“My New Year’s resolution is to learn to code with Codecademy in 2012!” he wrote on Twitter.

Participants in the course receive an interactive lesson each week, via email. The campaign promises that participants will be “building apps and websites before you know it”. It has proved a hit on Twitter with thousands using the hashtag “#codeyear”.

Some of those tweeting about the news wondered if London’s Mayor Boris Johnson would follow Mr Bloomberg’s example and also learn to program. The London mayor’s spokesman told the BBC: “Once again the mayor is in awe of his good friend Michael Bloomberg, and if re-elected will explore whether he can join him on that course.”

However, former mayor and Labour party candidate for the top job at City Hall, Ken Livingstone, argued that his time would be fully occupied dealing with the city’s problems. “If I’m elected, I’ll be a bit too busy to take any education courses,” he told the BBC. London’s mayoral elections will be held in May.
‘Awesome’. It is not clear what Mr Bloomberg hopes to do with his new computer skills, but his decision to learn comes at a time of renewed interest in encouraging people to program.

In October, the Next Gen report into the teaching of computing in UK schools was published. Co-author Alex Hope told the BBC that coding should be “the new Latin”. Codecademy, the start-up behind Code Year, was launched in August of last year in response to the company founders’ “frustrations” with learning how to program.

The US site offers free web-based tutorials in programming JavaScript. More than six million lessons were completed within the first month of the site going live. Mashable quoted co-founder Zach Sims as saying Mr Bloomberg’s decision was “awesome”

In an interview with Businessweek, Rene Meza, the managing director of Vodacom Tanzania, explained that East Africa’s largest mobile phone company currently pays its license fees in dollars, but operates in shillings.

“The shilling has been very volatile against the dollar,” he said, “and this could mean we have to cut back on investment to pay regulatory fees.” According to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), Tanzania telecommunications companies pay annual fees for earth satellite stations, switching centers and networks at a rate of 0.8 percent of turnover in dollars.

In an effort to expand and improve its network coverage, Vodacom Tanzania is currently planning to invest approximately USD 62 million over the next 12 to 18 months. The exact figures are still being worked out according to Ms. Meza who indicated that Vodacom is currently in the process of finalizing their budget.

In addition to their expansion and improvement project, Vodacom is also currently working on developing software that will allow for cross-border money transfers with Safaricom Ltd. of Kenya, which is 40 percent owned by Vodafone Group Plc, who also owns 65 percent of Vodacom.

“We will leverage on the numbers of our sister-company in Kenya to grow our M-Pesa money-transfer service,” said Meza. Vodacom Tanzania is currently expecting to have 11 million subscribers this month alone, 3 million of which the company has said now have active money-transfer accounts. According to managing director of Vodacom Tanzania, the company is considering the possibility of outsourcing its tower infrastructure to Nokia Siemens, as they did similarly with their network management.

“We are discussing internally whether to outsource our towers segment, because it is not our core business,” Meza said, “Telecoms companies are essentially marketing and sales units now.” In addition to their communications with the government of Tanzania regarding the use of the shilling for fee payments, companies are also working with the Tanzanian government regarding the introduction of number portability.

According to Mr. Meza, the service was a failure in neighboring Kenya, where he served as the managing director of Airtel Networks Kenya Ltd., a unit of Bharti Airtel, but Vodacom is working with the government on value vs. cost. “It is not about moving a number to another operator, but what value that will add,” said Meza, “We are in high-level talks with government and are waiting for guidelines on issues like who will meet the investment cost.”

Source:Tanzania Invest

The $25 (£16) machine is being created in the hope that it will inspire a new generation of technology whizz kids.

The Pi uses an Arm chip similar to that found in mobile phones and is intended to run a version of the Linux open source operating system.

Test versions of finished devices are being checked and if all is well volume production will start in January.

The idea for Raspberry Pi came from video game veteran David Braben who was searching for a way to inspire young people to start a career in technology.

Mr Braben got his start in games thanks to the BBC Micro on which he, and school friend Ian Bell, created pioneering computer game Elite.

Raspberry Pi is being developed in Cambridgeshire and every update has been watched closely by those keen to get working with the gadget. Raspberry Pi took to its blog on 23 December to report that the first finished circuit boards had arrived.

The batch of bare bones circuit boards are the first to be populated with all the components making up the finished device. The batch is undergoing electrical, software and hardware testing to ensure all is well in the production process.

“Once we’re happy that this test run is fine, we’ll be pushing the button immediately on full-scale manufacture in more than one factory,” wrote Liz Upton on the blog.

The finished device will be sold in two configurations. A Model A for $25 (£16) which lacks a network connector and a Model B for $35 (£22) which does have an Ethernet socket.

Ms Upton said if the tests go well the first batch of 10 boards will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Raspberry Pi initially intended to finish its machine by the end of 2011. However, it said, delays in development meant it was now about three weeks behind schedule.

Despite this, it anticipates that people will be able to place orders for the gadgets in early January. No pre-orders have been taken because the organisation said it did not want to take anyone’s cash without having something to hand over in return.

The critical bulletins address security issues in Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003 and 2008 and will include a fix for the Duqu bot that attacks a vulnerability in the Windows kernel.

The remaining eleven bulletins are rated as important and fix remote code execution problems, as well as privilege escalation issues in Office 2003, 2007 and 2010; Office 2004, 2008 and 2011 for Mac; Publisher 2003 and 2007; and Internet Explorer. An updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) will be released at the same time.

The tech company acquired the software when it bought the smartphone maker Palm for $1.2bn (£767m) last year. HP used the code to power its short-lived range Touchpad tablet computers before it abandoned the product line. The firm said it would continue investing in the project to help third parties add enhancements.

“By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices,” said the firm’s president and chief executive, Meg Whitman.
Investment.

A statement from the company said it would make the underlying code behind WebOS available under an open source licence. It said third-party developers, partners and HP’s own engineers could then “deliver ongoing enhancements and new versions into the marketplace”. The firm added that it intended to be “an active participant and investor in the project”.

‘U-turn’
Analysts said the decision secured the platform’s future, at least in the short to medium term. “Given how successful HP was in selling off their tablet computers cheaply when they scrapped the platform we always suspected there would be some sort of u-turn,” said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davies Murphy Group Europe.

“However we still don’t think it will become a major platform to rival Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. It will appeal to many generic tablet makers out there – but its long term future will probably be to power HP printers, and other peripheral devices.”

Colin Gillis, senior tech analyst at BGC Partners, said HP had ultimately missed an opportunity to disrupt the market with a line of mobile computers powered by its own software.

“The real winner here is Microsoft,” he said.

“It no longer has to contend with what would have been another viable operating system as it prepares to launch its Windows 8 tablets.”

Source: BBC News

“While we’re travelling in Australia or something like we were last winter when the winter was very hard, then clearly being able to check occasionally that the house is OK, the heating system is functioning and checking what the temperature is inside the house is pretty good.”

The system lets you to control your heating and hot water from a touchscreen interface at home, online or from an app on your smartphone. First you set a few basic rules. Then the system will learn how long your home takes to heat up and cool down, when you are most likely to need hot water, and act accordingly.
Creative solutions. Passiv Systems founder Colin Calder says the platform has been designed with a simple interface, on top of a back end that can be adapted to manage all energy needs including air-conditioning, solar installations, and heat pumps.

He started the company in 2008 while building a zero carbon home. “I stood back and thought, this is completely unmanageable. “If we’ve got the Kyoto treaty driving us towards a zero carbon house, how can we possibly expect consumers to manage those homes efficiently if we’ve got all these different systems and they’re not integrated.

“If you can’t find the solution on the market, go and create it.” Company research found 47% of people have no idea how their heating works. Mr Calder decided making his system accessible from ordinary consumer devices could help. “Almost everyone has a mobile device. People like to be able to control things with that mobile device. “So if you’re going to be home late because you’re going to be out for a meal then you can control your energy consumption on the phone.”

Data is sent to company servers – the cloud – every 10 minutes, for analysis and to help with grid and supply balancing. The intelligence behind the system stays behind. ” To do proper control in the home then the intelligence needs to be in the home. “We firmly believe that the home can go offline, there are all sorts of security issues, it would be dangerous for people to be in the home when the temperature goes below a certain level.”

Critics point to the fact that data held on systems like this could potentially allow hackers to work out when your are most likely to be away from home, leaving it vulnerable to thieves. But Mr Calder says data is fully encrypted, and as inaccessible to prying eyes as possible. He also says the system can slice up to 23% off your energy bills. “It’s the sort of – why wouldn’t I want that? I’m better off, I’m more comfortable and I’ve got control.”

iThermostat?

He’s not alone in harnessing consumer devices, cloud computing and the internet to create smart energy products. Across the Atlantic iPod designer Tony Fadell found himself having a similar moment of clarity while designing a green home in Lake Tahoe. “I was upset. After a series of years of trying to get the right products I just literally threw my hands up and said I’ll design my own.

“I saw all kinds of other technologies and industries moving forward as energy conservation was becoming much more important. “This one device that controls 50% of your home’s energy wasn’t being innovated at all. It seemed like it was stuck in the 80s. “You can actually make them consumer friendly and very attractive so people actually want to get their hands on it.”

The Nest is a thermostat – “it’s really a smartphone mated with a thermostat” – with smart algorithms working around heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. After answering a few basic questions, it will learn how you heat or cool your home over the course of a week. It adapts to your households habits, guides you towards good energy management, and senses when you’re away from home.

You can access it online or through a smartphone app, and Mr Fadell says average savings are between 15-25%. “The devices that are out in the home today, almost none of them besides your computer are actually connected so they can’t get better over time. “When you install a thermostat, it’s supposed to be there between 10 and 15 years on your wall. Our goal is not to make you change that out more often, it’s to change the software inside of it so it gets smarter over time.” The Nest is encrypted to prevent hacking, and relies on the cloud only for updates and data analysis.

“It has to be incredibly simple out of the box,” says Mr Fadell. “You can’t have sensors being placed everywhere, you can’t have all these different components being hooked on to all these different devices.”

Number crunching

Cloud computing allows for big data crunching – and detailed analysis of home energy usage.
Opower works with utility companies to provide their customers with home energy reports, online energy management tools and email and text alerts to let customers know when they’re running up large bills. The company estimates it has saved 530m kw hours of electricity. Opower’s Ogi Kavazovic says giving consumers access to their data causes changes in behaviour.

“It’s only once they have a complete picture of what’s going on that the customers start acting on their inherent desire to be more efficient, looking for new products.” The company has recently announced a partnership with Facebook where users can compare their energy use against similar homes, and compete against their friends to see who is the most energy efficient.
Not sexy

Tadj Oreszczyn is professor of energy and environment and director of the Energy Institute at University College London (UCL). He says poor user interfaces have long been a problem. “I suppose a good way of presenting this is that control systems historically have been produced in such a way that they have been produced by engineers almost for engineers. “What we haven’t been doing is I think putting enough effort into making those interfaces work correctly in ways that are intuitive for people. Harnessing consumer technologies to improve on this could drive better energy behaviour, he says.

“Energy in buildings has historically not been sexy, I would argue they probably haven’t had the best brains applying their expertise to this problem, and the great thing about a lot of the new products now is that some very clever people are starting to think about this all very seriously.” And it’s not before time, says Prof Oreszczyn.

“We do have to radically improve the energy efficiency of domestic stock. “We can’t just rely on decarbonising the supply. We have to move to renewables and nuclear, and we have to radically improve the efficiency of the way we use electricity in buildings.” For Mr Woodham the motivation is more immediate.

“It’s really good to get back home late at night from a plane from Gatwick, and you’ve got perhaps not a full tank of water because it doesn’t think you need it and a warm house. But the heating hasn’t been running for hours.

Source:BBC News

But individuals are now also sharing physical possessions through the web, as part of a movement called collaborative consumption.

“It’s all driven by this desire to get more use out of the assets that we already have – to live more efficiently and more connected,” says Micki Krimmel, founder of goods sharing website