The Trend In Gadgets

Almost every week, we have news about the latest technological gadgets being invented and made available in the market. We usually think of gadgets as something portable and handy and that which can make our work faster and easier. Remember the robot or perhaps, Gadget Boy?

Gadgets for all aspects of our daily life are everywhere and admit or not, they are very useful. The young professionals or yuppies as well as the techies (technology buffs) are normally the first people to take advantage of the latest gadgets in town. Lets see what they have been using so far, particularly the handheld devices.

Most patronized

The mobile or cell phone is, perhaps, consistent for being the most popoular and useful tool for people on the go. With this handheld gadget, people can be reached anywhere they are and you can call home too from any location. Cell phones can do so many things these days browse the Internet, play video and music, provide directions, take videos and photos and more. Its usefulness is definitely proven. In fact, there have been so many enhancements to this gadget from being just a plain mobile phone used for voice messages to being a camera and video phone with voice recorder to boot to being an FM radio and a mini-laptop. And now comes the worlds first mobile GSM watch phone created by an Australian firm SMS Developments Ltd. It looks like a sports watch but with full voice and SMS capabilities. Pets, too, have their own cell phones now. The PetsCell is a waterproof mobile phone that you can attach to your dogs collar. Your dog then is assigned his own number so if ever he gets lost, you can call him too.

The Palm Pilot, since its invention ten years ago, has also been among the most used gadgets. The Palm Pilot itself has undergone many changes to being todays Treo 650 and 700. The Palm company says it has sold more than 34 million devices including 3 million smartphones since 1996. Reports say the Palm products have indeed changed societys ability to communicate and access knowledge.

For the music buffs, first we had the Walkman that allowed us to listen to the radio and our favorite music in cassette tapes while on the move either walking, jogging or driving or even shopping. Then came the Discman, an improved version that used compact discs. The latest, as we all know, is the very thin and handy iPod. This small device has, in fact, several new models already available in the market. This time, the iPod stores MP3 music straight from computers.

Just last September 12, Apple introduced the 2G iPod nano and an updated 5G iPod. The second-generation iPod nano is said to have more storage capacity and comes in multiple colors.

Where is it going?

But whats this IDC (a leading company that offers technological media solutions) report confirming a decline in worldwide shipments of handheld devices in early 2006? Based on IDCs Worldwide Handheld Overview, the worldwide market for handheld devices began 2006 with its 9th consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline, down 22.3% from the same quarter a year ago. This, despite the incorporation of features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, expandable memory and GPS solutions. Manufacturers and vendors, however, continue to look for ways to keep their products saleable by appealing to first-time and core users. A research analyst with IDCs Mobile Markets team said many people are wondering if this trend will go on and for how long or will a reverse be possible. But one things for sure, he adds, the market will eventually hit a size where the rate of decline will slow to a sustainable level. That size has yet to be determined but will be sustained by the core users of handheld devices as well as the enhancements found on these gadgets.

A book entitled Our Own Devices confirms that users are actually great innovators as they find purposes for devices that their creators never imagined.

Author Edward Tenner said that as technologies advance, demand for new ones go up as well. He pointed out that its the interplay between technologies and technique, skills and uses that determine the life of a device in the real world.

So for sure, theres really no stopping these advancements in technology. As long as there are innovative minds existing in this world, more devices will be invented.

Tom Takihi is the owner of the Discover Gadgets portal. To gain more information, please visit http://www.discovergadgets.info.Index
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Bayesian Filter: Technology And Advantages

Not a long time ago, most anti-spam products simply used a list of keywords to identify spam. A good set of keywords could catch much spam. However, a keyword-based anti-spam filter requires manual updating and can be easily fooled by tweaking the message a little. Spammers simply examine the latest anti-spam techniques and find ways to bypass them. At the result youre left with a high number of false positives.

The need in a new effective technique to fight against spam stood up. The experience showed that this new method might adapt itself to the spammers' tactics that would change with time.

The Bayesian filtering is based on the principle that most events are dependent and that the probability of an event occurring in the future can be inferred from the occurrences of this event in the past. This approach is used to identify spam. If some piece of text occurred mostly in spam emails but not in legitimate mail, then it would be reasonable to suppose that this email is probably spam.

To filter mail using the Bayesian technology, you need to generate a database of words collected from spam and legitimate mail. Then a probability value is assigned to each word; the probability is based on the calculations that take into account how often that word occurs in spam as opposed to legitimate mail.

After the legitimate and spam databases are created during an initial training period, the word probabilities can be calculated and the Bayesian filter is ready for use. When a new mail arrives, it is broken into words and the most significant words are singled out. From these words, the Bayesian filter calculates the probability of a new message being spam or not. If the probability is greater than a spam threshold, say 0.9, the message is classified as spam.

Tip! G-Lock SpamCombat allows you assign the hot keys to the common operations. For example, you can assign F8 to Mark Message as SPAM function and F9 to Mark Message as Clean. Next time when you train the Bayesian filter you can simply use two keys on your keyboard F8 and F9.

It is important to note that the analysis of spam and legitimate mail is performed on the mail the particular user (organization, company, etc.) receives, and therefore the Bayesian filter is adjusted to this particular person, company, or organization. For example, a financial institution may receive a lot of emails with the "mortgage" word and would get a lot of false positives if using an outdated anti-spam filter. The Bayesian filter analyzes the entire message with the word "mortgage", and concludes whether this email is spam or legitimate basing NOT only on a single keyword "mortgage". The Bayesian approach to filter spam is highly effective - spam detection rates of over 99.7% can be achieved with a very low number of false positives!

Lets summarize what benefits we get using the Bayesian filter to catch spam:

1) Much more intelligent approach because it examines all aspects of a message, as opposed to keyword checking that classifies a mail as spam on the basis of a single word.

2) Self-adapting - constantly learning from new spam and new valid inbound mails, the Bayesian filter evolves and adapts to new spam techniques.

3) Sensitive to the user it learns the email habits of the company and understands that, for example, the emails with the "mortgage" word are not always spam.

4) Multi-lingual and international - being adaptive it can be used for any language. The Bayesian filter also takes into account certain languages deviations or the diverse usage of certain words in different areas, even if the same language is spoken.

5) Difficult to fool, as opposed to a keyword filter - an advanced spammer who wants to trick the Bayesian filter can either use fewer words that usually indicate spam, or more words that generally indicate valid mail (such as a valid contact name, etc). Doing the latter is impossible because the spammer would have to know the email profile of each recipient - and a spammer can never hope to gather this kind of information from every intended recipient.

Julia Gulevich is a technical expert associated with development of computer software like AATools, Email Verifier, G-Lock EasyMail, Anti-Spam Software http://www.glocksoft.com/sc/ More information can be found at Anti Spam Blocker Resources http://www.glocksoft.net/sc/Software
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