable as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you?re prepared, it can?t hurt you.
Everyone has the brainpower to make money in stocks. Not everyone has the stomach.
Nobody can predict interest rates, the future direction of the economy, or the stock market. Dismiss all such forecasts and concentrate on what?s actually happening to the companies in which you?ve invested.
Lynch?s advice had a profound effect on my stock market approach. He taught me that investment success isn?t the result of developing the right macro-economic view or deciding when to jump in or out of the market. Success is about researching companies to identify those that are likely to report positive surprises.
A Valuable Investment Lesson for Any Investor
I know investors who have spent a lifetime (and a fortune) in the stock market and have still not learned this lesson. Or lack the intestinal fortitude to follow it.
Worse, there are a number of gurus out there who are convinced that they have the smarts ? or a system ? that allows them to get in and out of the market just in the nick of time. Yet you?ll notice that system (ahem) always goes on the fritz just as soon as you start to follow it.
Count yourself a sophisticated investor the day you wake up and say, ?Since no one can tell me with any consistency what the economy and the stock market will do, how should I run my portfolio??
The answer to that question is: a well-defined, battle-tested investment approach that achieves high returns with strictly limited risk.
Of course, everyone in the industry claims that they?re beating the tar out of the market.
Our approach is based on a market-neutral investment philosophy. Our focus is on teaching investors how to seek out the most undervalued opportunities in the market.
As Buffett, Lynch and Templeton famously proved, that?s what actually works.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The baby, born in rural Mississippi, was treated aggressively with antiretroviral drugs starting around 30 hours after birth; if further study shows this treatment works, it will almost certainly be recommended globally.
Join Facebook, LinkedIn, Trip Advisor and Disney at IGNITION Mobile on March 21, 2013 in San Francisco! Get market insight on mobile games, apps, devices, content and commerce. Register now.
David Sze was cofounder of Brience and is now a partner at Greylock.
Greylock Partners' David Sze has made some very good investment decisions. He wrote early checks to Facebook, Pandora and LinkedIn.
But he just wrote his biggest startup check yet. Sze gave Nextdoor, a social network for neighborhoods, $15 million on behalf of Greylock, which led the startup's $21.6 million round of financing.
Sze tells Bloomberg that Nextdoors' membership growth reminds him of the early LinkedIn days.
Nextdoor has yet to generate revenue, but it plans to go after local advertising dollars, which many entrepreneurs have tried and failed to capture. It's up and running in 8,000 US neighborhoods, more than double its reach in July. Bloomberg says 500,000 messages are exchanged daily over Nextdoor.
"It has all the hallmarks of being the next great massively valued social network,? Sze said. ?I see every social network that comes out. I?ve sorted through all of them and passed on most of them.?
Nextdoor hasn't disclosed membership numbers but ComScore data shows 140,000 people visited the site last month. The company's internal analytics are likely higher, but it still seems like a small amount of users to snag so much money. The two-year-old company has nearly 40 employees and it was co-founded by?Nirav Tolia.
FILE- In this May 24, 1994 file photo, Alexander Solzhenitsyn jokes with the media as he leaves his long-time home in Cavendish, Vt. to return to his native Russia. Voters in the Vermont town that was once the home-in-exile of the former Soviet dissident author are expected to decide whether to commemorate his 18 years in Cavendish. On Town Meeting day, voters will decide whether the town should assume ownership of an historic stone church that would be used to house an exhibit honoring the Nobel laureate who arrived in Cavendish in 1977 and stayed until 1995. He died in Russia in 2008.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)
FILE- In this May 24, 1994 file photo, Alexander Solzhenitsyn jokes with the media as he leaves his long-time home in Cavendish, Vt. to return to his native Russia. Voters in the Vermont town that was once the home-in-exile of the former Soviet dissident author are expected to decide whether to commemorate his 18 years in Cavendish. On Town Meeting day, voters will decide whether the town should assume ownership of an historic stone church that would be used to house an exhibit honoring the Nobel laureate who arrived in Cavendish in 1977 and stayed until 1995. He died in Russia in 2008.(AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) ? Residents of the southern Vermont town that was once the home-in-exile of former Soviet dissident and writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn are considering whether to convert an historic church into an exhibit to honor the Nobel laureate's 18 years in Cavendish.
At Town Meeting ? the locals' annual decision-making gathering and the venue where Solzhenitsyn once addressed his neighbors when he arrived in 1977 ? voters will be asked whether they should take ownership of a small stone Universalist Church and use it to honor him.
Solzhenitsyn, who spent eight years in prison and labor camps for criticizing Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, said he chose Cavendish for its resemblance to his homeland and its small-town personality.
"I dislike very much large cities with their empty and fussy lives," he told his new neighbors. "I like very much the simple way of life and the population here, the simplicity and the human relationship. I like the countryside, and I like the climate with the long winter and the snow, which reminds me of Russia."
Solzhenitsyn wrote his best known works, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and "The Gulag Archipelago," based on his years imprisoned, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970.
If the town decides at the meeting Monday to take over the deed to the church, plans call for some repairs and later an exhibit that would include videos of Solzhenitsyn, talking about his years in Cavendish where he lived until 1994 and where his son, Ignat, a pianist and conductor, still lives with his family.
The town, which prided itself on protecting Solzhenitsyn's privacy, hopes to find the sign that once sat in a store window warning that the proprietors offered no directions to his home.
Visitors still ask, and townspeople still decline.
"That's been our legacy is to let people do what they need to do, and let people be as best we can. I love our town's history of being a place of refuge, and I love the fact that when Solzhenitsyn was here he extended that to other people ...," said Margo Caulfield, coordinator of the Cavendish Historical Society.
The impetus for the project came when the town had little to offer a group of Russian tourists last summer who expected a monument in their countryman's honor, Caulfield said.
Built in 1844 under the leadership of renowned abolitionist Rev. Warren Skinner, the church was decommissioned in the 1960s. Caulfield said church leaders last year offered to donate the building to the town.
"He just did an incredible job of showing that a person can sustain unbelievable horrors and go on to live a remarkable life and just really thrive," Caulfield said of the town's famous resident. "Our focus is clearly we want to make sure our schoolchildren know about the work that he did and the importance that it played."
In 1994, just before he and his family moved back to Russia, Solzhenitsyn spoke again at Town Meeting, bringing tears to people's eyes. And after he died in Russia in 2008, the town held a memorial service to honor him at the elementary school.
Text messaging apps stand to get a whole lot better — and, yes, likely will include Google's own Hangouts app
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