I've lost track of where I found this, but these chimneys look like a last-minute idea. No clue on why they need so many. Perhaps it is a community kitchen? Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 1:00 pm
Here are some of the highlights from the week's Web Tech action on ReadWriteWeb. The big news was Google App Engine - we provided extensive coverage and analysis. Also this week we looked into further... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 1:00 pm
Narrative Fallacy writes "The Cornell Ranger robot has set an unofficial world distance record by walking nonstop for 45 laps — a little over 9 kilometers — around the Barton Hall running track in an event to to show off the machine's energy efficiency. Unlike other walking robots that use motors to control every movement, the Ranger emulates human walking, using gravity to help swing its legs forward. The Robot alternately swings two outside legs forward and then two inside ones and although the robot has no knees, it has feet that can be tipped up and down, so that the robot pushes off with its toes, then tilts its feet upward to land on the heels as it brings its legs forward. The Robot is steered by a hobby remote control which biases the steering to one side or another by lifting one of the four feet slightly. "We've just moved into this world of electromechanical devices, and to make something this robust is a big achievement," said Andy Ruina, Cornell professor of theoretical and applied mechanics. "We've learned tons about what it takes to make walking work.""
Ian Lamont writes "The FCC has fined 11 retailers and television manufacturers for violating rules relating to the 2009 digital TV transition. Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Sears, Kmart, and Wal-Mart supposedly failed to place notices near analog-only TV sets warning customers that the sets did not have digital tuners. In part, the required notice reads: 'This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation's transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products.' The fines total $6.6 million."
The Retro Robot built-your-own kit from JojoMangoes consists of panels that you stitch together with thread to make a handsome, Lost-in-Space-esque bot. Link (Thanks, Alice!)... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 11:12 am
The Retro Robot built-your-own kit from JojoMangoes consists of panels that you stitch together with thread to make a handsome, Lost-in-Space-esque bot.
Link
(Thanks, Alice!)
Keith and Buddy KM079.jpg Kevin Mazur / Paramount Classics Originally uploaded by Doctor Noe. The Gotham Gal and I went to see Shine A Light last night. I've been wanting to see this Scorsese concert film... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 10:16 am
Flavour Designs' "And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon" bowls have a place to rest your spoon while you eat, sparing the tabletop/linen napkin between mouthfulls.
Link
(via Neatorama)
Flavour Designs' "And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon" bowls have a place to rest your spoon while you eat, sparing the tabletop/linen napkin between mouthfulls. Link (via Neatorama) ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 10:15 am
Red light cameras cause more accidents, and not just because drivers slam their brakes to avoid getting a robo-ticket -- also because the optimal money-making strategy for red-light cams is to make them less safe.
If city planners want to reduce traffic accidents at intersections, the best practice is to make the yellow last longer and insert a pause between the red signal on one side and the green on the other. However, if the objective is to make as much money as possible from red-light cameras, the best thing to do is shorten the yellow signal, eliminate the pause, and enrich the city coffers (even as you kill its citizens).
Leftlane reports that six cities have been caught turning down the yellows to make more money.
Link
(via /.)
Red light cameras cause more accidents, and not just because drivers slam their brakes to avoid getting a robo-ticket -- also because the optimal money-making strategy for red-light cams is to make them... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 10:11 am
The amazing illustrator Jordan Crane has produced a beautiful cover for Michael Chabon's forthcoming book Maps and Legends. It's pure Crane, that dreamlike, old-timey (but still sharp-edged) style that makes books like so memorable. The treatment is really elaborate and luscious, an object lesson in making the physical book into a piece of genuine desiderata, an artifact you want to own as well as read.
The black cloth (or paper that resembles it) wraps around the hardcover jacket with debossing and foil. Then there are three bellybands with Jordan Crane’s illustrations (has anyone seen a book with three different belly bands?).
The amazing illustrator Jordan Crane has produced a beautiful cover for Michael Chabon's forthcoming book Maps and Legends. It's pure Crane, that dreamlike, old-timey (but still sharp-edged) style that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 10:06 am
In this refreshingly sane editorial, Lenore Skenazy explains why she let her nine-year-old son out of the paranoia bubble and onto the subway on his own. I started riding public transit alone around that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 9:57 am
Here's a great Naughty Secretary Club project for turning dead watches into weird-ass wrist-art with a little spray-paint and patience. In the era of wristwatch obsolescence, why not turn a dead cheap timepiece into a brightly colored commentary on time itself:
After your several thin coats of paint have dried slap those babies on your wrist and sport them around town. I have a hot dinner date and art viewing with my lady friends this evening and I fully intend to work these bad boys into my outfit. I think I might even wear all 3 at once because I am crazy like that.
Here's a great Naughty Secretary Club project for turning dead watches into weird-ass wrist-art with a little spray-paint and patience. In the era of wristwatch obsolescence, why not turn a dead cheap... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 9:51 am
Jayel sez, We have been trying to raise awareness about British MP Austin Mitchell's crusade to protect photographers' rights in the UK in FlickrCentral. And we are trying to help him out via a write-in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 9:47 am
We have been trying to raise awareness about British MP Austin Mitchell's crusade to protect photographers' rights in the UK in FlickrCentral. And we are trying to help him out via a write-in campaign to other British MPs. It is a slow start, but we are doing everything we can including asking your readers for help.
We need information about:
1) Names and contact information of MPs
2) Civil liberties group that we can contact
3) Other ways we can raise awareness about this issue.
The European Court of Justice is forcing the EU into publishing its top-s33kr1t list of things you're not allowed to take on airplanes. Oh noes! Now the terrists will have the complete, exhaustive list of all the devices it is possible to crash an airplane with. We are doomed.
The fight waged by the Austrian passenger, who had been ordered from a plane before takeoff because of his sports equipment, forced the European Commission on Thursday to agree to publish a secret list of banned items for air passengers...
The case arose from an episode in September 2005, when Gottfried Heinrich was stopped at the security control of Vienna-Schwechat Airport because his carry-on baggage contained tennis rackets...
The criticism of the EU policy came in an opinion from an advocate general Eleanor Sharpston, a legal adviser to the European Court of Justice.
In unusually tough language, she attacked what she described as the "fundamental absurdity" in the position of the European Commission, which had kept the annex secret but had issued a press release describing some of its contents.
The adviser said the error was so big that EU rules on aircraft security should be declared "non-existent."
Brad Emerson uses some python code to stitch together his time-lapse photos into animated impressionist paintings (he uses the free program Imagemagick to process the images).
Link
(Thanks, Brad!)
Matt sez, "A researcher at my University is working on modeling the behaviour of fruit flies. Turns out they have something like a Free Will, or at least they are not completely random in their flying patterns. Check out the video of drosophila in the flight simulator."
Their results caught computer scientist and lead author Alexander Maye from the University of Hamburg by surprise: “I would have never guessed that simple flies who keep bouncing off the same window otherwise have the capacity for nonrandom spontaneity if given the chance.” Previous studies have shown that in nature, flies do not buzz about aimlessly but forage according to a sophisticated search strategy (this is how they find our wine glasses). The new research now suggests that such strategies arise spontaneously rather than being induced by spatial cues.
Candidates contesting some posts in Malaysia's ruling party will be required to set up blogs, an official has said. The move was a surprising turnaround for governing... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 9:33 am
Google Earth has announced it is to help UK charities use the online mapping website to highlight their work abroad. The Google Earth Outreach programme is designed to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 9:33 am
The breadth of a smile can be measured by new technology from Japanese electronics and healthcare company Omron. The software technology scans a video image to detect... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 9:33 am
Dwiff sez, "Here's an article - with color CLIPS!!! - on the aborted 1930's Bob Clampett animated adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars. Looks like it would have given the Fleischer Superman a real run for its money."
Burroughs and Clampett wanted to make a serious since fiction adventure while the studios (in typical studio fashion that foreshadowed decades of missteps) wanted to make a sci-fi slapstick comedy. One is left wondering how Clampett's John Carter of Mars would have shaped the science fiction films to come. But take heart, Carter fans, for Pixar is picking up that torch!
mjasay writes to tell us that Harvard has started teaching open source to its aspiring MBA candidates. In the latest issue of Harvard Business Review, Harvard presents business managers with a tough decision: To open source a successful (but increasingly vulnerable) product or guard its intellectual property zealously? As the case study's open source proponent suggests, "Open source is like a rising tide. You either float with it or drown."
opencity writes "The Register reports that the (perhaps inevitable) robot rebellion has been avoided ... for now. 'Ground-crawling US war robots armed with machine guns, deployed to fight in Iraq last year, reportedly turned on their fleshy masters almost at once. The rebellious machine warriors have been retired from combat pending upgrades.' Gizmodo also has a good photo."
The celebrated physicist delivers a talk and answers questions before more than 2,000 admirers. Stephen Hawking... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
A woman attending an African American awards ceremony alleges anti-Semitic remarks were made. An e-mail alleging... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
The rock believed responsible for a mass extinction 65 million years ago was much smaller than previously thought, scientists say. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
Child advocates seek regulatory guidelines to prevent Internet firms from gathering sensitive information. A coalition... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
DENVER (Billboard) - If a ringback tone launches on a network and nobody hears it, did it ever really exist? Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 6:00 am
theodp writes "NY Governor David Paterson is expected to sign a bill requiring online retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases shipped to the state, even if they have no operations or employees working there. The so-called 'Amazon tax', which applies to Internet retailers who derive sales through affiliate programs, would end what for many New Yorkers had been tax-free shopping and generate an estimated $50M in revenue this fiscal year. Experts predict that other states could follow suit with similar provisions."
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The Australian government has called for bids for a A$9.4 billion ($8.8 billion) high-speed broadband network that will help the country catch up in competitiveness... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 4:37 am
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Two plants that were thought to have been extinct since the late 1800s have been rediscovered in far northern Australia, according to an official report released on... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 3:51 am
aclark4life writes "NASA just launched a new website designed to provide information about its scientific endeavors and achievements. The new site was built on top of the Plone Open Source Content Management System and features an easy-to-navigate design and several new search features."
MoveOn.org is offering television exposure, and $20,000 in video equipment, for the best user-contributed 30-second ad promoting Barack Obama. With the deadline nearing, Wired.com tags along as one team shoots their video on the streets of Oakland.
Scientists listening to underwater microphones have detected an unusual swarm of earthquakes off central Oregon, something that often happens before a volcanic eruption _ except there are Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 2:42 am
THE United States and Australia are the only countries in the industrialized world that do not require employers to offer paid maternity leave. In response to this astonishingly backward state of affairs,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 2:36 am
Yahoos board met Friday to evaluate Microsofts takeover bid and other alternatives but did not make a formal decision on which option to pursue, people briefed on the meeting said. Yahoos board did authorize... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 2:36 am
ALL right, everyone under the age of 40, go run around the block or something. This column is not for you. It is for people like me, inching toward 50, who are, let us say, not technology-averse, but... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 2:36 am
The chip maker Advanced Micro Devices said Friday that its technology chief, Phillip D. Hester, is leaving, becoming the third senior executive to depart in less than a year. Mr. Hester, 52, resigned... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 2:36 am
OFF THE GEORGIA COAST On a day so clear the ocean, from certain angles, is nothing but a field of glare, a team of spotters in a Twin Otter airplane flies a precise grid pattern, looking for North Atlantic... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 2:36 am
largest conglomerate could lead to a major change in its leadership, Samsung's leader said late Friday, indicating he will consider resigning. Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee spoke... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 1:34 am
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "At the 2008 RSA security conference, Microsoft's David Cross was quoted as saying, 'The reason we put UAC into the platform was 'to annoy users. I'm serious.' The logic behind this statement is that it should encourage application vendors to eliminate as many unnecessary privilege escalations as possible by causing users to complain about all the UAC 'Cancel or Allow' prompts. Of course, they probably didn't expect that Microsoft would instead get most of the complaints for training users to ignore meaningless security warnings."
Internet threats ruin hard drives and clog inboxes. But in the hands of an MIT graduate student, viruses and Trojans become menacing beauties. Art goes viral, really.
The corruption scandal shaking South Korea's largest conglomerate could lead to a major change in its leadership, Samsung's leader said late Friday, indicating he will consider resigning. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 12 Apr 2008 | 12:59 am
Unlike MP3 and AAC, the underdog Vorbis audio format is free of patent restrictions, and full support is only a few downloads away. Visit Wired.com’s How-To Wiki and start rockin’ in the free world.
YouTube has promised a commercial-free zone in the near future to help Congress deal with the problem of hosting campaign videos that were technically breaking the rule of not redirecting constituents to a commercial site. "Within a month, the one and only responder, YouTube, should have its commercial-free zone up and running, Capuano said. Republicans on the commission still fret that with only one such site, the House could be seen as picking winners and losers on the Web. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), another commission member, said the panel's Republicans want to keep the new rules fluid enough to use any future Web site that comes forward with a better plan. 'Technology moves fast. Congress moves slow,' he said."
Donut hole hole writes "AT&T and Comcast are using recent successful P2P trials to argue to the FCC that there's no need for strong traffic management or net neutrality rules. 'Comcast's statement, filed with the FCC on April 9th, hails an announcement by P2P developer Pando Networks that its experiments with P4P technology on a wide variety of U.S. broadband networks have boosted delivery speeds by up to 235 percent. This news, Comcast vice president Kathryn A. Zachem wrote to the Commission, "provides further proof that policymakers have been right to rely on marketplace forces, rather than government regulation, to govern the evolution of Internet services."' Looks like Comcast only likes P2P technology when it can be used to serve its political and regulatory agenda."
Music label claims it owns the eternal right to promotional CDs it gives away, and is suing a California man for selling promotional CDs on eBay. Digital rights groups say that is a distortion of copyright law.
A Swedish researcher discovers a way to hack a computer Trojan horse so that he can get inside the hacker's computer. The counter-hack comes just as the government and security industry warn of increasing danger of such targeted computer attacks.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Even with recent improvements in virtual reality technology, it's still almost impossible to physically walk through virtual environments. Now, European researchers have started a project named CyberWalk and they'll demonstrate next week their omni-directional treadmill, named CyberCarpet. According to ICT Results, the researchers 'had to address five key issues: providing a surface to walk on, controlling the surface in a way that minimized forces on the user, developing a non-intrusive tracking system, displaying a high-quality visualization, and ensuring a natural human perception of the virtual environment.' The researchers think that their new virtual environments would be used by architects and the gaming industry." Additional details are also available via the project website.
Scientists determine that the acoustic signature of a hurricane heard through a "hydrophone" deep in the ocean is related to the strength of its winds. It could be a cheaper hurricane measurement system for developing countries.
Congress thinks electric cars are too quiet and pose a threat to pedestrians and cyclists, not to mention all those people with iPods and cell phones surgically attached to their ears. Its solution? Have the Department of Transportation require hybrids and EVs to make more noise.
Myka is a set-top box that will download and play BitTorrent files in a wide variety of formats. Company president Dan Lovy explains his plans in Gadget Lab.
We have been trying to raise awareness about British MP Austin Mitchell's crusade to protect photographers' rights in the UK in FlickrCentral. And we are trying to help him out via a write-in campaign to other British MPs. It is a slow start, but we are doing everything we can including asking your readers for help.
