Skill Zone News issue 82
This month Google released its latest version of Android, dubbed Android Lollipop, and described it as "a quantum leap forward". It is not the first time that quantum leap has been used to describe incremental updates to technology but the word quantum leap was coined long ago by physicists to mean the smallest measurable change, and therefore a quantum leap forward in technology would hardly be impressive. However, people are easily impressed by words they don't understand and it is misused so much now by marketing men who think it means huge that quantum leap has now become a janus term, a phrase which is its own opposite.
22nd October 2014
Nobel Prize Blues
Three scientists from Japan have been awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics for their invention of the blue light emitting diode back in the 1990s. This may sound insignificant compared to, say, the detection of neutrinos or the measurement of the expansion of the universe, but its impact on all of us is greater than you can imagine.
Bello chaos hits UCL
The world famous University College London (UCL), which has 25,000 students and 8,000 staff, found itself deluged with unwanted emails after problems with an unmoderated mailing list.
The devil is in the detail
Would you sell your soul in exchange for free Wi Fi? If you didn't read the small print, maybe you already have.
Does your phone have a kill switch?
If your phone is stolen, will the thief gain access to your photos, your emails, your bank account? Should you have a way of remotely wiping your phone when you lose it?
Nature bites back
Drones were in the news again this month when one was flown over the Serbia versus Albania football match, trailing the Greater Albania nationalist flag and provoking a riot which led to the match being abandoned.