Summary: Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time writes, “Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?” If that question made you stop and go, “Hmm,” then you might find the Citizens of Tech podcast interesting. So pull up an earbud, and have a listen. I’m Ethan Banks, and joining me is Eric Sutphen. You can find us on Twitter @citizensoftech. This show is a part of the Packet Pushers podcast network. Citizens of Tech and other fine technology podcasts can be found at PacketPushers.net. Our show is in three segments. We examine tech stories of the present, glance over our shoulder at the past, then peer towards the horizon at future tech we hope someday will become reality. On today’s show recorded July 8th, 2015, we cover news from Amazon, review a cheap IP surveillance camera, dive deep on retina displays and how your eyeballs work, and do not discover extraterrestrial life. Also, robots duel, and glaciers cause earthquakes. Among other things! So let’s dive in with our first story… Present Amazon throws in $100 million, developer tools to open Echo’s Alexa ecosystemhttp://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-throws-100-million-developer-tools-to-open-echos-alexa-ecosystem/ The software developer kit (SDK) is called the Alexa Skills Kit, which is a series of application programming interfaces that allow developers to create voice features for Alexa.Amazon said that it will open Alexa’s voice services up to third party hardware makers and they will allow hardware vendors to use the Alexa Voice Service for free.Echo is now available to the public, not just Prime subscribersCheap IP Surveillance Camera Review – Microseven http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M5PHAYWWide angle field of viewONVIF (onvif.org) – works with my Synology. “Driving IP-based physical security through standardization.”“ONVIF is an open industry forum for the development of a global standard for the interface of IP-based physical security products. ONVIF is committed to the adoption of IP in the security market. The ONVIF specification will ensure interoperability between products regardless of manufacturer.”“The cornerstones of ONVIF are: Standardization of communication between IP-based physical securityInteroperability between IP-based physical security products regardless of manufacturerOpen to all companies and organizations”“The ONVIF specification defines a common protocol for the exchange of information between network video devices including automatic device discovery, video streaming and intelligence metadata.”PoEIP66 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_CodeIngress Protection MarkingFirst number – solid particle protectionSecond number – liquid ingress protectionThe first “6” = dust tight. There is no higher number.The second “6” = powerful water
