Monday, March 31, 2008

No boys allowed

Yahoo launched its "Shine" website for women. It will combine content from bloggers of women's magazines, Yahoo Food, and readers themselves. Read the story here.

We wanted to create a smart, dynamic place for women to gather, get info and connect with each other and the world around them. The important thing wasn't how to talk to a 32.5-year-old with 2.2 kids but how to inspire you [to] laugh, think, get mad, empathize, and be surprised and entertained.

Watch out, men! This will be a fine forum for bored housewives to discuss who has the better looking gardener or mailman.

Your shirt may tattle on you to your doctor

European project BIOTEX has developed clothes that constantly monitor your vital signs. If danger signs are detected, the garment is programmed to contact your doctor - and send a text message telling you to take it easy.

In the first BIOTEX trials, the smart patches will be worn in clothes by people with obesity and diabetes, as well as athletes.

The major question is whether these clothes will be fashionable enough for Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus.

Help for students with ADD: Wireless microphones

Elementary school children are now wearing infrared microphones around their necks. These microphones are designed to raise the volume and clarity of teachers' and students' voices above the distracting buzz of competing noises -- the hum of fluorescent lights, the rattle of air conditioning, the whispers of children and the reverberations of those sounds bouncing off concrete walls and uncarpeted floors. The story is reported by the Washington Post.

"They love it," said Martha Walsh, a second-grade teacher at Maury. "It is kind of like they are movie or rock stars." One of her students, 8-year-old Thora Gibbs, reacted to that idea as insufficiently serious. "It's not like being a rock star," she said. "But it does help project my voice."

Boy these kids have it easy. Back in my days, I had to walk three miles barefoot in snow going uphill both ways!

Local farmer finds mystery space junk

This story reports: A cattle farmer in Australia's remote northern outback said he found a giant ball of twisted metal, which be believes is space junk from a rocket used to launch communications satellites. The farmer says:

I know a lot about sheep and cattle but I don't know much about satellites.
But I would say it is a fuel cell off some stage of a rocket.

Friday, March 28, 2008

All the princes are disappearing

New research from zoologists show that a deadly fungus is killing off frogs. If you want to read the story, be careful because the frog pictured in it is quite scary.

43 percent of known amphibian species in the world are at risk because of a fungus.

"You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your handsome prince" but what if there are no more frogs left?

Was the US planning to sue the Germans if they built the atomic bomb first?

First off, the headline is from a quote in the article. We're not that clever. But NPR reports that the United States patented the atomic bomb in an attempt to get a patent monopoly on an entire brand new industry. Alex Wellerstein, who researched the code name "Manhattan Project," said:

What I really like about the atomic patents is that there is a wonderful banality to it. . . . The bomb, a massive killing machine, is transformed into 'the most boring of engineering feats' . . .


Ok, we're insulted. Everybody knows there is no such thing as a "boring engineering feat," no matter what this article says (it says that science lessons for teenagers are so boring they put kids off the subject for life). Well, duh, that's why you get them to read our blog!

Has McAfee bought an advertising spot for the Hacker Super Bowl?

The CanSecWest security conference opened today as show attendees compete at hacking into three laptops put on display. The ultimate prize money is $20,000, but it drops in half each day. The article is reported here.

With three laptops to chose from, this year, the 2008 contest is a bit of a horse race.


We'd like to place an exacta bet on Charlie Miller, famed hacker of the iPhone, and Dai Zovi, last year's winner.

But how will the bag lady survive?

San Francisco banned single-use plastic bags in grocery stores this week. Instead, the stores will use large, thick, reusable plastic bags. According to the story, the following U.S. cities are considering fees or bans of plastic bags: Austin, Texas; Bakersfield, Calif.; Boston; New Haven, Conn.; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix; and Annapolis, Md.

The catch? The new bags


. . . contain more plastic than the flimsy, single-use bags [and] . . . [o]f couse, those thicker, heavier plastic bags are still plastic.

Hmmm, did the plastic industry lobby for this?

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Spiderman's secrets revealed

MIT researchers have unraveled the secret in the strength of a spider's silk. It's complicated and detailed in here. Basically, it has to do with the specific geometric configuration of structural proteins.

If this real life superboy was somehow able to get his hands on the secret, we might have a real superhero!

Daddy, are we there yet?

Parents beware: in only two years, your kids may be asking to go on an amusement park ride . . . in Space!

A small California aerospace company today unveiled a new suborbital spaceship that will provide affordable front-seat rides to the edge of space for the millions of people who want to buy a ticket.

Read the press release here.

That definitely takes family vacations to new heights.

You may have a "sixth sense" . . . for calories

In experiments with mice, researchers found that the brain can sense the calories in food, independent of the taste mechanism. More here.

After researchers genetically altered mice to make them "sweet-blind," lacking taste receptors,

the sweet-blind mice showed a preference for calorie-containing sugar water that did not depend on their ability to taste, but on the calorie content.


(whisper) I see dead people. And calories.

Diamonds are a scientists' best friend

Researchers at the University of Melbourne in Australia have made the world's smallest diamond ring - 5 micrometers across and 300 nanometers thick - in order to build powerful computers that use properties of quantum physics. More on the story here.

The scientist explained:

The diamond offers a fantastic platform in order to make qubits because diamonds offer us a gift from nature . . .


5 micrometers? Don't expect a lot of excitement about this from women. Maybe the cut and clarity will make up for it.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Helen Keller would have been jealous.

K-NFB Reading Technology introduced a cellphone software for the blind and disabled. Learn about it here:

The software reads text out loud to the blind. Those with disabilities can use the software to enlarge, track, and highlight content in documents directly on their mobile phone. Documents stored in a phone can also be transferred to and from Braille desktop programs.


Those players out there might want to turn down the volume on their racy text messages! Take note, Mayor Kilpatrick.

PDAs are so 2003.

Palm plans to close its retail stores, because it has struggled over the past couple of years as the smartphone (i.e. Blackberry) market grows. According to PC World, Palm is trying to phase out its PDA (personal digital assistant) business.

Palm may be through with PDAs but Paris Hilton clearly seems fine with PDA (public displays of affection). This article reports:

When Paris saw Benji, she only had eyes for him. She walked over and gave him a huge kiss. It was over the top and lots of tongue was involved!


Don't worry, this blog will not degenerate into talking about Paris Hilton too much. Here is one last story about her only because it has to do with an impressive hacker who breached Facebook to find unflattering photos of partying Paris.

No Grand Theft yet

As reported here, "Grand Theft Auto" publisher Take-Two Interactive told its shareholders today to reject a $2 billion hostile takeover bid from rival video company Electronic Arts. The company said it will explore alternatives

[b]ut it wants to wait until after April 29, when "Grand Theft Auto IV," the latest in the blockbuster series, hits store shelves.

Maybe merger of the companies can bring a merger of the games. We're imagining something involving Peyton Manning trying to steal Tony Romo's car . . .

Techies will take over someday

From this Forbes article on the world's billionaires, we compiled a spreadsheet on the differences between how young billionaires are making their money and how the "establishment" made their money. The first list is ranked in the order of richest to poorest. The second list is ranked in the order of youngest to oldest. Techies are highlighted in red.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame: You give so much hope to young single male techies of America. By the way, have you ever thought of becoming the ultimate power couple with Hind Hariri? But Mark would need to be careful not to get beat up by her fellow billionaire brothers, Fahd and Aymin.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Houston, do we have a problem or not?

After receiving a budget cut of $4 million, NASA initially planned to shut down one of the two Mars Rovers, namely Spirit. Shortly after CNN.com published the story, NASA's spokesman Bob Jacobs said:

. . . shutting down of one of the rovers is not an option.


NASA should generate money by selling rover control time to Xbox users for $20/hr.

Please monopolize the industry

Microsoft is opening up its Windows Live platform to allow users to share their contact lists with five social-networking sites (Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, LinkedIn and Tagged). This article reports the story.

What if the Department of Justice relaxed the anti-trust laws solely for mergers of these five sites? Throw in MySpace too, please. We just don't have that many cute usernames and flattering pictures to open so many accounts.

See, here's another social networking site that just opened today.

You need to put an "i" in front of it

The developers of Mozilla Firefox will soon be pushing out a beta of their latest build. Neil McAllister of PC World questions whether Apple's Safari is better or worse than Firefox. He says that Apple is annoying and coercive with Safari and
[t]he shame of it is that Safari is actually a fine browser.

We really like Safari, and think it would do a lot better if only Apple changed the name to iSafari.

Can we upgrade back to Microsoft XP?

Microsoft is giving away free support for users installing Service Pack 1 with Vista, because the transition has been problematic for many users. Suzanne Tindal reports:

The transition to the service pack has not been problem-free for many users, some of whom have seen their computers fall into endless reboot cycles and struggled with broken applications after installing the upgrade.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought service packs were supposed to fix problems. Can we please just all go back to XP?

Monday, March 24, 2008

White noise aids sleep; white space aids internet browsing.

Google has pitched its plan to start using TV "white space" (unlicensed and unused airwaves located between channels 2-51 on TV sets that aren't hooked up to satellite or cable services) to provide ubiquitous wireless Internet access.

Richard Whitt, Google's Washington telecom and media lawyer reports in this article:

As Google has pointed out previously, the vast majority of viable spectrum in this country simply goes unused, or else is grossly underutilized. . . . Unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allowing this spectrum to lie fallow.

Do you think the Native Americans ever considered white space a "natural resource?"

P.S. In case you're wondering what white noise is, check its trusty Wikipedia site.

Can Guitar Hero rock on?

Gibson Guitar has sued the makers and distributors of the "wildly popular" Guitar Hero for patent infringement. More details here.

Gibson said the games, in which players use a guitar-shaped controller in time with notes on a television screen, violate a 1999 patent for technology to simulate a musical performance.

Will musicians/gamers have to resort back to DDR? Will "musicians" have to start using a guitar with actual strings? Will guitarists be forced to read sheet music? So many questions remain...

Even those greedy for greenbacks are going green

The Bank of America Tower, a 55-story glass-and-steel tower, opening in midtown Manhattan later this month will be the most sustainable skyscraper in the country. And we mean "sustainable" in terms of the environment.

Architect Rick Cook gave NEWSWEEK an interview. Unfortunately, the rest of NYC doesn't sound so clean. When asked whether the windows in the building can be opened, he says:

. . . the cleanest way to bring in fresh air is to deliver filtered
air.

Skip the airport security lines in the blink of an eye

Fast lanes are not just for those buying 20 or less items of groceries anymore. Reagan National and Dulles airports opened fast-pass security lanes this Wednesday for travelers who carry a "Clear card." Check the story out right here.

Here's how it works: Fliers undergo a Transportation Security Administration background check and have personal data, plus iris and fingerprint scans, put on a card. Although the fliers still have to remove their shoes and get carry-ons X-rayed, at certain airports the cards let them skip the lines that everyone else endures.

Will they start selling these on eBay or Craigslist soon?

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Sure, they can't play ball but someday they'll be your boss.

During March Madness, we wonder: how much do brains matter in the game of basketball? This article on the nation's losingest team (losing 273 straight league games), answers our question.

Yang Hai, a 6-ft., 140-lb. player on Caltech's basektball team says:
I'm not that good. The team's not that good. What am I doing
here?

We decided that maybe smart kids should stick to picking out a good bracket.

By the way, shame on you for spending valuable working hours watching b-ball games. You've helped America lose $1.7B in productivity. Read about it here.

Lights out for engineer?

An engineer's goof-up caused a massive power outage in Florida earlier this month. CNN reports:

The employee has been suspended with pay as the investigation continues.

If Homer Simpson can still keep his job, anyone can.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Beauty and the Geek

Where does a billionaire get hitched? Google's Larry Page chose Necker Island to marry his fellow Stanford doctoral grad, Lucy Southworth. If you're wondering whether she was a bridezilla, the following article may answer your question:

The wedding this Saturday of Google co-founder Larry Page on a tiny Caribbean island is a logistical nightmare for planners who are flying in 600 guests on private planes and trying to find deluxe hotel rooms for all the bigwigs.


Nonetheless, I'll put my money on their marriage lasting longer than Britney's next two marriages.

Best Buy sued for $54,000,000 over lost laptop

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, if one was worth a thousand dollars, that would mean that Raeyln Campbell had 54,000 pictures on the laptop she gave to Best Buy for service. A few quotes from Engadget:


We've definitely heard some horror stories about, but it looks like a DC woman named Raelyn Campbell has had enough: she's opening up a big can of America Sauce on the retailer in the form of a $54m lawsuit after it lost her laptop during warranty service.


Campbell says she's not dropping the case until she finds out what happened to her machine -- and she wants ol' Blue to train its employees on privacy issues and revamp its warranty policy. Honestly? We'd say she has a better chance of getting the $54 million.

Raeyln Campbell is also blogging the story.