Skill Zone News issue 77
Technology drives all of our lives, and we take telephony, photography, video and GPS so much for granted that these days we expect to find them all in a common or garden mobile phone. But fast moving technology can create problems for slow moving governments and societies.
27th May 2014
Centimetre accuracy on Japanese GPS
Japan is embarking on a program to launch seven GPS satellites to greatly improve the accuracy of GPS within its borders. Once they are deployed, from 2018 onwards, when you get lost in Tokyo, you will know just how lost you are to an accuracy of around one centimetre.
A view from the sky
A french teenager, Nans Thomas, attached a GoPro high definition video camera to a quad-copter he'd bought off eBay and made a birds-eye view video of his home town, Nancy. The video is quite beautiful and of exceptional quality, but it has landed him in hot water with the French authorities.
Happy we are..., or not
Iran is not a country renowned for tolerance, but nevertheless, most people were surprised when they heard the six makers of a YouTube "Be Happy" video were arrested by Tehran police and forced to apologise on state television.
Yet another cat video
People often talk disparagingly of YouTube being full of cat videos, but let's face it, a lot of them are quite entertaining, and sometimes they are extraordinary.