Kozminski Techblog

Yes, yes, NFT’s and buying them has become somewhat of a trend lately: practically everybody’s heard of them. But what does the abbreviation “NFT” exactly mean and why are people so hyped up about it?

Firstly, let’s make the terminology clear. NFT means non-fungible token. Or, in human words, a “one of the kind” token. It means that there is only one kind of every NFT and it can’t be traded for any other NFT. As an example, Bitcoin is a fungible token, because you can trade it for another Bitcoin and it will have the same value.

Theoretically, any digital piece of information can be NFT – articles, web pages, etc. But the most popular type of NFT is images, like the monkey above.

You might ask a pretty obvious question: why on Earth would I pay money for a picture (and, for reference, some of them are being sold for thousands of dollars) when I can just download it for free?? And that is a very good question. You see, a picture can, in fact, be copied as many times as you want, but there is one aspect that cannot be copied – the right of ownership. People pay huge money just to become the rightful owner of the image.

Now, do I think this is crazy? Completely. But many people consider buying NFT’s an analogy of art collection and, to some extent, it is understandable. Maybe someday I will understand the whole meaning of this (or will have enough money to buy pictures from the Internet).

Yes, you read it correctly, there is a round phone in existence. And I mean, completely round. Cyrcle phone moves away from traditional understanding of what a smartphone is: while keeping the functionality, it has an extraordinary design.

This project first appeared on Kickstart a couple years ago. The authors of the project explained that a phone of this shape ideally fits into your hand because it doesn’t have any sharp edges. Moreover, you won’t have to flip your phone while watching a video – there is no “long’ or “short” side of the phone

Of course, such an unusual shape is the root of a lot of issues. As for now, the interface of Android 10 is not fully compatible with a round display, part of the back camera is covered by a circular frame etc. However, this kind of stuff can be overlooked as for now because the smartphone is still in development, and on the official website only preorder is available. Current cost of the basic configuration is 800$, which is a reasonable amount, considering the very little funding authors receive of Kickstart.

Sources:

www.cyrclephone.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfxdYbIRgfY&t=365s&ab_channel=808 (RU)

According to Zero Waste Europe, one-third of all food produced today ends up in a rubbish bin, where it is at best fed to animals or recycled, and at worst is sent to landfill or incineration. Not only does this issue pose serious ethical and social questions, but it also deeply threatens the environment. The average citizen wastes almost 100 kg of food each year, and the financial waste of those products rounds up to 150 billion euro per year!

That’s a problem Too Good To Go deals with. By creating a system where leftovers from restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and bakeries are sold at a lower price, the goal is to generate revenue from food that would have
otherwise been wasted.

After downloading the Too Good To Go app, users have access to a range of meals available nearby. They can either view what’s closer to them, or search for meals with different options, such as collection time, location or type of food, such as American, Italian, or even vegan. Once they select their option, users get a receipt that needs to be presented in the shop in order to receive the food bag. Usually, the food in the bag costs up to 3 times less than it would’ve if served in the restaurant.

As a result, after 3,5 years since launch, Too Good To Go has saved 29 million meals from the bin, resulting in 66,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas
emissions avoided.

Sources: https://zerowasteeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/zero_waste_europe_CS7_CP_TooGoodToGo_en.pdf

Quite often people encounter a situation when they see a certain product in real life, and would like to buy it, but are usually unable to determine its name and so miss it. Next situation: you have a book and your task is to retype a certain paragraph on your phone. Might take ages, right? Well, Google Lens might solve all these issues.

Basically, Google Lens is an application that allows you to use your smartphone’s camera in order to receive any useful information about the object that’s being pointed at. Such objects include text, a picture, or even a physical location!

One of the newest features of Google Lens is called “Shopping”. It allows you to point your camera on an object that you’d like to buy (a dress, for example), and Lens will find places where you can buy it.

Although, Lens is not only about benefits. One major drawback is it being an app. According to gearbrain.com, “If you have the extra phone space, I do think Lens is an interesting and useful tool to search things visually, rather than always trying to find the right words.” This “If” shows that many people won’t try Google Lens out simply because it takes some memory on your phone. In my opinion, making it a browser extension or an add-on to your camera app would be beneficial to it’s popularity.

Sources:

You have probably already heard about the Internet of things, mostly because it is not a new technological concept. However, it only started to develop recently. So what exactly does it bring to our lives?

However, IoT isn’t just about mobile devices. According to “IoT Agenda” webpage, this system is currently used in many businesses in order to reduce costs connected with service delivery and manufacturing of products. It also helps businesses to get a look inside such things as performance of their computers.

Still, first thing that comes to one’s mind when hearing “Internet of things” is a smart home – one of the most (if not the most) popular example of IoT. A smart home is basically a technology which allows you to remotely control tasks that are usually controlled manually (such as switch the lights on or off). It is also an extremely prosperous technology: enginess.io even back in 2015 supposed that “Smart home technology is projected to be a billion dollar business by 2020, and it represents the most advanced sector of the Internet of Things”. Although, I would not be so sure about “the most advanced” part, considering a vast number of issues with security of your devices, as well as privacy. You see, if a wide range of devices are connected in a single network, it is more than enough for a hacker to exploit just one device – and the whole system becomes vulnerable. Using same technique hackers are also able to collect your private info from all devices just by connecting to one.

In conclusion, IoT, same as any other technology, shows a great potential in improving people’s lives, while still having room for improvements .

Sources:

• https://www.internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT
• https://www.enginess.io/insights/what-is-smart-home-technology