Study Suggests the Number-Line Concept Is Not Intuitive

An anonymous reader writes "The Yupno people of New Guinea have provided clues to the origins of the number-line concept, and suggest that the familiar concept of time may be cultural as well. From the article: 'Tape measures. Rulers. Graphs. The gas gauge in your car, and the icon on your favorite digital device showing battery power. The number line and its cousins – notations that map numbers onto space and often represent magnitude – are everywhere. Most adults in industrialized societies are so fluent at using the concept, we hardly think about it. We don't stop to wonder: Is it 'natural'? Is it cultural? Now, challenging a mainstream scholarly position that the number-line concept is innate, a study suggests it is learned."

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from Slashdot http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/04/25/2357257/study-suggests-the-number-...

Travelling Salesman, Thriller Set In a World Where P=NP

mikejuk writes with this excerpt from I Programmer: "A movie that features science and technology is always welcome, but is it not often we have one that focuses on computer science. Travelling Salesman is just such a rare movie. As you can guess from its name, it is about the Travelling Salesman problem, more precisely about the P=NP question. Written and directed by Timothy Lanzone, and produced by Fretboard Pictures, it should premiere on June 16. As the blurb to the movie trailer says: 'Travelling Salesman is an intellectual thriller about four of the world's smartest mathematicians hired by the U.S. government to solve the most elusive problem in computer science history — P vs. NP. The four have jointly created a "system" which could be the next major advancement for humanity or the downfall of society.'"

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from Slashdot http://idle.slashdot.org/story/12/04/25/1519208/travelling-salesman-thriller-...

Hulu’s Media Owners Take Bigger Stake in the Company [REPORT]


A new report indicates that Comcast, Disney and News Corp. will soon own even more of the streaming television service Hulu.

According to Bloomberg, Providence Equity Partners — the one non-media conglomerate invested in Hulu — is close to selling its 10% stake in the company to the other owners. The companies behind ABC (Disney), NBC (Comcast) and Fox (News Corp.) each own a 27% stake in the Hulu.

Providence invested $100 million in Hulu back in 2007. Bloomberg‘s sources say the firm will get $200 million for its share. Not a bad return on a five-year investment. The $200 million sale would give Hulu a $2 billion valuation.

Less than a year ago, Hulu’s owners were considering selling the over-the-top (OTT) and subscription streaming service. The fact that the three majority owners are now going to invest more in the company underscores just how much the online video and streaming space has changed over the last six to eight months.


Hulu Flourishes in New Content Wars


Last July, I wrote about the content battle taking place between TV Everywhere and OTT online streaming. Since then, that battle has only expanded, as cable networks have launched their own OTT offerings and content owners have signed more robust TV Everywhere deals.

As a result, Hulu (like Netflix) has had to shift its focus from simply licensing content and branch out into original content creation.

Hulu started playing with original reality programming in 2009. Earlier this year, the company launched its first scripted series, *Battleground.”

Moreover, Hulu is flipping the switch on the licensing model and syndicating its original programming to traditional television outlets.

That focus — coupled on improvements to the ad platform and support on more devices and set-top boxes — has helped Hulu gain premium subscribers. More than 2 million users now subscribe to Hulu Plus, the company’s $8 a month offering. This is a far cry from Netflix’s 26 million streaming users, but it shows that Hulu is catching on.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto,

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/04/26/hulu-sells-stake/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_me...

We’ve got hard data: Netflix really is killing Nickelodeon

With kids channel Nickelodeon suddenly experiencing double-digit ratings drops in the fourth quarter last year, a debate began swirling as to whether streaming of the Viacom-owned channel’s shows on Netflix was dispersing its audience.

That discussion has broadened quite a bit in recent months. Last week, for example, The New York Times pondered whether the most recent viewership declines for the Big Four broadcast networks were in part attributable to on-demand viewing through digital platforms including Netflix and Apple’s iTunes. Conversely, last month, TV analysts wondered whether the record season-premiere numbers for AMC’s long-running series Mad Men were partly the result of new viewers discovering the older seasons of the series on Netflix.

On Thursday, Bernstein Research’s Todd Juenger released some hard data on these pressing issues. Collaborating with his former employer, digital video recorder maker TiVo, Juenger and his Bernstein colleagues found that among homes that regularly stream Netflix programming, viewing of linear kids’ channels — and not just Nickelodeon — took a hit.

“Turns out, Netflix streamers watch just as much traditional TV as non-streamers,” Juenger wrote in his report. “However, there is a significant share shift among streamers. Kids’ networks (not just Nickelodeon) and syndicated shows are getting severely whacked.”

For the study, Bernstein pulled out about 9,500 Netflix streamers and 9,500 non-streamers from a sample of about 35,000 TiVo set-top users.

Analyzing viewership of the two groups over the first quarter, Bernstein found that usage among streamers of Nickeloden’s flagship channel dropped 6 percent from the year-over-year average; viewing also declined a whopping 11 percent for Nick Toons and Teen Nick. For non-streamers, ratings actually grew 2 percent for Nickelodeon, 5 percent for Nick Toons and 26 percent for Teen Nick (a huge 37 percent differential).

Among streamers, ratings increased 11 percent for Disney’s boy-targeted XD channel, but they grew far more — 27 percent — among households that don’t stream. The dynamic was the same for the Time Warner Inc.-owned Cartoon Network, which saw viewership increase by 9 percent among the streaming group but 12 percent among non-streamers.

Conversely, Netflix’s claim that it’s a source of “catch-up” viewing for serialized cable dramas like AMC’s Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead seems to carry some weight, with Bernstein finding that AMC’s ratings grew 86 percent in Q1 for streamers but only 71 percent for non-streamers.

Also positively impacted: the Big Four broadcast networks. Bernstein found that ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC each performed better slightly among households that stream (see chart).

However, Bernstein also discovered that Netflix viewing made consumers much less likely to watch repeats of shows in off-net syndication, with the streaming group declining in off-net viewing by about 19 percent compared to 9.7 percent for non-streamers.

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from GigaOM http://paidcontent.org/2012/04/26/weve-got-hard-data-netflix-really-is-killin...

My Episode Guide Tracks the Air Dates of Your Favorite TV Shows Right From Your Toolbar [Chrome Extensions]

Chrome: My Episode Guide is an extension that tracks your favorite TV shows right in your browser toolbar. All you do is type the names of your shows, click add, and it tells you when the next episode is coming up. Additionally, you can click the > button for a full rundown of any show's schedule to see where you are in the season, what's coming up, and what you've (presumably) already watched. More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5904384/my-episode-guide-tracks-the-air-dates-of-your-f...

The future of TV isn’t TV, it’s broadband.

As government strives to keep up with the broadband age, the Senate’s Commerce Committee held a hearing today covering the future of television, but midway through the hearing I realized that the Senate has it all wrong. The future of TV isn’t to be found in deregulation — it’s on the Internet. We just have to let it happen. And to do that, Congress needs to look at how broadband providers control access to content, through caps, specialized offerings and deals.

Unfortunately, Congress didn’t do all of that. It danced around the problems of pipe owners also owning content providers and pay TV distribution businesses. It didn’t ask about caps on broadband and how that serves the interests of the pay TV business, and despite the fact that network neutrality was brought up several times and was cited by Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC, and Amazon’s public policy lead Paul Misener, the way that Comcast is sidestepping network neutrality by not counting content streamed over the Xbox against its data cap was never mentioned.

So what was the Senate’s tangent today?

Netflix is almost a third of broadband traffic in the U.S.

Instead the call during the hearing was for a rewrite of the 1996 Telecoms Act, which deregulated the telecommunications agency, helped establish the rules that let the Internet grow and brought about the rise of competitive local exchange carriers. But in an election year, such a rewrite seems unlikely, and frankly, worrisome given the power that ISPs and content companies have in Washington at the moment. Instead, the law that might make headway is the The Next Generation Television Marketplace Act, which was proposed in December, and was the basis for the hearing today.

The proposed act deals primarily with deregulating the broadcast industry to eliminate some required coverage mandates and to allow broadcasters to negotiate retransmission rates with pay TV providers just like cable programmers such as ESPN or AMC do. As a consumer this would likely lead to higher cable costs and the loss of public interest programming. The fundamental question that should be asked with regard to this legislation is whether or not the broadcasters’ access to public airwaves means they should have limits set upon them to serve the public interest? (The FCC gives them their airwaves in exchange for following certain rules and carrying certain types of programming.)

But that wasn’t really the focus of the hearing, despite a few questions asked of Diller, who is an investor in Aero, one of the most interesting startups to come out of the convergence of the web and television. Aereo, provides access via the web to over the air content for a fee. Consumers pay a set amount each month and then can get access to over the air television from any device. The value-add is that consumers who can’t receive the over-the-air signals from their broadcaster can still get access to the programming, can record it for later consumption and can get it on any device. Of course, it’s being sued.

So what is the real issue?

The hearing did clarify a fundamental issue about both television and broadband. The two are now intertwined, so from a regulatory perspective the fight will now be about who holds the power in terms of relationships with consumers and in terms of their relationships with content companies. On one side, we have the broadcast industry and the ISPs, which also own broadband and in many cases pay TV service access. On the other are the startups and online behemoths that want to deliver TV to the consumer when and where they want it using a variety of business models. In the middle are content creators trying to walk the line between finding an audience today and finding one tomorrow. And consumers just want to pay for exactly what they want, when they want it without spending money on superfluous channels or content.

As Barry Diller testified, the Internet is ready to provide a new platform for content distribution but the interests of pay TV providers and content companies that are linked to distribution companies also want to interfere with how content is accessed. He said eliminating the distribution companies as middlemen given content creators more creative freedom and they wouldn’t have to sign away as many of their rights, adding,”How can that not be in the public interest?”

When Blair Westlake, Corporate VP, Media & Entertainment Group at Microsoft explained that he saw TV changing more in the past 18 months than it had in the last five years, he focused on some of the cool things Microsoft is doing with the Children’s Workshop, the producers of Sesame Street. He described children of the future interacting with the characters using the Kinect and even seeing themselves onscreen. This is cool, but sidesteps some of the issues the hearing didn’t really delve into.

Where Congress, and regulators must focus.

The Internet has become a platform for services and TV is just one of those services. We need to start thinking about TV in terms of who can deliver it at a transport layer (the pipes), how it gets delivered (via a pay TV subscription, YouTube channels, Netflix subscriptions) and where the value is and who gets to charge for that.

There is no question that the content is valuable. There is also no question that consumers find value in access that content online from any device whenever they want as Susan Whiting, vice chairman of The Nielsen Company, testified.

So Congress should focus on who will capture the value of the new means of delivering TV, and whether or not certain players have an advantage that Congress or the FCC should investigate. Many of the Senators asking questions have come pretty far by recognizing the importance of broadband access when thinking about the future of TV.

Some questions Washington should be asking


Here are a few questions they can — and should — ask to take the conversation further:

  • If broadband is a platform for TV, should broadband providers also be TV distribution providers and content companies? How can they use that horizontal integration to their advantage? Are monthly data caps a method for them to stymie competition?
  • Do deals to provide services to specific devices without counting against a cap sidestep network neutrality?
  • Should the dearth of independent broadband providers (those providing the platform only without a pay TV business) concern Congress?
  • What rules and regulations does a horizontally integrated broadband/distribution/content player need to follow to preserve access to real competition and inovation? Are the merger conditions associated with Comcast buying NBCU enough?
  • Where is the value in the new TV business? Is it content? Access? Distribution?
  • What are the most promising new business models that can support the industry?
  • How many of those business models will require the end consumer to give up their privacy?

I can think of several more questions, including those related to protecting the rights of content creators in a completely digital world, ensuring that children’s programming meets certain standards or even mandating accessibility for all on the Internet. However, to ask these questions requires Congress to view the Internet as not just a new way to communicate and share ideas, but as a new platform that will subsume the older industries of TV, voice communications and publishing and transform them into even richer mediums to share ideas, consume entertainment and even change how we work.

It’s not an adjunct, it’s a replacement. Or it can be, if we prevent the old-line industries that will see some of their lines of businesses replaced by IP technologies from walling up the promise of the web with data caps, friendly deals with certain hardware makers and over-inflated concerns about piracy and content theft.

Congress could help by asking tough questions or doing a real overhaul of the Telecommunications Act with this framework in mind, but I don’t think it’s viewing the web yet through the right lens. It needs to think of the Internet at two levels — the transport mechanism for the bits and the services that ride on top of them. We need a regulatory conversation that recognizes this divide and encourages it.

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from GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2012/04/24/the-future-of-tv-isnt-tv-its-broadband/?utm_sour...

VIM Adventures teaches you keyboard shortcuts, :%s/n00b/pro/gc in no time

VIM Adventures teaches you keyboard shortcuts, :%s/n00b/pro/gc in no time

If you've ever had the pleasure of using VIM, the popular Linux (and other platforms) text editor, you'll know that dark magic lies within its keyboard shortcuts. However, with so many to learn, where do you start? Well, some fine fellows thought the answer to that question was a neat little fantasy adventure game. VIM adventures coaxes you through the learning process via ingenious little tasks that teach you the shortcuts along the way, all washed down with a healthy glug of gaming nostalgia. Before long you'll have the keys to the castle and, of course, unabated word processing prowess. Tap j to hit the source link and get started.

VIM Adventures teaches you keyboard shortcuts, :%s/n00b/pro/gc in no time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/24/vim-adventures-teaches-you-keyboard-shortc...

Eat These Foods Before and After Your Workout to Stay in Top Training Shape [Health]

The foods you eat before and after a good workout, and the fluids you drink during your workout go a long way towards making sure your exercise has the best impact on your health as possible. Whether you're staying hydrated with a bottle of water while you're out on a run, or debating what to munch on for a little post-workout energy, Eating Well magazine has some tips to help maximize your workout and keep you satisfied in the process. More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5904587/eat-these-foods-before-and-after-your-workout-t...

NimbleTV streams cable content to 'any' device, launching 'in the next few months'

ImageWith services like Aereo TV taking a similar streaming approach -- and getting sued in the process -- NimbleTV won't have an easy road ahead, but the outfit's willing to take its chances. The startup plans to launch its subscription-based offering to the public within the next few months, allowing future users to stream cable content to unspecified devices at any time and from anywhere on the globe -- all thanks to Nimble's cloud-based software. However, unlike some of its competitors, NimbleTV will give customers the ability to select channel packages based on personal preferences, though that'll depend heavily on the TV providers going along for the ride. While the service will only be available in the US and India at first, the company does plan a broader launch at some point in the future. No word yet on how pricing will play out, but there is a NYC-only beta (just as Aereo did) which you can join now by giving the source below a quick click.

Continue reading NimbleTV streams cable content to 'any' device, launching 'in the next few months'

NimbleTV streams cable content to 'any' device, launching 'in the next few months' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/24/nimbletv/

NewsFlash uses high-frequency light to transmit data from iPad to smartphone, we go hands-on (video)

Image

MIT's Media Lab is chock-full of cutting-edge tech projects that researchers create, then often license to manufacturers and developers. One such project is called NewsFlash, and uses high-frequency red and green light to transmit data to the built-in camera on a receiving device -- in this case Samsung's Epic 4G. The concept is certainly familiar, and functions in much the same way as a QR code, generating flashing light that's invisible to the human eye instead of a cumbersome 2D square. In the Media Lab's implementation, an iPad is used to display a static news page with flashing colored bands at the top, representing just a few vertical pixels on the LCD.

As the device presents the standard touch experience you're already familiar with, it also broadcasts data that can be read by any camera, but flashes too quickly to be distracting or even noticeable to the naked eye. A NewsFlash app then interprets those flashes and displays a webpage as instructed -- either a mobile version with the same content, or a translation of foreign websites. As with most MediaLab projects, NewsFlash is simply a concept at this point, but it could one day make its way to your devices. Jump past the break to see it in action.

Continue reading NewsFlash uses high-frequency light to transmit data from iPad to smartphone, we go hands-on (video)

NewsFlash uses high-frequency light to transmit data from iPad to smartphone, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/24/mit-media-lab-newsflash-hands-on/