IBM makes world's smallest movie

Researchers at IBM have created the world's smallest movie by manipulating single atoms on a copper surface. Courtesy BBC

A video image of a scene from the world's tiniest stop-action movie, A Boy and his Atom, which shows individual carbon monoxide molecules rearranged to show a boy dancing and bouncing on a trampoline. Picture: AP/IBM Source: AP

SCIENTISTS have taken the idea of a film short down to new levels. Molecular levels.

IBM says it has made the tiniest stop-motion movie ever - a one-minute video of individual carbon monoxide molecules repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline.

Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometres - there are 25 million nanometres in an inch - but hugely magnified, the movie is reminiscent of early video games, particularly when the boy bounces the ball off the side of the frame accompanied by simple music and sound effects.

The movie is titled A Boy and His Atom.

Videos showing atoms in motion have been seen before but Andreas Heinrich, IBM's principal scientist for the project, said this is the first time anything so small has been manoeuvred to tell a story.

"This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world," Mr Heinrich said. "The reason we made this was not to convey a scientific message directly, but to engage with students, to prompt them to ask questions."

Jamie Panas of Guinness World Records said Guinness certified the movie as "Smallest Stop-Motion Film."

IBM used a remotely operated two-ton scanning tunnelling microscope at its lab in San Jose, Calif., to make the movie earlier this year. The microscope magnifies the surface over 100 million times. It operates at 450 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (268 degrees below zero Celsius).

The cold "makes life simpler for us," Mr Heinrich said. "The atoms hold still. They would move around on their own at room temperature."

Scientists used the microscope to control a tiny, super-sharp needle along a copper surface, IBM said. At a distance of just 1 nanometre, the needle physically attracted the carbon monoxide molecules and pulled them to a precisely specified location on the surface.

The dots that make up the figures in the movie are the oxygen atoms in the molecule, Heinrich said.

The scientists took 242 still images that make up the movie's 242 frames.

Mr Heinrich said the techniques used to make the movie are similar to what IBM is doing to make data storage smaller.

"As data creation and consumption continue to get bigger, data storage needs to get smaller, all the way down to the atomic level," he said.

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IBM makes world's smallest movie

A video image of a scene from the world's tiniest stop-action movie, A Boy and his Atom, which shows individual carbon monoxide molecules rearranged to show a boy dancing and bouncing on a trampoline. Picture: AP/IBM Source: AP

SCIENTISTS have taken the idea of a film short down to new levels. Molecular levels.

IBM says it has made the tiniest stop-motion movie ever - a one-minute video of individual carbon monoxide molecules repeatedly rearranged to show a boy dancing, throwing a ball and bouncing on a trampoline.

Each frame measures 45 by 25 nanometres - there are 25 million nanometres in an inch - but hugely magnified, the movie is reminiscent of early video games, particularly when the boy bounces the ball off the side of the frame accompanied by simple music and sound effects.

The movie is titled A Boy and His Atom.

Videos showing atoms in motion have been seen before but Andreas Heinrich, IBM's principal scientist for the project, said this is the first time anything so small has been manoeuvred to tell a story.

"This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world," Mr Heinrich said. "The reason we made this was not to convey a scientific message directly, but to engage with students, to prompt them to ask questions."

Jamie Panas of Guinness World Records said Guinness certified the movie as "Smallest Stop-Motion Film."

IBM used a remotely operated two-ton scanning tunnelling microscope at its lab in San Jose, Calif., to make the movie earlier this year. The microscope magnifies the surface over 100 million times. It operates at 450 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (268 degrees below zero Celsius).

The cold "makes life simpler for us," Mr Heinrich said. "The atoms hold still. They would move around on their own at room temperature."

Scientists used the microscope to control a tiny, super-sharp needle along a copper surface, IBM said. At a distance of just 1 nanometre, the needle physically attracted the carbon monoxide molecules and pulled them to a precisely specified location on the surface.

The dots that make up the figures in the movie are the oxygen atoms in the molecule, Heinrich said.

The scientists took 242 still images that make up the movie's 242 frames.

Mr Heinrich said the techniques used to make the movie are similar to what IBM is doing to make data storage smaller.

"As data creation and consumption continue to get bigger, data storage needs to get smaller, all the way down to the atomic level," he said.

View the original article here

Evil Dead makes box office killing

Jane Levy in Sam Raimi's remake of the "Evil Dead" - currently leading the way at the US box office. Picture: AP Source: AP

RESURRECTED demons and dinosaurs are helping to put some life back into the weekend US box office.

The demonic horror remake Evil Dead debuted at No. 1 with $26 million ($A25 million), according to studio estimates on Sunday.

In a tight fight for second-place were two holdovers, the animated comedy The Croods and the action flick G.I. Joe: Retaliation, both with an estimated $21.1 million. Final numbers on Monday will sort out which movie comes out ahead.

Steven Spielberg's 3-D debut of his dinosaur blockbuster Jurassic Park came in fourth with $18.2 million. That's on top of the $357.1 million domestic haul for Jurassic Park in its initial run in 1993.

Released by Sony's TriStar Pictures, Evil Dead added $4.5 million in 21 overseas markets, giving it a worldwide start of $30.5 million. Shot on a modest budget of $17 million, the movie is well on its way to turning a profit.

The remake was produced by the 1983 original's filmmakers, director Sam Raimi and producer Rob Tapert, and its star, Bruce Campbell. The new Evil Dead lays the gore on thickly for the story of a group of friends terrorized and possessed by demons during a trip to a cabin in the woods.

"It's one crazy ride, that movie. I have to think Sam Raimi is so proud in remaking this film that it turned out so well," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It's such a visceral ride, where you're holding on to your seat or holding on to the person next to you."

Paramount's G.I. Joe sequel, which had been No. 1 the previous weekend, pushed its US total to $86.7 million. The movie also added $40.2 million overseas for an international haul of $145.2 million and a worldwide take of $232 million.

The Croods, a DreamWorks Animation release distributed by 20th Century Fox, raised its US box office total to $125.8 million after three weekends. Overseas, the movie did an additional $34.1 million to lift its international total to $206.8 million and its worldwide receipts to $333 million.

Universal Pictures' Jurassic Park reissue opened in a similar range of other recent blockbuster 3-D releases such as Titanic ($17.3 million) and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace ($22.4 million).

None of the new movies or holdovers came close to the business being done at the US box office a year ago by The Hunger Games, which led over the same weekend in 2012 with $33.1 million in its third weekend. But collectively, Hollywood had a winning lineup of movies that gave revenues a lift from last year.

US receipts totaled $134 million, up 8.5 percent from the first weekend of April a year ago, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. That uptick comes after three-straight weekends of declining revenue and a quiet first quarter in which US business has totaled $2.47 billion, down 11.4 percent from the same point in 2012.

Hollywood set a record with $10.8 billion in the US last year, and 2013's releases so far have been unable to match up. Studios are counting on a strong start to the summer season as Iron Man 3 arrives the first weekend in May and such sequels as Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Hangover Part IIi and Fast & Furious 6 quickly follow.

"When you have a record box-office year like we did in 2012, every weekend in 2013 is becoming a challenge to best or even equal what we did the year before," said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "The summer movie season can't come a moment too soon. We definitely need it."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.

1. Evil Dead, $26 million ($4.5 million international).

2 (tie). The Croods, $21.1 million ($34.1 million international).

2 (tie). G.I. Joe: Retaliation, $21.1 million ($40.2 million international).

4. Jurassic Park in 3-D, $18.2 million ($3 million international).

5. Olympus Has Fallen, $10.04 million.

6. Tyler Perry's Temptation, $10 million.

7. Oz the Great and Powerful, $8.2 million ($13.6 million international).

8. The Host, $5.2 million.

9. The Call, $3.5 million.

10. Admission, $2.1 million.

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Facebook makes itself at Home

The new Facebook Home screen is both the locked and unlocked screen, letting users quickly check for updates on their smartphone, with other apps hidden behind this home screen. Source: Supplied

FACEBOOK is killing the app.

It's new mobile phone system unveiled this morning has turned Facebook into a home screen, meaning you are never separated from the social network.

Facebook has taken Android's open source operating system and tailored it to make it a "people first" operating system that brings Facebook out of the app and onto your phone.

It's name is "Home".

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that phones today are designed around apps and not people.

"We want to flip that around," he said.

Facebook takes the home screen of your phone and turns it into a visually rich scrolling newsfeed that shows your friends photos, status updates all the time. You no longer have to tap into the Facebook app to respond. You can simply tap your home screen to like a post, or to reply.

The ChatHeads function will incorporate texting and Facebook messages.

Facebook will organise the most important updates to appear on your screen, no matter where you are. Users can hide them by simply swiping left or right, or get rid all the latest posts by holding down their finger on the screen and swiping downwards.

Apps can still be accessed through a launcher that users can access by swiping upwards.

Mr Zuckerberg showed off a new feature called "Chatheads" which is a new messaging systems that allows users to manage conversations.

A small pop-up head will appear in the right hand margin, to notify users that they have a new Facebook or text message. That way, the notification does not interrupt what you were doing on your phone before someone tried to contact you. To reply you can simply swipe left and a conversation box will appear on top of previous screen, send it and go straight back to what you were doing.

"By putting people first this is one of the many small but meaningful changes to our relationship with tech over time," Mr Zuckerberg said.

Facebook Home can be downloaded to any Android phone from Google's app store, Google Play and will be available from April 12, at least in the US. No word on when it will roll out to Australia.

A screengrab of the new Facebook Home. Users can double click on an image or update to "like" it, or move Home down to view their other apps.

Also any new HTC One, HTC One X, Galaxy SIII and Galaxy S4 phones will come pre-loaded with the new Facebook software for Android.

Facebook Home is a bold step for the social network and it's one that was made with the future of technology in mind.

Mr Zuckerberg said that in five to 10 years, people who are currently using feature phones will have switched to smartphones and that we are soon "going to be living in a world where people will never see in their lives what we call a computer".

"Just stop and think about that for a second," Mr Zuckerberg said.

"The definition of what a computer is and should be has not been set for the majority of the world."

"I think that is definitely going to be about people."

More and more we're starting to see a push for ubiquitous operating systems that do everything within the one environment. Google's new Chromebooks are an example whereby it has taken the best features of its Chrome internet browser and integrated it into the computing experience, blurring the line between desktop and browser.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook Home. Smartphone users look at their phone more than 100 times a day, and Home will help them instantly stay up-to-date with what their friends are up to, Mr Zuckerberg said. Picture: AP

Likewise Facebook home steps away from the app experience with keeps content siloed within the paramaters of an application, and makes it central to the mobile computing experience.

While Facebook isn't killing the app altogether, it is definitely taking a confident step away from it, demonstrating that we might already be making moves to a post-app experience.

"Home" is both the lock screen and the unlocked screen - so when a user glances at their phone, they see a feed of their Facebook friends' photos and comments.

Mr Zuckerberg gave an example of standing in line at a store and looking down at the phone to see photos of friends and family. It'll be possible to flip through the items. If there's something you like, just double tap on it to "like" it. You can also add comments from the home screen.

With this, Facebook doesn't believe you'll need to go to the Facebook app any more.

Mr  Zuckerberg said the company is not building a phone or an operating system. Rather, Facebook is introducing something that's a lot deeper than an app.

Facebook Home will be automatically installed on new AT&T and HTC phones in the US, Mr Zuckerberg said. Picture: AP

"Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about?" he said.

Better, he says, is to have that experience come right to the home screen, so you're always knowing what is going on around you.

The move coincides with rapid growth among the number of users who access the social network from smartphones and tablet computers and Facebook's aim to evolve from its Web-based roots into a "mobile-first" company.

"What Facebook wants is to put itself at the front of the Android user experience for as many Facebook users as possible and make Facebook more elemental to their customers' experience," said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

The move could help to attract more mobile advertisers. Though mobile ads were a big concern for Facebook's investors even before the company's initial public offering last May, some of the worry has subsided as the company muscles its way into the market.

Last year, Facebook began showing ads to its mobile audience by shoehorning corporate-sponsored content into users' news feeds, which also include updates from friends and brands they follow. Facebook now faces the challenge of showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

The mobile advertising market is growing quickly, thanks in large part to Facebook and Twitter, which also entered the space in 2012. Research firm eMarketer expects US mobile ad spending to grow 77 per cent this year to $US7.29 billion ($6.96 billion), from $US4.11 billion last year.

EMarketer said on Wednesday that it expects Facebook to reap $US965 million in US mobile ad revenue in 2013. That's about 2.5 times the $US391 million in 2012, the first year that Facebook started showing mobile ads.

Clark Fredricksen, vice president at eMarketer, says "there are some clear reasons why a deeper integration with mobile operating systems and handsets make sense for Facebook. At the end of the day, the more deeply Facebook can engage consumers, no matter what device or operating system or handset," the better.

Facebook's announcement of Home came less than a day after an image of what appears to be the long-awaited Facebook phone has surfaced online.

Earlier, tech blogger @evleaks posted an image on Twitter, with the words "HTC first, 2013".

The image showed an HTC phone with the words "HTC first" emblazoned across the front. The phone contains only three buttons below the screen.

The image came just days after tech blog Android Police published a leaked version of Facebook's rumoured mobile operating system, which showed that the Facebook phone is actually a new home screen which would let users change the phone's settings like wi-fi within the Facebook operating system.

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Facebook makes your friends hate you

Think, before you "like". Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied

• Facebook feed filled with what your friends "like"
• Technical term is EdgeRank
• Businesses that clutter feed will be "unliked"

WANT to keep your Facebook friends? Think carefully before you next click the "like" button.

Here's why.  

Ever noticed how your news feed can be filled with pictures or pages that your friends have recommended? 

Imagine that you have a friend called Mike and he "likes" the My Kitchen Rules Facebook fan page. You will then get an announcement on your news feed that says “Mike likes My Kitchen Rules”.

Most of the time, that’s OK because - let's face it - you are probably watching My Kitchen Rules too. The problem is that Mike might not want you and everyone else in his news feed to know that he likes My Kitchen Rules.  

More to the point, he'd probably not intend for you to be able to see it and he really wouldn’t want to annoy you by clogging up your news feed, but that is what ends up happening. 

The technical term for this is EdgeRank. According to Paul Kaan of the Social Larder, it's the set of rules Facebook uses to filter what you see. 

"It shows you more of things that you've liked or interacted with in the past and less or none of those things that you haven't liked or there have been complaints about," Mr Kaan said.

"It also factors in how popular content is amongst your Facebook community. The more popular the more of it you will see."

From Facebook's point of view, it maximises the potential of the post by ensuring it gets out to the most people possible.  From the users perspective it gives you access to sites and pages and information you otherwise may not have discovered. 

But, as Mr Kaan told news.com.au, the system is still maturing.  

"Smart businesses will seek to engage with their consumers, provide content that they value and care about, content that they are willing to freely share with their friends," he said. "Businesses that clutter people's feeds with unwanted messages will be unliked with one quick click and lose the opportunity to engage. The system will sort itself out in time."

While we’re waiting for that to happen, the best way to keep your Facebook friends happy is to be mindful of what, and how much, you "like" on your page. 

Have you experienced this problem on Facebook?

View the original article here

Facebook makes your friends hate you

Think, before you "like". Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied

• Facebook feed filled with what your friends "like"
• Technical term is EdgeRank
• Businesses that clutter feed will be "unliked"

WANT to keep your Facebook friends? Think carefully before you next click the "like" button.

Here's why.  

Ever noticed how your news feed can be filled with pictures or pages that your friends have recommended? 

Imagine that you have a friend called Mike and he "likes" the My Kitchen Rules Facebook fan page. You will then get an announcement on your news feed that says “Mike likes My Kitchen Rules”.

Most of the time, that’s OK because - let's face it - you are probably watching My Kitchen Rules too. The problem is that Mike might not want you and everyone else in his news feed to know that he likes My Kitchen Rules.  

More to the point, he'd probably not intend for you to be able to see it and he really wouldn’t want to annoy you by clogging up your news feed, but that is what ends up happening. 

The technical term for this is EdgeRank. According to Paul Kaan of the Social Larder, it's the set of rules Facebook uses to filter what you see. 

"It shows you more of things that you've liked or interacted with in the past and less or none of those things that you haven't liked or there have been complaints about," Mr Kaan said.

"It also factors in how popular content is amongst your Facebook community. The more popular the more of it you will see."

From Facebook's point of view, it maximises the potential of the post by ensuring it gets out to the most people possible.  From the users perspective it gives you access to sites and pages and information you otherwise may not have discovered. 

But, as Mr Kaan told news.com.au, the system is still maturing.  

"Smart businesses will seek to engage with their consumers, provide content that they value and care about, content that they are willing to freely share with their friends," he said. "Businesses that clutter people's feeds with unwanted messages will be unliked with one quick click and lose the opportunity to engage. The system will sort itself out in time."

While we’re waiting for that to happen, the best way to keep your Facebook friends happy is to be mindful of what, and how much, you "like" on your page. 

Have you experienced this problem on Facebook?

View the original article here