OS X Mavericks and iCloud

Apple has recently released its new desktop software called OS X Mavericks. This upgrade on Mountain Lion presents several new features that make it yet better, although these new features do not really differ greatly from Mountain Lion.

First of all upgrading to this new software is free. This is something new in the California company since previous actualizations cost me. For example, the upgrade to Mountain Lion cost its users 20$. This new feature is pretty important since it will increase competence with Microsoft, who charges for software upgrades. We want every Mac user to experience the latest features, the most advanced technologies, and the strongest security,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice-president of Software Engineering in a statement. “We believe the best way to do this is to begin a new era of personal computing software where OS upgrades are free.”

Other features that make one's computer perform more efficiently include that is makes your battery last longer as well as it liberates memory, around 5 gb most people are commenting.

As for other features that are completely new, this new software includes iBooks in your computer. This means that the popular application that before could only be used in iPhones, iPads or iPods is finally available for your computer. As well, other new software includes a new mapping tool and a password manager called iCloud keychain.

Lastly, software used in mobile devices has now reached the computer. For example, the introduction of Pop-ip notifications, which lets users respond to or delete messages or answer Facetime calls without leaving the app they are using. In addition, new organizational tools have been added. In this category the biggest of all these tolls can be considered the new feature called Finder Tabs, which is used to combine multiple windows into a single window with multiple tabs. Users can also "tag" files with keywords to make it quicker and easier to search for them later.

These are the most important features among the 200 new features that Apple claim Mavericks to have.

As well, Apple has released new software in terms of iCloud. There is a new website, called icloud.com that makes it possible for users to use apps such as Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Notifications or other in the computer, thus making the experience of iCloud even better. This is very useful because in this website one can also share these documents with other people, making the sharing process even faster via de Internet. 

I hope this post has been helpful!

Can Google Solve Death?

Recently, the Times Magazine has published an article titled "Can Google solve death?" The theme of the article basically talks about the new company that Google is going to create, called Calico (California Life Company), and which is going to try to investigate if death is something not inevitable.

From what commentators say, this new company is going to have a different focus than other life-extension research companies; it is going to try to combat death by focusing on aging itself, rather than focusing on finding cures for single diseases, such a cancer, alzheimer, or others. This is the key, as many biologists single out.

As a new company, and without any further information about how it is going to work, many different reporters have discussed on which technologies and therapies Calico is going to focus on order to solve this question that has pursued humans since the very start. Some of these methods include the following: cryonics, cryotherapy, self-healing worms and telomeres, cloning and body part replacement and nanotechnology.

Cryonics

This technique is based on freezing your body, sometimes only ones head, in order to have your body preserved after death. This method is somewhat similar to what the famous Walt Disney did. The hope of this technique is that the body will be preserved until a future in which nanotechnology and further developments will be able to revive the patient by changing organs and tissues.


Cryotherapy


The use of cryotherapy is very typical in athletics, and many sports are starting to use this technique. It consists in submitting ones body to freezing cold temperatures for a short period of time, which makes the body recover quicker.


Self-healing worms and telomeres

A group of scientists at Nottingham University discovered a species of flatworm, the Planarian worm that can divide potentially forever, and this has caused that this may be a key to alleviate aging in human cells. Human cells undergo aging when stem cells divide to heal wounds, during reproduction
or for growth. The key to stop this aging process may lie in the telomeres, the ends of a chromosome that protect cells against degradation; if scientists can find a way to preserve telomeres, then this can be a huge step towards defeating aging.


Cloning and body part replacement 

This area of investigation has to do with the organ creation and replacement. A replacement of lab-grown kidneys has already been done to rats, and if this can be replicated for humans, it could mean a significant way of fighting age.


Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is what many consider to be the science of the future. One example of how this could fight against aging is by deploying tiny robots (nanorobots) in the body which would help overcome problems of incorrect DNA replication, which is one of the central causes of aging.







In my opinion, although this is something that we would all apparently like, there are many motives to which I personally doubt this can either be impossible in the next 50 years, or that it would be detrimental for human society as we know it. I believe that by solving the problem of death, somewhat life would lose the exhilarating moments and all those moments one those in order to enjoy life to its optimum point. If one knows that he/she can life forever, then there is no meaning in trying to walk through life doing the things you enjoy or even living life to its fullest, since you are going to live forever. As well, how would this affect society, and not only that, the Earth. Considering that this would increase dramatically the Earth's population because nobody is dying while people are always being born, then sooner that we would think the Earth would reach its famous biological limit. The consequences on society can be so great that it would be too long to write now, but the structure of society and how we know humankind would change completely. People would be reckless all the time, for example. Therefore, although this science might be thought as a good idea, I would doubt whether it is a good or bad idea due to all of the consequences it can have.



Source for writing this article:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/03/tech/innovation/google-calico-aging-death/

Tips to for a short movie

How to make a good short video: university of santa fe 

1. Do not cramp too many ideas
2. A twist at the end 
3. Ideas come from everyday life 
4. Convert idea into something we want to say
5. Ideas can come from drawings you randomly do
6. Crowdfunding = raise awareness on the web kickstarter.com and indiegogo.com ; 

For the short movie itself:

• Create a treatment (outline)
• Create a screenplay (script) - can use celtex
• Storyboard (where things go on the screen) by drawing with the different angles and where everything goes on the screen - medium shots, wide scenes, close shots
• Pre-production = look places to see where to film, location of where all scenes take place
• Production = filming of the film, having a schedule and stick to it, filming outside has too many variables, therefore filming inside in a studio is much easier; make sure you have enough shots, have as many as you can 
• Post-production = need to be organized, categorized, named, sound separate and then synchronizing the sound, and then editing (this usually takes pretty long) and use programs such as iMovie or Movie Maker / garbage in and garbage out, meaning that if you filmed something that you think is not good quality then you can not include it in the post production
• Getting the film seen = upload to youtube or in film festivals 

More Tips: not afraid of someone else’s idea, be open

• -Go with your instinct, don’t be close
• -Collaborate with others

Good examples of famous short movie films:

For the birds

One man's band

Geri's game

My Summer 2013

This last summer, as I always say every time a new summer passes, has probably been the best yet, not only due to the extend of the summer, which has been longer than usual due to my stay in the United States, but because of the uncountable quality moments I have been fortunate to live.

Ready for Prom

My summer started the 23rd of May, when my year abroad in the United States as a junior finished. All the pressure and stress from the final week of exams flew away, and my goal was to make my last two weeks in the United States the icing on the cake after a memorable and unforgettable year. After those two weeks of both thrilling as well as sad moments and farewells, I flew back to Bilbao, my home. I stayed in Bilbao for barely week and a half, during which most of the time was dedicated to visit my friends, family, and to get used again to the Spanish way of life and most importantly to being back home again.

On June 20th, as it is becoming a tradition the in the last summers, we spent 10 days in Chipiona, a small village in the south coast of Spain, near Cádiz. My time there was well spent in the beach, a place I really missed after a year in the mountains, and spending loads of time with really good friends that I am only able to see once a year. As always, this trip was one of the highlights of my summer.

Then, as always since I was 6 months old, we went to Laredo, a small fishing village in the north of Spain, barely 60 kilometers away from Bilbao. What can I say about this place that I have not already said. Totally amazing as always, and the more time I spend there, the more I appreciate how beautiful it really is. Totally recommendable to go there if you like the beach. Not only its natural beauty made it a wonderful stay, but some of my closest friends spend their summer there, therefore having the opportunity to spend day and night with people you appreciate is marvelous.

View of Laredo from its port

So, from the 1st of July to the 8th of September I have spent my summer in Laredo, not going to any summer camp or not doing any long trip with my family due to my one-year stay in the U.S. I wanted to spend a relaxing summer and to have a good time with my family and friends that I did not have the opportunity to see for a year.

However, during this period of more than two months, the typical family trip during the summer took place. This year the destination was Greece, a place that fascinated me. Disregarding the intense heat of this mediterranean country, I was lucky to sightsee some of the most beautiful beaches, sights and ruins that I have ever seen. Our trip was mainly located in Crete, the biggest island in Greece. This huge island that gave thousands of different options to do, will always have a special place in my mind. Probably, the highlight of the trip was the almost day long trip to the famous beach of Elafonisi, a beach with clear, blue turquoise water, that also had the special characteristic of having pink sand due to coral that got stranded on the shores.

Elafonisi Beach, Crete, Greece

                                                           
And this is my summer 2013. I really hope, and kind of expect my next summer to be as good as this one, but now school has begun, and it is time to earn the next vacations.

Thanks for reading.

Javier Hernandez

Video Formats

There are many video formts available nowadays, and I am writing this blog to explain some of the characteristics of these video formats which include Quicktime, Avi, MPEG, MP4, Divx and DVD.

Quicktime Player View

I am going to start writing about Quicktime. This program used to reproduce video, sounds or images, has been developed by Apple. What is great about this software is that it allows you to open an extense amount of formats including (AVI, MOV, DV, 3GGP). In addition, it can also open high definition formats, such as Blu-ray. And if you count with QuicktimePro, you can save your files in a lot of formats apart from editing a wide range of movies. Apart from these awesome features, probably the outstanding characteristic that enables quicktime to be one of the tops in its category of software is that it compresses the format while viewing in a way that makes the definition the best quality achievable.

Next, I am going to explain the characteristics of the video format named Avi. This format, which stands for Audio Video Interleave and that was created by Matrox OpenDML in 1996 and is now run by Microsoft, is exceptional concerning video and music. The incredible characteristic, is that it allows to save files with multiple streaming audio and video. It can also contain these files in numerous compressions schemes such as MPEG-4 video and many others. Its file extension is .avi and it can be opened by nearly every audio/video reproducer.

After talking of how AVI was very common, and I am now going to explain hat is probably the most famous and used video and audio format, MPEG. This video format, that stands for Moving Pictures Experts Group and was created ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. It has usually a better definition than other formats, to the point that with its new version, MPEG-21, it has reached high-defintion. However, before, in order to opne files with this extension, you had to have encoders that would enable you to open it, but now it can be opened by almost every reproducer. There are also many different evolutions of the formats, therefore I will put the evolution of the formats taken from Webopedia:

• MPEG-1: The most common implementations of the MPEG-1 standard provide a video resolution of 352-by-240 at 30 frames per second (fps). This produces video quality slightly below the quality of conventional VCR videos.
• MPEG-2: Offers resolutions of 720x480 and 1280x720 at 60 fps, with full CD-quality audio. This is sufficient for all the major TV standards, including NTSC, and even HDTV. MPEG-2 is used by DVD-ROMs. MPEG-2 can compress a 2 hour video into a few gigabytes. While decompressing an MPEG-2 data stream requires only modest computing power, encoding video in MPEG-2 format requires significantly more processing power.
• MPEG-3: Was designed for HDTV but was abandoned in place of using MPEG-2 for HDTV.
• MPEG-4: A graphics and video compression algorithm standard that is based on MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and Apple QuickTime technology. Wavelet-based MPEG-4 files are smaller than JPEG or QuickTime files, so they are designed to transmit video and images over a narrower bandwidth and can mix video with text, graphics and 2-D and 3-D animation layers. MPEG-4 was standardized in October 1998 in the ISO/IEC document 14496. See MPEG-4.
• MPEG-7: Formally called the Multimedia Content Description Interface, MPEG-7 provides a tool set for completely describing multimedia content. MPEG-7 is designed to be generic and not targeted to a specific application.
• MPEG-21: Includes a Rights Expression Language (REL) and a Rights Data Dictionary. Unlike other MPEG standards that describe compression coding methods, MPEG-21 describes a standard that defines the description of content and also processes for accessing, searching, storing and protecting the copyrights of content. See MPEG-21.

After the huge explanation about MPEG, I am going to talk about MP4 which is also very used, especially in mobile devices, such as telephones, iPods and iPads. The main difference between this format and its last version, MP3, is that MP4 is prepared to stand 4 layers of information. This means that it can support an extremely compressed video format that, as said before, can be viewed in mobile formats. This is the main difference with MP3, that is mainly used for music. The advantages of having the MP4 file extension are uncountable since no other format supports the compression necessary in order for the videos to being seen in a mobile device.

The second to last video format I am going to write about in this blog is DivX. This file extension, although it is more of a reproducer, allows you to view probably all of the video format extensions to a high quality. It is available to all of the operating systems, and it is now expanding its domain to the mobile devices area and the tablets area, and now it is also available for some of these devices. I personally have used DivX and it is certainly a great reproducer of both music and video, and the best of all is that it is completely free and that you can download it from its homepage.

The last video format I am going to write about, although there are a lot of them remaining, is DVD. Probably of all of the readers know about this format, although more than a format, it is a way of storing your music and video. This way of reproducing your video and audio mainly in your computers or your cars was very popular during the last decade, but its usage is now in decline due to the improvement of technology and the expansion of internet and the apparition of other devices such as iPods or your mobile phones that can reproduce music and video and you do not need an object as big as a DVD. However, I personally still use DVDs when I create a movie since I do not have the means to save the movie in blue-ray discs. DVDs are especially useful since they can be reproduced in nearly every computer, however, as I explained before, there are now computers that do not come with DVD readers since everything i viewed or downloaded form the internet and DVDs are therefore no longer useful to store the programs that used to be in them.

That is all about these six video formats. I hope you have liked the explanations. 

Open Office

Open Office is an open-source software that includes all types of programs, like word processors, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and even more. It is available in different languages and it is multi-platform so you can work in all the operating systems. Apart from these features, you can open, read, create, and save your work in other common files such as .doc or .ppt. Probably the best characteristic is that it is completely free of chrage.

The word processor included in the Open Office Package is Writer. It has everything that you would expect from a modern, fully equipped word processor and desktop publisher.It has applications such as AutoCorrect, AutoComplete, AutoFormat and all the fonts and styles you want.

The spreadsheet software is called Calc. It is easy to use for newcomers, and experienced users appreciate features like AdvancedDataPilot technology or an Intelligent Sum Button.

The presentations porgram is called Impress. Its name describes perfectly the application sicne it has all kinds of special effects, a multi-pane view, and has 2D and 3D clip art.

The graphics software is called Draw. In this program you can do everything form a simple sketch to a complex plan. You can manipulate everythign yuo do, rotating it and creating photrealistic images. Due to its smart connectors, it is also easy to create a flow chart, organisation charts, and network diagrams.

The base program offered in the Open Officce Packet is called Base. With this program you can create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports. It offers a choice of using Wizards, Design Views, or SQL Views for beginners, intermediate and advanced users.

Open Source Initiative (OSI)

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit global corporation that intends to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community and promote the use of open source software.


But first of all, what is open source software? The open source software are programs that are free to the public and that can be used by anyone. In other words, they do not have a private license, therefore they are perfectly legal because they are public and free. The definition used in the web Webopedia is the following: Open source refers to a program or software in which the source code (the form of the program when a programmer writes a program in a particular programming language) is available to the general public for use and/or modification from its original design free of charge.


There are open source programs of all kinds: text editors, for creating presentations, for calculations, desktop publishers, to draw, and even to being able to create animated images.


There is an incredibly extended list of open source programs but among this list we can find the most commonly known and used: Open Office, Google Sketch Up, Scribus, Scratch, and many more.

Design of a football field in Google Sketch Up

The multiple programs Open Office offers

Scribus, an open source desktop publisher

A game created in Scratch