Did You Know 2014 - YouTube

Did You Know 2014 - YouTube:



some interesting thoughts for the end of 2014...

does anything surprise you here?

happy and merry!

james



'via Blog this'

Rosie King: How autism freed me to be myself | Talk Video | TED.com

A short video about what is normal and what is not normal...
Not only thinking outside the box... but being outside the box!

see (most of) you tomorrow, 

happy holidays!

james



Rosie King: How autism freed me to be myself | Talk Video | TED.com:



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Marco Tempest: The magic of truth and lies (and iPods) | Talk Video | TED.com

Marco Tempest: The magic of truth and lies (and iPods) | Talk Video | TED.com:

We looked at this at the end of our class... perhaps you'd like to re-watch and collect some expressions.

 Have a good week!  Any comments?

james

"Using three iPods like magical props, Marco Tempest spins a clever, surprisingly heartfelt meditation on truth and lies, art and emotion.

Marco Tempest
Techno-illusionist
A magician and illusionist for the 21st century, Marco Tempest blends cutting-edge technology with the flair and showmanship of Houdini."

Joe Landolina: This gel can make you stop bleeding instantly | Talk Video | TED.com

"A stitch in time saves nine!"

have a good weekend.

I thought you might enjoy this Tedtalk!

james





Joe Landolina: This gel can make you stop bleeding instantly | Talk Video | TED.com: "Forget stitches — there's a better way to close wounds. In this talk, TED Fellow Joe Landolina talks about his invention — a medical gel that can instantly stop traumatic bleeding without the need to apply pressure. (Contains medical images.)"



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Presentation Zen: 10 tips for improving your presentations & speeches

Presentation Zen: 10 tips for improving your presentations & speeches:



You might know about Garr Reynolds website already but here's a recent post that I find interesting!

have a good weekend! What do you think?

james



'via Blog this'

How To Behave At The Office Christmas Party (Christmas)

What we looked at in class today....

How To Behave At The Office Christmas Party (Christmas):



"HOW TO BEHAVE AT THE OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY
VideoJug presents a guide on how to survive that inevitable Christmas ritual of the office party. We show you how to behave at the office Christmas party."

office christmas party

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Emily Balcetis Why some people find exercise harder than others | Talk Video | TED.com

Emily Balcetis: Why some people find exercise harder than others

This Tedtalk focuses on  the power of our view of the world. Emily gave us some examples about the image different people saw in different ways. And one of the interesting use is to help us to exercise more efficiently! It's very interesting because we need not do anything else to make the exercise more efficiently!
I think it will be useful for someone struggling to lose weight...

Aimee Mullins: My 12 pairs of legs | Talk Video | TED.com

Aimee Mullins: My 12 pairs of legs | Talk Video | TED.com:



We spoke of this in today's class...  12 legs and I think she's beautiful...



What do you think? Do you agree?



Perhaps there are other talks by Aimée Mullins that you'd like to watch.



Everyone that was absent today should post a Tedtalk on our Jade Mountain!

And for all your exams...  Break a leg! or even 12 legs!



see you next week

James







'via Blog this'

A 22 year-old fracture of a Shell.

A 22 year-old fracture of a Shell.

Do you know Bash ?

Short for “Bourne-Again Shell”, it's a piece of software that was coded by Brian J. Fox in 1987. It is the default command processIt is also used by about seventy percent of the Internet servers. It is an open-source program that has been maintained by an unpaid volunteer, named Chet Ramney, for the last 22 years.

or and interpreter of several Unix systems (the GNU/Linux systems for example) and of the Macintosh operating systems.

Last September, Chet Ramney was contacted by an open source community member, named Stephane Chazelas, about a potentially dangerous bug. Working together with Ramney and other people working on open-source security, he managed to make a patch fixing the bug in several hours. Then they tried to contact the major software makers without tipping off hackers.

But as soon as the bug was reported, security researchers detected a widespread scanning activity on the Internet, by both people calling themselves white hat hackers, examining systems to find the flaws and correct them, and people thought to be cyber criminals. So security researchers fear that hackers will quickly find the flaw and write a program that can use it. They recommended that the users stay abreast of the updates proposed by software makers, so that they get the patch fixing the bug in Bash before someone ill-willed tries to take advantage of it.

Indeed, “Shellshock”, that's the name of the bug, is much more dangerous than “Heartbleed”, a bug that was discovered a short time ago, and to which journalists often refer while speaking about Shellshock. While cyber-criminals were only able to do things of relatively minor importance like stealing passwords in Internet servers with Heartbleed, Shellshock allows them to take total control of a machine.

Nevertheless, Internet severs are much more vulnerable than common users to attacks using this flaw. Indeed, hackers have to know which network the user is connected to and have access to this network, while the Internet servers are always connected to the Internet and their localization is known.

As you may guess, the problem posed by Heartbleed and Shellshock is part of a bigger one which is the increase of software complexity. Every day, more and more pieces of software are built, which use themselves previously programmed software to work. So, if there is a flaw in one of the old pieces of software, it's not only the old ones but also the new ones that will be vulnerable to hackers.

As a consequence, after the Heartbleed flaw was discovered last spring, the Linux Foundation worked with some major companies like Amazon, Apple and Google on a project named Core Infrastructure Initiative. Its goal is to identify and fund core pieces of open-source infrastructure, so that these kind of problems could be detected and solved more quickly and efficiently.

Thanksgiving clips from FRIENDS - YouTube

Thanksgiving clips from FRIENDS - YouTube:



We'll have to look at parts of this today!



see you later

james



(we should have two presentations as well...)



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[TED Talks] Zak Ebrahim: I am the son of a terrorist

I really like TED Talks because there are a lot of different subjects.

Today, I have chosen something very particular, the story of the son of a terrorist. His childhood was very hard and he suffered from bullies...

Now, he has chosen the way of peace and want to help other people. I think, he is very courageous to say to the world that he is the son of a murderer.

I believe he is a strong man too. It's very hard for him to go against the way of his father. Overall his father tried to recruit him in the extremist group.

I only have one question, is it really possible to hide the fact that you are a dangerous terrorist in action to the rest of your family ...

My first Halloween in Europe

Hello everyone,

   There is a four-days vacation of Halloween for me, so I spent a trip to Venice, Italy! Venice is very very beautiful, all the roads of the city is river! It's fantastic to take a bus on the river!
   During the Halloween, I was walking on the street in Venice, this is the first Halloween for me because in China there is not such a festival, I saw many groups of children with special clothes and things going into shops and shouted:"Trick or treat!!!" Then the shop assistant would throw many candies like raining! Even when I bought something in the shop, the shop assistant gave me a candy and tell me it's the Halloween...
   It's very interesting for me and I want to know more about western festival.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! 

Do you all know the poem "The Raven" by E.A. Poe.
Here's the Simpson's version...

Very appropriate for Halloween!

http://www.teachertube.com/video/251203

let me know what you think!

Class notes (22/10/2014)

Wednesday class notes

  We agreed that each student is going to read a book until the end of december and write a comment on the blog about the book, and also make a list of some of the words that they didn't knew.

  The video: "Pictures that changed the world" was presented:

• New vocabulary:

     Each group marked on their texts all the new vocabulary, the list is the following:

•  French Grandes Écoles

         Ill-suited, widespread, at stake, self-direct, downright, ill-suited, sound indicator, undermine, thrives on, inwardly-focused

• 3D Gun printer

         Milling machine, frenzy, beyond expectations, an offshot, to foil, DIY tools, frenzy, "to become an installed part of the future".

• Shellshock

         Flaws, maintained, feature, widespread, abreast, advocates, mantra, to fall further, shallow

Apple Pay is going to change the way we pay for things

A new payment system based on smartphones called Apple Pay came into service yesterday. I have read the news here: http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/16/technology/apple-pay/index.html
The owners of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus can use their credit cards only by holding their iPhones near the register. There are several stores which allow this method of payment. The consumers don't need to be afraid that their secret codes might be lost. Each time, a new secret token will be sent to the smartphone. In this way, people can pay for things with reliable security. Also, with the technique of fingerprint scanning, it is far more practical and safe to use Apple Pay.
The special technology used in this new product is called NFC, short for Near Field Communication. The antennas in the smartphones will deliver the short radio waves with the payment data.
In my opinion, this technology is on the way of changing the way we pay for things. It will bring efficiency for us. In fact, the key to the success of Apple is to consider the users' habits in detail. Whatever makes the users enjoy easier service will catch more consumers' eyes. and drive the sales of Apple products.

Presentation about electronic commerce in China

Hello everyone,
    I'm Yushan. A week has passed and many things have happened. I have done a lot of things, for example my friend who now habit in Nancy came to Paris so we have a weekend together to visit this city. We went to many place of historic, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Opera, etc.
    I have economic class today and my group made a presentation about the electronic commerce in China. There are two biggest website to buy things by internet, it's Alibaba(Taobao) and Jingdong. I presented some advantage of buying things on Jingdong in China, for example, you can receive your good in one day! And if you pay 6 euros more, you can even get it in three hours! It's impossible in other country in my opinion.
    And this year, there is a great event of Alibaba, that is you can buy things all over the world, and you can receive them free shipping! It's fantasy for Chinese students!
    We will meet tomorrow, maybe we can discuss a lot more.
    See you, and have a good week!

Chamonix Mont Blanc

Le Massif du Mont Blanc is… massive. The peaks of the range look huge from the valley, towering more than 9,000 feet over town, and from the air they lean towards you, simultaneously exerting a gravitational pull and a crushing weight. There are larger, steeper mountains on Earth, but there are no larger, steeper mountains on earth with a tram that takes you directly to the top in a few minutes. It is without doubt the most accessible serious alpine terrain on the planet. Skiing first brought me to these mountains in 1999, and I have been spending the majority of my time in the Alps since. And since I first saw it, I have always wanted to launch from the north face of the Aiguille du Midi, where the Aiguille tram accesses an alpine ridge just below Mt Blanc. The ascent to the Aiguille is so steep that at night, the light at the summit of the tram appears to be a mysteriously bright star. A member of the first group of skiers I guided there didn’t believe me when we arrived in town at night and I pointed to the light and told him that was the summit of the tram: he craned his neck upwards, smiled, and said, “You’re full of shit.”

Five years in Europe and I still hadn’t flown off of that thing.

A few days ago I received a frantic call from Olivier Laugero, a photographer from Chamonix. A stretch of brilliant weather had been forecasted; high cloud bases, insane lapse rates, and classic springtime instability. “C’est parfait, it is time, you need to come tomorrow!” he said in his endearingly optimistic French accent.
I packed my car full of gliders, bid farewell to the rest of the team in the office, and raced northwards. The air was clear and cool when I exited the tunnel du Mont Blanc a few hours later, and wispy shredded cumulus stuck to the steep rocky peaks like alpine cobwebs, forming and degenerating in minutes due to 75kmh winds in the upper elevations: the forecast was wrong.
“Sorry, um, they were wrong. I guess we can go for a hike, eh?” Olivier said.
He shrugged off the high winds as though the weather didn’t affect his job and I tried to mimic his casual attitude, but to no avail.
Antoine Boissellier rolled into town with two friends from St Hillaire, and amongst the abundant but casual enthusiasm someone suggested that we fly from the north face of the Aiguille the next morning if the winds were light enough. It was instantly agreed, and we set out on a valley wide scavenger hunt for mountaineering gear, as we had only brought summer flying shoes and no one had thought to bring crampons or climbing harnesses, mandatory equipment for descending the ridge from the cable car to launch. By midnight, we were outfitted, and a few hours later the crew was chugging café au lait in Chamonix sud, waiting for our tram. Xavier Blanes and Sandy Cochepain met us there, excited to show us their crown jewel of alpine launches.

The top of the Aiguille du Midi is like an amusement park ride for adults. After cruising through the tunnels of rock and over the bridge spanning a massive couloir, and then through more rock tunnels and finally a tunnel of blue glacier ice, we emerged at the top of the ridge trail that leads to the top of the Vallee Blanche and the paraglider launches. Crampons were mandatory for this section, although most of us elected to skip the belay offered by Xavier and trust ourselves to not slip and fall. Falling to our right would result in a painful ride down the 1,500 foot ‘Poubel Couloir’, and to the left was the North Face of the Aiguille, 4,000 feet of 60 degree rock and ice on which too many people have met their fate. I felt stupid being here without my skis as a May storm had swept through during the days before, leaving a foot of dry, chalky wind-buffed powder that only a handful of skiers were greedily devouring.

The snow was slightly shallower on the north launch, which was lucky for us since the launch terrain and the altitude was enough to think about without having to trudge through knee deep snow on take off: you have forty feet to run, beyond that, if you’re not flying you are falling down the north face. As my pulse quickened and my glider danced around in the thin and turbulent winds on launch, I thought about Clair and Zeb Roche, who successfully launched tandem from the highest summit of every continent, including Everest… respect to them.

We all launched cleanly, and in less than 3 minutes there were 7 Ozone gliders in the air (5 solos and 2 tandems) gliding away from the north face towards the Glacier du Boisson. The landscape was mind boggling. Gargantuan hanging ice cliffs towered above endless couloirs, seracs and crevasses of indiscernible depth yawned up at us, and mini avalanches of spindrift careened down the alpine slopes just a few feet from our wingtips. I stared at the Cosmiques Couloir and the Tourrond, lines that had felt somewhat big on skis but looked colossal from the air. In a trance, I barely had the energy to focus on the task at hand, which was getting within shooting distance of Olivier’s camera.

Later that day and the next day, we launched from the Aiguille mid-station, 4,000 feet lower on the same side of the valley. That Friday turned out to be one of the most incredible flights of my life, with cloudbase at 3800 meters and no shortage of solid spring lift. After a few hours of turning in circles next to peaks so big that they occupied the majority of my field of vision for the majority of the turn, I was lightheaded, mildly hypoxic, and my nerves were frayed from looking down on terrain that was at the same time horrendously threatening and breathtakingly gorgeous. These pictures should be worth at least a few thousand words, so I’ll shut up now and leave you to enjoy these images that we truly enjoyed making.

Google just announced the Nexus 6

Being the owner of a four years old low quality Android smartphone, I've been considering replacing it for quite some time now, but I'm both lazy and very picky.

You most likely have already heard of it, but the Google Nexus line is well known for its significant price-performance ratio, and releases a new device about every year (more if you count the tablets), so I've been thinking of waiting for the upcoming new model.

And it was announced a few days ago, as you can see in this article.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/15/6982145/nexus-6-announced-google-specs-availability

Now it turns out that this new Nexus phone is actually massive (6-inch display), and I'm not really sure it would be comfortable to use with just one hand, let alone fit in my pocket. The price tag is quite high too, far more expensive than any previous model of the line.

So I guess I won't be buying this phone either.

Still it's quite amusing that supposedly “mobile” phones are now starting to turn into giant devices... I wonder if the average display size for a smartphone will be 10 inches or more in a few years.

[Youtube Channel] Numberphile

Hello everyone.

Last time you asked me what was my favorite Youtube channel. I answered that I did not have a favorite one, and that I discovered a nice one recently called "Dorkly".

But after some thought, I remembered which channel was my favorite :

It's called "NUMBERPHILE". It is a channel of mathematical popularization. The subjects are fun (at least, fun to me !) and the mathematical theorem are very well explained.

Here are two videos that I like and may interrest you.

The first one is about illegal numbers, and is very astonishing.

The second one deals with "liar numbers", which seems to be prime when they are not.

Have fun !