profBill writes "As a fifty-something professor who teaches introductory computer science, I am very aware that the twenty-somethings in my class are much more at ease with computers than any other generation. However, does that mean they are more adept at using those computers? Apparently not, according to the researchers at University College London. Their research indicates that while more adept at conducting searches, younger users also show 'impatience in search and navigation, and zero tolerance for any delay in satisfying their information needs'. Moreover, these traits 'are now becoming the norm for all age-groups, from younger pupils and undergraduates through to professors'. The panel makes two conclusions: That libraries (and I wonder what a library will become in the future, anyway) will have to adapt, and that the information processing skills of todays young people are lacking. Why are those skills lacking and, if they are, what can be done about it?"
Grimur sez, "This is a video of a robot performing a Nativity play. This was the contribution of the robotics department of deCODE genetics to the annual company-wide Christmas decoration competition. The lyrics are in Icelandic, by the comedy group Baggalútur."
Link
(Thanks, Grimur!)
Love these hand-crocheted NYC taxi baby booties! They'd be a great centerpiece for a whole line of transit booties -- subway cars, trams, zeppelins, ornithopters.
Link
(via Craft)
Pojut points us to a Washington Post story which details the White House's admission that it routinely recycled backup tapes from 2001 to 2003, possibly destroying e-mail records from that time period. While the tapes are being analyzed to determine if any of the data can be recovered, the White House also indicated that some e-mail through 2005 may not have been preserved. We discussed the beginnings of this investigation a few months ago. From the Post: "During the period in question, the Bush presidency faced some of its biggest controversies, including the Iraq war, the leak of former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson's name and the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said he has no reason to believe any e-mails were deliberately destroyed."
Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels: the ingenious spoon-management system at a cafe in Kensington Market, Toronto, a neighborhood that I like so much I set a novel there.
Link
Big Big Battles: Crawly Combat is a forthcoming tabletop miniatures combat game where you cut out, assemble and color the tokens.
Any thing that creeps and squeaks is fair in a game of Crawly Combat. The premier set of the miniatures system Big Big Battles, Crawly Combat is an all ages miniatures game with rules so easy a child could comprehend and yet enough play value to keep even adults coming back for more.
The Japanese team on the International Space Station will launch a paper airplane (co-designed with the Japan Origami Airplane Association) into the Earth's atmosphere -- the plane's been treated with heat-resisting stuff and is expected to survive reentry:
The researchers are scheduled to begin testing the strength and heat resistance of an 8 centimeter (3.1 in) long prototype on January 17 in an ultra-high-speed wind tunnel at the University of Tokyo’s Okashiwa campus (Chiba prefecture). In the tests, the origami glider — which is shaped like the Space Shuttle and has been treated to withstand intense heat — will be subjected to wind speeds of Mach 7, or about 8,600 kilometers (5,300 miles) per hour.
A large spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle can reach speeds of up to Mach 20 (over 15,200 mph) when it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, and friction with the air heats the outer surface to extreme temperatures. The much lighter origami aircraft, which the researchers claim will come down more slowly, is not expected to burn up on re-entry.
Got a spare Denso 6DOF industrial robot arm? Why not program it to play the integral role in a large round clock, hypnotically sweeping back and forth in regular, smooth arcs, plucking bricks and moving them, resetting them and keeping time? Seriously, this is endlessly fascinating.
Link
(Thanks, Dean!)
The Gaiastore's polyester tentacle arm slips neatly over your boring old human arm, giving you hentaicred to burn. Or squish. At fifteen bucks each, I think you could get four of 'em and go quadtentacular.
Link
(via Wonderland)
Teancum writes "By now, most people are aware of the U.S. Army's video game, America's Army. It turns out that NASA has submitted a Request for Information for what would be a NASA-themed MMORPG of its own. The deadline for the proposals is February 15th. NASA's plans focus on education. 'A NASA-based MMO built on a game engine that includes powerful physics capabilities could support accurate in-game experimentation and research. It should simulate real NASA engineering and science missions in a medium that is comfortable and familiar to the majority of students in the United States today.' This certainly doesn't deserve to get thrown onto the traditional dust heap of educational proposals for a half-baked game that nobody will actually play."
Quack science has hit a new high in FPSBrain, a German caffeine-laced vitamin beverage pill intended to improve your performance at playing first-person shooter games:
1 FpsBrain is the only effective product with a 110% money-back guarantee. Clinical research and expert knowledge made it possible to develop an effective neural accelerator.
2 FpsBrain is active within the first 60 minutes after use and releases its active ingredients constantly for 6 hours maximum into the body.
3 Fps has been tested by experience computer players and results in a remarkable increase in perception and reaction capacities.
4 FpsBrain contains only ingredients that have been tested and are approved in Germany.
wintersynth brings us a story about a group of enthusiasts who made a catapult out of a 2,800lb industrial robot arm. They used it to launch bowling balls, fireballs, and cans of beer toward a stationary target, and they controlled the catapult's aim with a graphical UI on a laptop. "I wanted to be able to control the rotation of the robot so we could aim the robot from the laptop, but I quickly realized that since the desert is so flat, we could do some basic ranging on the target too. I also wanted the targeting to be overlaid in 3d over a photograph of the target area. The software needed to control the robot like an MMO or RTS game. I suspect that video games, in general, have some of the most optimal control interfaces. I wanted to try a control scheme similar to the area effect spell targeting in World of Warcraft."
Bomb-sniffing robots, spectrometers and voice-activated translators, check out photos of the latest law-enforcement tech on display at the HSSC in Los Angeles.
Capt. James Cook discovers the Hawaiian Islands on his way to hunt for the Northwest Passage. He fails to find the latter, and probably wishes he missed finding the first one, too.
Bomb-sniffing robots, spectrometers and voice-activated translators, check out photos of the latest law-enforcement tech on display at the HSSC in Los Angeles.
Like a learnin', lovin' iPod Nano, the latest vibrator from Je Joue personalizes its routines to match users' preferences. And that's very smart indeed. Commentary by Regina Lynn.
Ian Lamont writes "Nick Carr has generated a lot of discussion following his recent comments about the IT department fading away, but there are several other points he is trying to make about the rise of utility computing. He believes that the Web has evolved into a massive, programmable computer (the "World Wide Computer") that essentially lets any person or organization customize it to meet their needs. This relates to another trend he sees — a shift toward centralization. Carr draws interesting parallels to the rise of electricity suppliers during the Industrial Revolution. He says in a book excerpt printed on his blog that while decentralized technologies — the PC, Internet, etc. — can empower individuals, institutions have proven to be quite skilled at reestablishing control. 'Even though the Internet still has no center, technically speaking, control can now be wielded, through software code, from anywhere. What's different, in comparison to the physical world, is that acts of control become harder to detect and those wielding control more difficult to discern.'"
A months-old backdoor in MySpace exposes photos in private profiles to lechers and snoops. Ad-supported websites have risen to help people exploit the bug, and teenagers' private photos are being ogled on message boards.
holy_calamity writes "A Canadian chemical engineer has a novel solution to containing liquids in space. He has been experimenting with corkscrews of ribbon-like material that keep liquids suspended in their center while in microgravity. This effect is caused by the surface tension of the liquids. The helical containers allow the fluid to be sucked out of the coil in one go. In more conventional shapes, such as coffee cups, interaction between the container and the liquid's internal pressure makes the beverage break into annoying globules you have to chase with a straw."
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1 FpsBrain is the only effective product with a 110% money-back guarantee. Clinical research and expert knowledge made it possible to develop an effective neural accelerator.
