Archivo categoría «Nuevas Tecnologías»
By Tim O’Reilly, a publisher of computer books adn the co-producer of the Web 2.0 conference (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 15/12/07):
The Internet and the cellphone are on a collision course.
In the future, the cellphone and similar wireless devices, not the personal computer, will be the primary interface to the cloud of information services that we now call the Internet. The demand for Internet-style applications on the phone — e-mail, maps, photo and video sharing, social networking and even Internet telephony — is exploding.
Meanwhile, cracks are appearing in the control that cellular carriers have long held over … Seguir leyendo
By Peter Fleischer, the global privacy counsel for Google (THE GUARDIAN, 06/12/07):
At Google, we encourage our users to tell us what we are doing right and doing wrong. They take full advantage and have helped improve what we offer and how we operate. It is not possible, of course, for us to answer the question posed by your leader column “Is Google now getting too big for our good?” (Google is watching you, December 3). All we can say is that we operate in a fiercely competitive market. If our users are unhappy, they can go elsewhere … Seguir leyendo
By Ray Kurzweil, the author of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (THE GUARDIAN, 22/11/07):
Extending human life expectancy is not a new story. When our genes evolved thousands of years ago, it was not in the interests of the species for people to live past child-rearing as resources such as food were in very short supply. So human life expectancy was in the 20s a thousand years ago. It was only 37 in 1800. It is now pushing 80, and we have been adding about three months each year for the past several decades.
This progression … Seguir leyendo
By Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and a columnist for Discover (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 20/11/07):
Internet idealists like me have long had an easy answer for creative types — like the striking screenwriters in Hollywood — who feel threatened by the unremunerative nature of our new Eden: stop whining and figure out how to join the party!
That’s the line I spouted when I was part of the birthing celebrations for the Web. I even wrote a manifesto titled “Piracy Is Your Friend.” But I was wrong. We were all wrong.
Like so many in Silicon Valley in … Seguir leyendo
By Ben Macintyre (THE TIMES, 16/11/07):
King Charles I once asked the chief librarian of the Bodleian Library in Oxford if he could borrow a book. He was told, politely, to get lost. A few years later, as the wheel of history turned, Oliver Cromwell also wondered if he might take a book away from the great collection, to read it at his leisure. He received exactly the same answer.
Roundhead or cavalier, king or commoner, no one could take a book out of the library. Its books were not for lending, but for consulting. The library was a temple … Seguir leyendo
By Sandra Aamodt, the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience and Sam Wang, an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton. They are the authors of the forthcoming Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 08/11/07):
Feeling a little less mentally quick than you did a few years ago? Maybe you are among the many people who do “brain exercises” like sudoku to slow the cognitive decline associated with aging. We’ve got a better suggestion.
Computer programs … Seguir leyendo
Por Javier Candeira, experto en nuevas tecnologías (LA VANGUARDIA, 21/10/07):
Vivimos en la cultura de la remezcla. La música popular, el arte contemporáneo y la literatura producen obras compuestas, como la criatura de Frankenstein, de retales de obras anteriores. Es un fenómeno antiguo, ahora acelerado por la tecnología. Ya en el siglo cuarto, Ausonio escribió las reglas para componer centones, poemas escritos con versos de otros poemas. Ejemplos modernos de esta larga tradición se pueden ver en el apropiacionismo posmoderno del escritor Jasper Fforde, en los cuadros de latas de sopa y cajas de jabón de Andy Warhol, en … Seguir leyendo
By Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America (THE WASHINGTON POST, 17/10/07):
As the presidents of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Christian Coalition of America, we are on opposite sides of almost every issue. But when it comes to the fundamental right of citizens to participate in the political process, we’re united — and very, very worried.
Free speech shouldn’t stop when you turn on your computer or pick up your cellphone. But recent actions by the nation’s biggest communications corporations should be of grave concern to … Seguir leyendo
By Anne Applebaum (THE WASHINGTON POST, 16/10/07):
From outside, the offices of Skype– the company best known for its free Internet phone service — don’t look very different from the other Soviet and post-Soviet buildings that make up the nondescript suburbs of the Estonian capital. But inside, the aesthetic influence of Northern California is undeniable. The high-tech, open-plan offices; the “playroom,” complete with pool table and sauna; the young, bearded employees; the Dadaesque plastic crocodile hanging from the ceiling; the bluejean-clad spokesman who has been “too busy” to contemplate the fact that eBay, which bought Skype for $2.6 … Seguir leyendo
By Daniel Radosh, the author of the forthcoming book “Rapture Ready” (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 28/09/07):
As I write this, my temples are throbbing, my vision is slightly blurred, and I am jittery enough that my fingers first typed that last word as “blurured.” I am in a Halo haze, brought on by three days of marathon sessions with Halo 3, the video-game phenomenon of the year.
Even before Halo 3 arrived in stores on Tuesday, Microsoft, the game’s publisher, had received advance orders for 1.7 million copies, and gamers are expected to snatch up more than four million … Seguir leyendo
Por Elena Valenciano, eurodiputada socialista, y miembro de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos en el Parlamento Europeo (EL PAÍS, 15/09/07):
No existe un consenso internacional sobre la edad a la que puede considerarse a una persona adulta para mantener relaciones sexuales, ni tampoco sobre cuántos años ha de tener la víctima para que se tipifique un delito como pornografía infantil. Contemplar en Internet fotografías de menores que están siendo violados no se castiga en casi ningún país. Mientras tanto, millones de niños y niñas son víctimas de la pornografía infantil en todo el mundo. La falta de una definición universal … Seguir leyendo
By Eugene Robinson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 07/09/07):
If I were an iPhone owner, I’d be hopping mad. I’d be iRate.
Just 10 weeks ago, otherwise sane individuals were camping overnight in long lines for the privilege of paying $599 for a mobile phone. These people were fully aware that most wireless companies will give you a basic phone for free, but the object of their ardor was anything but basic. It was a lifestyle choice. It was an advertisement for oneself. It was a shiny little slice of the future, a thin slab of cool. So what if it cost, … Seguir leyendo
By Marina Hyde (THE GUARDIAN, 25/08/07):
‘Life is pain,’ deadpans the swashbuckling hero of the movie The Princess Bride. “Anyone who says different is selling you something.” I’m afraid that this was the quote that drifted across my consciousness on Thursday as the latest news of how the internet has changed everything – again – was unveiled. According to an Ofcom study, we are all spending more time online and on our mobiles than ever, with pensioners spending longer surfing the web than any other age group. And women – they’re at it too, more than men in key demographics, … Seguir leyendo
By Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and robotics at the University of Sheffield (THE GUARDIAN, 18/08/07):
The deployment of the first armed battlefield robots in Iraq is the latest step on a dangerous path – we are sleepwalking into a brave new world where robots decide who, where and when to kill. Already, South Korea and Israel are deploying armed robot border guards and China, Singapore and the UK are among those making increasing use of military robots. The biggest player yet is the US: robots are integral to its $230bn future combat systems project, a massive … Seguir leyendo
Por Peter Singer es catedrático de Bioética en la Universidad de Princeton y catedrático distinguido de la Universidad de Melbourne. Entre sus libros están How Are We to Live? y Writings on an Ethical Life. Traducción de María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia. © Project Syndicate, 2007 (EL PAÍS, 28/07/07):
En un popular juego de rol por Internet llamado Second Life, la gente puede inventarse una identidad virtual para la que escoge la edad, el sexo y el aspecto, entre otras cosas. Estos personajes virtuales hacen las mismas cosas que se hacen en el mundo real, como tener relaciones sexuales. Según las … Seguir leyendo