The Internet is becoming [...]]]> Study says humans now use the internet as our main ‘memory’ – instead of our heads

• People remember where to look up information – not the info itself
• People actively forget information if they think they can look it up later
• Tests on how people remembered items they would normally Google

The Internet is becoming our main source of memory instead of our own brains, a study has concluded.

In the age of Google, our minds are adapting so that we are experts at knowing where to find information even though we don’t recall what it is.

The researchers found that when we want to know something we use the Internet as an ‘external memory’ just as computers use an external hard drive.

Nowadays we are so reliant on our smart phones and laptops that we go into ‘withdrawal when we can’t find out something immediately’.

And such is our dependence that having our Internet connection severed is growing ‘more and more like losing a friend’.

Researchers from Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Columbia University in the U.S. carried out four tests to check their theory.

They involved giving test participants a trivia quiz and then seeing whether they recognised computer-related words more quickly than other words.

The other tests involved seeing if people remembered 40 pieces information they would typically later have normally looked up.

The third and fourth parts of the study involved checking how well people remember where to look up information on-line and whether or not they remembered the location more than the actual data.

The results showed that when people don’t believe they will need information for a later test, they do not recall it at the same rate as when they do believe they will need it.

In fact, some of those in the study ‘actively did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statements they had read’, the paper says.
‘People actively do not make the effort to remember when they think they can look up information later,’ says the study

The other results showed that when continuous Internet access is expected, people are better at remembering where they can find it than the details.

The study was lead by Betsy Sparrow, an assistant professor at the department of psychology at Columbia University.

In their paper, the researchers say that we now have access to the Internet 24 hours a day meaning we are ‘seldom offline unless by choice’ and it is ‘hard to remember how we found information before the Internet became a ubiquitous presence in our lives’.

The paper reads: ‘The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger.

‘No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can ‘Google’ the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue.

‘When faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it.

‘The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.’

The study is not the first to touch on such anxieties and similar fears were addressed in ‘The Shallows: How the Internet is rewiring our brains’, a book released last year.

Its author, American technologist Nicholas Carr, talks of how we are unable to concentrate for long periods because of how using the web has affected us.

In research he commissioned for the book, test subjects said they were unable to read copies of Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ because their minds had been altered.

Others were disturbed at how they could only think in ‘staccato’ bursts because they had become little more than ‘decoders of information’.

參考資料:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2091127/Google-boggling-brains-Study-says-humans-use-internet-main-memory.html

既然安裝 app 都未必可以有效解決 google calendar 同步問題, 那怎樣才可以解決問題呢? 辦法是有的, 通常 android 都內置支援 Microsoft exchange 連接. 而 gmail 有提供 Microsoft exchange 支援的. 只要在 NOVO7 騎士版內額外以 Microsoft exchange 設定 gmail 便可. 至於詳細設定步驟就可以參考另一篇文章. 以下是簡單的設定步驟:

緊接快樂既聖誕節日, 係 boxing day 既日子. 延續早前既震撼, 今日 WhatsApp 繼續免費. 可能有朋友會用 Line 同 WhatsApp 去比較. 目前為止, 小棗認為 WhatsApp 比 Line 優勝, 至少在 android 平台要求的權限管理較好. 軟件支援所有智能手機平台外連 Nokia 都有份, 唔使為了同朋友繼續保持聯絡換手機. 不過, 有朋友回報非智能手機平台有部分中文字有顯示問題. 不過, 最重要是大部分人都使用 WhatsApp 而非 Line.

如果之前因為收費問題而未下載既朋友快快下載.

更多 iPhone 免費限定 app: iPhone 免費限定 – Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 iPhone 免費限定 [...]]]>

緊接快樂既聖誕節日, 係 boxing day 既日子. 延續早前既震撼, 今日 WhatsApp 繼續免費. 可能有朋友會用 Line 同 WhatsApp 去比較. 目前為止, 小棗認為 WhatsApp 比 Line 優勝, 至少在 android 平台要求的權限管理較好. 軟件支援所有智能手機平台外連 Nokia 都有份, 唔使為了同朋友繼續保持聯絡換手機. 不過, 有朋友回報非智能手機平台有部分中文字有顯示問題. 不過, 最重要是大部分人都使用 WhatsApp 而非 Line.

如果之前因為收費問題而未下載既朋友快快下載.

更多 iPhone 免費限定 app:
iPhone 免費限定 – Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
iPhone 免費限定 – Veggie Samurai
iPhone 免費限定 – Flight Control

這幾款外套上仲可以加入圖檔, 不過小棗試用過後真的有 ugly sweater 既感覺. 小棗一向沒有設計觸覺, 還是先對今季潮流衣著鑽研後才分享一下.

Flight Control 就是屬於這種遊戲. 玩法十分簡單, 只需將不同顏色既飛機進入正確頻顏色既跑道便可. 講就當然簡單, 當中飛機會從不同角度進入畫面, 而且不同種類既飛機會有不同既速度, 要應付各類飛機又唔相撞真係唔易.

這個遊戲都有 iPad 版, 名為 Flight Control HD, 今次亦以限時免費型式推出. 小棗對這個做法十分讚賞. 有興趣就快快到 App Store 下載.

更多 iPhone 免費限定 app: iPhone 免費限定 – Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 iPhone 免費限定 – Veggie Samurai iPhone 免費限定 – [...]]]> 手機遊戲離不開新穎既體感遊戲或者傳統的遊戲, 如射擊, 賽車及智力等. 當中小棗最喜歡玩小遊戲, 原因十分簡單: 簡易操控, 無需動腦筋, 多種遊戲類型, 可隨時執行或停止遊戲.

Flight Control 就是屬於這種遊戲. 玩法十分簡單, 只需將不同顏色既飛機進入正確頻顏色既跑道便可. 講就當然簡單, 當中飛機會從不同角度進入畫面, 而且不同種類既飛機會有不同既速度, 要應付各類飛機又唔相撞真係唔易.

這個遊戲都有 iPad 版, 名為 Flight Control HD, 今次亦以限時免費型式推出. 小棗對這個做法十分讚賞. 有興趣就快快到 App Store 下載.

更多 iPhone 免費限定 app:
iPhone 免費限定 – Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
iPhone 免費限定 – Veggie Samurai
iPhone 免費限定 – Whatsapp

之前最受注目既特價 app 係 Autodesk SketchBook, 由 HKD$15 減至 HKD$1. 但由於限時只有 2~3 日所以小棗亦錯過了買平 app 既機會. 最近這輪減價 app 都以娛樂性質為主, 例如遊戲或多媒體 app. 今期重點是 EA Need for Speed Shift.

在運作速度上與前版差不多. 另外, 附加插件通常在每次升級時都有不支援既情況已減少了很多. 這個是開發團隊努力既成果. 不過, 小棗仍認為版本增長太過快速並非一件好事.

The latest version of Firefox has the following changes:

小棗上網搜尋過資料, 好多硬碟生產商都有在泰國設廠, 當中以 Western Digital (又名西數或威騰) 受影響最大. 令小棗摸不着頭腦的是, 泰國一向以生產多種產品, 硬碟只是其中一種. 電子零件雖然對濕氣及液體十分敏感, 其實食品更甚. 為什麼作為糧食既稻米可以唔受影響反而是硬碟呢? 硬碟需要零部件及時間生產, 難度稻米需要種植既時間比硬碟短嗎? 如果再有另一次災難發生不就令糧食生產更受影響嗎?

現在企業多講求 business contingency 及成本控制, 產能上雖然受影響但並非全面停產. 以 Western Digital 為例, 除了泰國廠房外仲有中國及馬來西亞都設有生產線, 產品未至於全面停產, 最多只是某種型號供應短缺. 小棗作為消費者除了非買不可情況外, 現階段只宜觀望等售價回順才購買.

作為對電腦有少許認識既人, 就算硬碟空間用盡都會有辦法解決.壓縮空間是其中一種方法, 代價便是在存取時消耗 CPU 資源. [...]]]> 幾日前泰國發生 50 年一遇既水災, 小棗聽聞災禍都有難過既感覺, 亦希望他們能盡快拯救受災人士及災後重建. 在距離泰國有 1 萬 6 千幾公里外既香港, 自盲搶鹽事件後又發生另一次 “災難”. 泰國除農業盛產稻米外, 還有外資設立既工廠, 例如電腦用硬碟. 今次香港就流傳因泰國水災令硬碟生產受阻, 硬碟價格被提高多於 100 元之外部分店舖更不設零售之用. 再一次証明香港人過於敏感及沒有求證精神.

小棗上網搜尋過資料, 好多硬碟生產商都有在泰國設廠, 當中以 Western Digital (又名西數或威騰) 受影響最大. 令小棗摸不着頭腦的是, 泰國一向以生產多種產品, 硬碟只是其中一種. 電子零件雖然對濕氣及液體十分敏感, 其實食品更甚. 為什麼作為糧食既稻米可以唔受影響反而是硬碟呢? 硬碟需要零部件及時間生產, 難度稻米需要種植既時間比硬碟短嗎? 如果再有另一次災難發生不就令糧食生產更受影響嗎?

現在企業多講求 business contingency 及成本控制, 產能上雖然受影響但並非全面停產. 以 Western Digital 為例, 除了泰國廠房外仲有中國及馬來西亞都設有生產線, 產品未至於全面停產, 最多只是某種型號供應短缺. 小棗作為消費者除了非買不可情況外, 現階段只宜觀望等售價回順才購買.

作為對電腦有少許認識既人, 就算硬碟空間用盡都會有辦法解決.壓縮空間是其中一種方法, 代價便是在存取時消耗 CPU 資源. 另一種是積極將無用既檔案清除節省空間. 當然還有其他方法, 有待大家發掘吧!