English Conversation Course

Not so far ago, modern cars used to have one display in the middle of the dashboard, which was the home for navigation, board computer, air conditioning and many other different things. With every generation of cars it was becoming bigger and bigger. This is how it looked like in 2004 BMW. As you can see in the picture above, beside the display there were a lot of physical buttons which were covering functionalities we use the most. Changing temperature, radio station, seat heating, volume was possible without looking on the interface. Thanks to this we were always able to observe the road and use our touch sensors(fingers ;-) ) to find proper button and press it. After some time displays became touchscreens, buttons were disappearing. Car manufacturers started installing trackpads and removing knobs. Not only menus became more complex but also the only way to navigate through them were touchscreens. This means that in order to change some settings we have to stop the car, be...

Everyone of us heard about Tesla's autopilot function, which is the most known second level automation system. But has anyone of you ever wondered about the legal aspect of letting in autonomous cars on public roads? Questions: 1. Would you like to buy a car that protects you or the one that chooses the safest action, even if that means hurting you? 2. Who should be responsible for an accident caused by autonomous car? Manufacturer, owner or the person that was sitting behind the wheel during the crash? Maybe someone else? 3. Would you sacrifice your family safety for greater good, which is less traffic-related deaths?

Hi everybody, Please look at the article I would like to share with you. The story of this man, famous as well-known Polish “computer games creator”, is very interesting, as concerning “IT people”. https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/5zci00/cd_projekt_cofounder_i_never_played_the_witcher_3/ I recommend to read more about him, unfortunately the most interesting articles are available only in Polish (f.e. in last Forbes). For me his story inspiring enough to think over some issues: 1. In terms of psycho-aspects: where are we approach as “technology addicted” and “money concentrated” society? I mean, in what directions our brains have been modified lately? 2. What is worth to spend our life time on? I mean, how to divide it, what proportions to achieve? 3. From professional point of view: is there a bright future in front of “game business”? I mean, regarding to point 1, will this kind of entertainment survive as influencing humans too much? 4. What a...

Wireless charging for mobile phones Chargins a smartphone is associated with cables, but it is not the only option. The induction phenomenon allows the energy to be supplied to the battery wirelessly. How to  charge the phone like that? You will find it out in this presentation. The Wireless Power Consortium is the universal, actually the only one worth noting the wireless charging standard. It is the entity developing and promoting the Qi standard which is already commonly known. Yet, few years ago we heard about the efforts of A4WP (Qualcomm  and Samsung), where the method of magnetic resonance charging was used. PMA, however,  dealt with electromagnetic induction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuK4w9h-q5w How does wireless charging work? Qi standard The essence of this method lies wireless charger that has to be plugged in the power source and put on a desk, for example. It is equipped with a coil, which is responsible for gener...

Why are weapons of mass destruction worse than convetional weapons? The consequence of civilization development will be the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Atomic weapons, biological and chemical weapons are future threats to the "global village" after 2050 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX6zxjxlA_4   Source: http://oilcanstickers.com/product-category/car-related-stickers/ratlook-stickers-2/page/4/ The construction of nuclear weapons was a technological feat World War II. Today it is a  matter of solid physics, mathematical modeling and investing the proper amount of money. You can buy anything fot it, even if you are Iran - cut off from the world by sanctions or North  Korea, in which the bark from the trees plays the role of our sorrel. The principle is trivial - you have money, time and physicists - you have nuclear weapons. Of course, from the academic  development and carrying out a controlled explosion ...

Surveillance is almost everywhere around us. But does it really makes the world a safer place? 1. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." Do you agree? 2. How do you think the future of surveillance will look? 3. Should we have more or less surveillance in our lives?

3D printing will probably become the main method of how many products will be produced in the near future. There’s plenty of 3D printing companies competing for customers; from small-scale ones to huge corporations. The initial focus was on the private consumer market but when that didn’t catch on, the focus was diverted towards businesses. And it caught on. Just to enlighten some of you who’ve never been interested in this technology, I’ll briefly explain few of the methods of 3D printing. Starting with the most basic one - FDM, which stands for Fused Deposition Modelling. The idea is very simple. Usually, some kind of plastic gets heated up to its melting point and then, pushed through a small nozzle, layer by layer it’s laid into the desired shape. This method is the cheapest and simplest of all known. While you can achieve pretty good quality with it, it doesn’t allow for high scale production runs. But you can make some (usually useless, but not always!) things, li...