the driver experience
Honda Outsources Infotainment, But Can It Keep Up With the Joneses?
4 hours ago
Aggregation Aggravation
A Digg Power User's Inside Take on the Rise and Fall of a Social Empire
20 hours ago
location services
Hands-On With Twist, the App That Tells People You'll Be Horribly Late
18 hours ago
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Algal Blooms Could Have Caused Last Ice Age
At various points in Earth's history, dust fell into the ocean and fed algae, which gobbled up carbon dioxide and sank to the bottom of the sea, taking greenhouse gas with them and cooling the world.
07.19.12 -
Firefox 14 Hides Your Searches from Prying Eyes
Firefox 14 is here and it brings with it some welcome security improvements to keep your data safe from would-be snoops.
07.19.12 -
3,006 Species Can’t be Wrong
What do a hummingbird and an elephant have in common??? And a scorpion, a warthog, an amoeba, and a palm tree? ??According to a study of 3,006 different species, the answer may be one of biology???s most fundamental traits: the amount of energy needed to sustain life. The acquisition and processing of food sources is, [...]
07.19.12 -
People-Power Lights 2012 Olympic Walkway
When I first met Laurence Kemball-Cook he was showing me how he???d hacked a cheap AM-FM radio in his hotel room the night before. He rewired it to run off of kinetic energy instead of the batteries it was designed for. He also shared photos of LED bike lights he???d hacked together that provided superior lighting at a fraction of the cost of commercial bike lights. It was obvious that Laurence had a thing for lights. Really, though, his sustainable clean energy power generation invention is what makes his story interesting.
07.19.12 -
Maker Camp at Google+
I love the core idea behind Maker Faire: Project based learning. Learning by doing. Putting the "construct" in constructivism. Maker Faire NY has been an annual family highlight for us each of its last two years--and we're already looking forward to our next craft and explosion-filled weekend this September at the New York Hall of Science.
07.19.12 -
Should You Go to a Theme Park or a State Park?
So there we were – in Orlando, Florida. Our family had arrived with one free day before our girls had to compete in a gymnastics meet. The question was: what to do? It???s Orlando so the first natural discussion was about which theme park to visit. The problem is that these parks aren???t exactly cheap, [...]
07.19.12 -
Xeko Makes an Updated Kickstarter Comeback
Xeko is a game that was first available as a trading card game in 2005. It is now being reintroduced as a digital game through Kickstarter.
07.19.12 -
Digital Content: Constructing the Summer???s Viral Video Hit
A behind-the-scenes look at how a San Francisco viral video studio engineered one of the most ambitious web vids of the year.
07.19.12 -
Batman Through the Ages: An Infographic
Batman has worn many faces and costumes over the years, take a look at this pictorial representation of the Bat wardrobe.
07.19.12 -
Startups: Government Needs a Trip to Startup Land
Both entrepreneurs and government staffers would benefit from learning more about the other, and developing a more meaningful, working relationship. Government can help startups by adopting policies designed to spur innovation and make data transparent ?????? while startups can help government solve some of its most vexing administrative and policy problems.
07.19.12
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Help Manage Stress and Anxiety With emWave2
The more I talk to women, especially geeky women, the more I realize that anxiety and panic attacks, in various forms, are a very common experience, and I'm no exception. Some people have social anxiety. Some have anxiety related to their health. Some have a more generalized anxiety. Some get a panic attack out of nowhere, whereas some are triggered by certain events. There are many ways to combat these often debilitating conditions, including using meditation, medication, diet, exercise, therapy, and a variety of other methods.
07.19.12 -
DIY: 10 Geeky Ideas from Mason Jar Speakers to Floppy Disk Planters
We love making stuff here at Wired Design, and the projects we geek-out on most tend to include some electronic element. Marrying gadgetry with off-the-shelf materials can be tricky, but also highly satisfying to pull off. Contributor Jan Halvarson, Co-founder and Editor of maker blog Poppytalk put together this roundup of 10 rad DIY projects with a techie twist.
07.19.12 -
Inside the Board Rooms of Global Economic Power
For two decades Jacqueline Hassink has been documenting the seats of power. Literally. Her photos of corporate board rooms from across the world give viewers a rare glimpse into the places where the most important players in the global economy hold court.
07.19.12 -
I Went to Camp at Google+ (And All I Got Was This Animated GIF)
Summer camp used to be about sailing, learning first aid, and hanging out with other kids your age. And about suffering. If the bug bites, soggy weather, and foul latrine didn't make you appreciate coming home to Mom and Dad, you were at the wrong summer camp.
07.19.12 -
July 19, 1963: Cracking the 100-Kilometer-High Barrier … in a Plane
Joe Walker, who personifies the tough and fearless test pilot, takes the X-15 higher, and faster, than anyone ever has.
07.19.12 -
With Mayer at Helm, Will Geeks Give Yahoo A Second Glance?
The surprise announcement this week that Yahoo had tapped Google geekstar Marissa Mayer as its new CEO got a lot of people talking about the troubled web portal. But would any of them actually want to work there?
07.19.12 -
Should Whales and Dolphins Have Rights? Their Lawyers Say Yes
Over the last several decades, researchers have shown that many dolphin and whale species are extraordinarily intelligent and social creatures, with complex cultures and rich inner lives. They are, in a word, persons -- and now animal advocates are challenging society to follow science to its logical conclusion and give legal rights to cetaceans. If they're successful, a dolphin could conceivably become the first non-human ever considered a legal person.
07.19.12 -
Honda Outsources Infotainment, But Can It Keep Up With the Joneses?
Every automaker works with outside suppliers to develop and produce anything from window switches to alternator pulleys. It's how modern automobiles are made. And that same relationship extends into your dashboard. So it's not completely surprising that Honda has partnered with Harman ?????makers of the Aha app for iOS and Android ??? to plump streaming content into its next-generation HondaLink infotainment system, starting with the 2013 Honda Accord.
07.19.12 -
The iPad Mini: Why Now Is the Perfect Time for a Small Apple Tablet
Steve Jobs may have dissed 7-inch tablets, but now isn't just a good time for Apple to launch an iPad mini -- it's the perfect time. Here's why.
07.19.12 -
From Eight-Track to Bluetooth: In-Car Entertainment’s Bumpy Ride
With internet connectivity coming to more vehicles, a new era of in-car entertainment is about to begin ??? much to the alarm of Luddites, government regulators and distracted-driving advocates. But looking back at how we got here, crying wolf about car tech is as old as the first radio.
07.19.12
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GeekDad Approved: Shadow Show: A Fitting Tribute to Bradbury
Shadow Show is a very fitting tribute to a man who never quit writing: a collection of stories by a diverse bunch of writers, inspired by and in celebration of Ray Bradbury.
07.19.12 -
10 Things The Monitor Loved at Comic-Con
We're back from Comic-Con International, and we've got a story to tell. After four days of crowds, cosplay and coming attractions -- and comics, of course -- we have a loooong list of favorite things.
07.19.12 -
Heroes of Ruin Is Flawed but Fantastic
Since its big reveal more than a year ago, Square Enix's Heroes of Ruin has enjoyed a unique brand of buzz among handheld gamers. Loot-heavy dungeon-crawlers with solid multiplayer support aren't exactly easy to come by on the Nintendo 3DS, so those of us who appreciate both this classic style of gameplay and the specific strengths of that portable were hard-pressed to find any other suitable alternative.
07.19.12 -
Obese Kids Have Lower Math Scores
In June a study of 6,250 kids published in the journal Child Development found that obese children feel sadder, lonelier and more anxious and that these feelings largely explain obese children's lower scores on math standardized tests. But the patterns of these decreased scores are interesting and the questions they raise may be even more important than the findings.
07.19.12 -
Artificial Volcanoes Aren’t the Solution to Warming
Manmade volcanoes could help mitigate against heat waves on a local scale, but building an artificial volcano is not going to solve the ever increasing problems with a warming planet. Volcanologist and Eruptions blogger Erik Klemetti explains.
07.19.12 -
movies: A Maker in the World of Animation: Nelson Lowry
The production designer for ParaNorman talks about his obsession with Lego and how stop motion animation has changed in the last 15 years.
07.19.12 -
Kill the Clutter With ScanSnap S1300i
I've written previously of my attempts to reduce the clutter in my office. I subscribe to a number of print magazines that often have two or three articles that I wish to keep. I have a large collection of tool user manuals. And I've got a pile of paperwork that my children bring home and numerous sketches they proudly hold up for my consideration. I've been using a personal scanner for some time now to scan in what I wish to keep in PDF form, and I've definitely managed to get a handle on the paper buildup in my office.
07.19.12 -
Decanter Allows Anyone to Easily Create Interactive Storybooks
Have you ever flipped through an interactive storybook on your tablet and thought you would love to be able to tell a story like that, but you don't have the faintest idea how to begin programming something like an animated e-book? An upcoming piece of software from Podotree has you covered.
07.19.12 -
movies: Batman Executive Producer Michael Uslan Wins High Honor at Comic-Con
Michael Uslan may not be a household name, but he's been a driving force behind the geek world's takeover of the cinema during the last several decades. As an Executive Producer, he's had his finger in virtually everything "Batman" Hollywood has produced, from Tim Burton's Batman through this week's The Dark Knight Rises.
07.19.12 -
A Google-a-Day Puzzle for July 19
Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.
07.19.12
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Justice Department Sues Telecom for Challenging National Security Letter
Last year, when a telecommunications company received an ultra-secret demand letter from the FBI seeking information about a customer or customers, the telecom took an extraordinary step -- it challenged the underlying authority of the FBI's National Security Letter, as well as the legitimacy of the gag order that came with it. After the telecom challenged its NSL last year, the Justice Department took its own extraordinary measure: It sued the company, arguing in court documents that the company was violating the law by challenging its authority.
07.18.12 -
AT&T;’s New Shared Data Plans Won’t Deliver ROI for Most
AT&T is following in Verizon's footsteps by offering a new line of shared data plans that allow users to connect multiple devices to one "bucket" of data. Like Verizon's plans, AT&T's aren't cheap.
07.18.12 -
Bibi Blames Iran for Terror Attack While U.S. Navy Waits Offshore
For at least a year, the U.S. has tried to keep Israel from attacking Iran, usually by arguing that sanctions on Tehran are working and that??American can hit harder if it comes to a fight. It’s a delicate balance, especially since President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu trust each other only slightly more than [...]
07.18.12 -
Pentagon, CIA Sued for Lethal Drone Attacks on U.S. Citizens
Survivors of three Americans killed by targeted drone attacks in Yemen last year sued top-ranking members of the United States government, alleging Wednesday they illegally killed the three, including a 16-year-old boy, in violation of international human rights law and the U.S. Constitution. “The government has killed three Americans. It should account for its actions. [...]
07.18.12 -
Cardboard and Plywood Hydrogen Car Snags Design Award
Most of us think of the future of eco-friendly cars in miles per gallon (or miles per kilowatt-hour). But a design team from Britain???s Aston University looked at the carbon consequences of the shipping required to move tons of steel and batteries from the factory to the garage. Their unnamed but fully functional concept is made of plywood, cardboard, and a little bit of metal. The whole thing can fold into a flat, light, and stackable package.
07.18.12 -
VMware, CEO Change News: ‘Cloud’ Move or Rebrand?
VMware has named Pat Gelsinger as its new CEO, moving the industry veteran from parent company EMC, where he served as president and chief operating officer, Wired Enterprise reported late on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the news leaked out about the company ??being “on the verge of a major shakeup that will see the [...]
07.18.12 -
Hands-On With Twist, the App That Tells People You’ll Be Horribly Late
Whether you have a habit of arriving awkwardly early or annoyingly late for meetings, an app called Twist is here to help. The new location-based app launched on Wednesday is like a more useful Find My Friends that notifies your family, friends or colleagues when you're going to arrive at a specific location.
07.18.12 -
Microsoft Promises Oct. 26 Launch Date for Windows 8
Microsoft announced a firm ship date for its upcoming operating system on Wednesday.
07.18.12 -
ARM Servers Get a Fluffy OpenStack Testbed in the Cloud
Intel rules the data center, but it's getting some competition from ARM, the company that's best known for designing the chips that power your iPhone. On Wednesday a handful of server companies, led by Hewlett-Packard, Canonical and server-chip startup Calxeda, unveiled a new software testbed where developers can try OpenStack cloud software that runs on ARM chips.
07.18.12 -
Video: See All the Dark Knight’s Bat-Gadgets in One Supercut
The Joker said it best in Batman: "Where does he get those wonderful toys?" This supercut from the Cussing Channel shows off all the bat-gadgets from Christopher Nolan's first two films (plus trailers for The Dark Knight Rises).
07.18.12
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Video: SpaceX Releases the Dragon Flight Highlight Reel
It???s been almost two months since SpaceX???s Dragon spacecraft completed its historic flight to the International Space Station. Like any successful team after a victory, the company has released a highlight video for fans and supporters.
07.18.12 -
Hands-On: Nintendo’s Demon Training Purports to Build Your Brain’s RAM
Given the success of the adult-orientated cognition-testing Brain Age games on the Nintendo DS, which have sold nearly 35 million units worldwide, it was only a matter of time before Nintendo brought the series to 3DS. Five-Minute Demon Training will be released in Japan next week, and Nintendo has released a playable demo of the game's most intimidating play mode: "Demon Math."
07.18.12 -
Listen: The Awesomely Low-Tech, Mouth-Made Videogame Soundtrack
When Amanita Design released Botanicula earlier this year, fans knew the game was going to be good. The indie game maker had a track record; in 2009 they released a point and click puzzle game called Machinarium that won them heaps of awards and a dedicated fan base. Botanicula???s early art was promising -- a cross between a avant guarde kids book and indie band cover art -- but what ultimately pushed it over the edge were its noises, created by the Czech band DVA.
07.18.12 -
Military’s New Disaster Relief Tools: Robo-Cranes, Paraglider Drones
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and defense contractor Raytheon want to turn regular cargo ships into high-tech humanitarian aid platforms equipped with propeller-driven paraglider drones, easily mountable robotic cranes and unmanned amphibious cargo boats.
07.18.12 -
Megaupload Judge Steps Down After Declaring U.S. ‘the Enemy’
The New Zealand judge overseeing the extradition proceedings of accused file-sharing kingpin and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom is recusing himself from the case after remarking that the United States was "the enemy."
07.18.12 -
Flickr’s Engagement Problem May Be Too Big for Even Marissa Mayer
People are already begging Yahoo's new CEO Marissa Mayer to make Flickr awesome again. The only way to do that is to fix its engagement problem.
07.18.12 -
NASA’s Next Big Rover to Hunt for Water on the Moon
A joint project between NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the Canadian Space Agency has yielded a lunar rover called Resolve which will search for water sources on the Moon.
07.18.12 -
Olympic Media Center Reboots As Tech Center After Games
A project to turn the Olympic media center into a new technology cluster has been given the green light after iCity won the bid to transform the buildings with a ??350 million ($546 million) investment after the Games. Startups, investors and global corporations are set to occupy the press and broadcast centers following the decision [...]
07.18.12 -
Instagram-Like Lenses for Serious Photographers
What if you could turn Instagram filters into lenses for your DSLR???Lensbaby, a Portland, Oregon, startup that's bent on getting customers more engaged in the art of photography, has done exactly that.
07.18.12 -
A Digg Power User’s Inside Take on the Rise and Fall of a Social Empire
We give you the inside story of Miguel Lopez -- a man who went by the Digg handle "mklopez" and went on to become one of the social news aggregator's most influential power users. What was his method? Why did he do it? And was he ever paid for a Digg? Wired tells all.
07.18.12
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U.S. May Not Be Able to Stop Syria From Using Chemical Weapons
Hours after the Syrian regime suffered its greatest setback in the year-long civil war, the U.S. and U.K. defense chiefs feared that dictator Bashar Assad might use his stockpile of chemical weapons -- the results of what may be the largest active chemical program on the planet. But because of the structure of Assad's extensive chemical weapons effort, stopping the Syria from using his weapons may not be possible, even if the U.S. military suddenly decided to openly intervene.
07.18.12 -
Windows Azure Quietly Puts Its Pieces Into Place
Winning, for Microsoft, won???t be about beating Amazon or VMware in the specific territories of public cloud computing. No, winning for Microsoft is remaining present in many positions, exerting influence and working on a much, much bigger picture, writes Alexander Haislip.
07.18.12 -
YouTube Offers Face-Blurring Tool to Protect Dissidents
Google is offering YouTube users a way to blur the faces in videos, calling it a way to protect dissidents and kids.
07.18.12 -
Pentagon, CIA Sued for Lethal Drone Attacks on U.S. Citizens
Survivors of three Americans killed by targeted drone attacks in Yemen last year sued top-ranking members of the United States, alleging Wednesday they illegally killed the three, one 16 years old, in violation of international human rights law and the U.S. Constitution.
07.18.12 -
Wayne Manor For Sale: A Home For The Upwardly Mobile Super Hero
Have you ever dreamed of winning the lottery and buying that dream house? Have you ever dreamed that it might have secret passageways hidden behind bookcases and fireplaces? Well look no further, Movoto Real Estate has created a unique real estate listing for Wayne Manor, with a cool price tag in the multi millions it's certainly a super sized purchase.
07.18.12 -
videos: Geek & Sundry’s First Episode of Written by a Kid Stars Joss Whedon
Inspired by the inventive and fantastical tales told by real children, Written by a Kid is Geek & Sundry's newest series. Each week, a new child storyteller appears and shares his tale. These stories are then interpreted by professionals, resulting in some wonderful short films. This season, you'll see a pirate made of chairs, a mermaid actress who likes to go sunbathing, and a hungry horse who wears pink panties, all thought up by a new 5-to-9 year old author.
07.18.12 -
And Now… Blackwater, the Comic Book
SAN DIEGO ??? War correspondent??Robert Young Pelton??approached Erik Prince, founder of the notorious mercenary company Blackwater, with a bold proposal in late 2004. Pelton, a veteran who’s covered more than a dozen conflicts, wanted to ride along for a month with the toughest for-profit soldiers in Prince’s outfit, in what was then the most dangerous [...]
07.18.12 -
Using HTML in Your Daily Life: The Rise of Fake Code
A discussion on the origins and use of fake html.
07.18.12 -
webcomics: Dork Tower Wednesday
Find the Dork Tower webcomic archives, DT printed collections, more cool comics, awesome games and a whole lot more at the Dork Tower website: www.dorktower.com.
07.18.12 -
Raspberry Pi Launches Summer Programming Competition for Kids
Raspberry Pi, the new credit-card sized and moderately-priced computer, is announcing a summer programming competition for kids. If you're a kid under 18, write a program for Raspberry Pi that impresses the judges and you could win $1,000!
07.18.12
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Product Review: JayBird Freedom Bluetooth Headphones
I had the opportunity to try out JayBird Gear's newest headphones, called Freedom. And "Freedom" is a perfect name for them! The product arrives with a sleek hard case, the headphones, a USB charging cable and several plastic molded forms that users can use to adjust the ear buds for a perfect fit.
07.18.12 -
Clean Your Silver Jewelry With Chemistry!
When I pulled the earrings out, I discovered that over the years the silver on the earrings had tarnished to a dull grey, speckled with black spots. Not exactly the effect I was going for -- and there was no time to run out to buy silver polish. Science to the rescue! A quick search produced a kitchen chemistry recipe which promised to work even better than silver polish.
07.18.12 -
Bop It! Smash: Lightning-Quick Reflexes Not Included
That weird dumbbell-shaped gizmo is the latest incarnation of Hasbro's popular Bop It! toy. The older models had various things to bop, twirl, pull, and tweak ??? all set to various sound effects and a voice shouting instructions at you. The Bop It! Smash takes the basic "bop" control and boils it down to a game of fast reflexes.
07.18.12 -
Skyhook Says Its New Location-Tracking Tech Won’t Drain Phone Batteries
Skyhook, a company that provides location positioning technology to devices and software, has launched a power-management solution for one of the most power-hungry category of apps: the ones that use constant background location tracking.
07.18.12 -
Constellation Cookies That Are Out of This World
Scientifically accurate constellation cookies by Bridget Edwards at Bakeat350.blogspot.com.
07.18.12 -
Form vs. Function: Wood Shell and KidSafe Cases for iPhone 4S
I love a good iPhone case, but as my junk drawer fills up with more and more options it becomes that much harder for a simple phone cover to make a proper impression. Still, there are those at work crafting innovative new shells for the ubiquitous iPhone 4/4S, even if what sets them apart also limits their overall utility.
07.18.12 -
GeekMom: Comic Book Corner — July 18th, 2012
Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week.
07.18.12 -
Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer: Geekdom’s Power Couple on Sandman Prequel and Kickstarter Success
Fantasy author Neil Gaiman made headlines around the world last week when he announced a return to the beloved Sandman series for the comic's 25th anniversary. It will be the first new Sandman story in a decade, and nobody was more excited by the news than Wired. We caught up with Gaiman the day after the announcement at a gallery in the Mission, where his wife, the powerhouse musician and performance artist Amanda Palmer, was preparing to take the stage for a standing-room-only concert appearance.
07.18.12 -
Cardboard and Plywood Hydrogen Car Snags Design Award
Most of us think of the future of eco-friendly cars in miles per gallon (or miles per kilowatt-hour). But a design team from Britain???s Aston University looked at the carbon consequences of the shipping required to move tons of steel and batteries from the factory to the garage. Their unnamed but fully functional concept is made of plywood, cardboard, and a little bit of metal. The whole thing can fold into a flat, light, and stackable package.
07.18.12 -
Morbidly Beautiful Insect Photos Challenge the Bug-Human Barrier
When Catherine Chalmers looks at leaf cutter ants, she sees Facebook; when she sees cockroaches, she sees suburban families. Her science-inspired art can be beautiful and disgusting at the same time, and she hopes it makes viewers question how we think of other animals.
07.18.12
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U.S. Air Force Teams With 2 Aussies for Mega-GPS
Nunzio Gambale and David Small started out in the mid-1990s, trying to figure out a way to give ferries a way to automatically trigger audio files during Sydney Harbor tours. Now, 17 years later, they have built up a 34-person company called Locata that can deliver more accurate positioning data than the global positioning system (GPS) -- at least over small swaths of land.
07.18.12 -
Data: Heartland H-1Bs: Foreign Tech Workers Beyond Silicon Valley
Despite the interconnectedness of the global economy, the economics of bringing skilled foreign workers to the United States remains very much local.
07.18.12 -
Who Will Autodesk Buy Next?
Autodes, the company that sells professional enterprise design software to??architects, just paid $60 million to acquire Socialcam, a social video-sharing app that has quickly amassed more than 50 million users??on Facebook by making it easy??to watch??shaky videos shared by athletes. Wait, what? This unlikely union has confounded the design and tech communities.
07.18.12 -
Infographics: 4 Keys to a Winning Kickstarter Campaign
Mention Kickstarter these days and blockbuster campaigns come to mind. But for all the success stories on Kickstarter, there are many, many failures. So what's the secret to ending a campaign with tall boys rather than tears?
07.18.12 -
MIT’s Semi-Autonomous Car Balances Human, Computer Control
There are autonomous cars, and there are drivers' cars. Now we have something in the middle. Sterling Anderson and Karl Iagnemma of MIT have created a semi-autonomous driving system that gives drivers full control of the vehicle, but kicks when the car gets too close to another object. This sounds like the adaptive cruise control found in expensive Mercedes-Benzes, but this software is much more nuanced and ambitious than anything on the road.
07.18.12 -
Go Inside a Mercenary Company in Iraq in Unflinching Comic Blackwater Chronicles
The Blackwater Chronicles is a gritty, unflinching portrait of hard men in a hard place at a moment in history that most Americans would probably prefer to forget.
07.18.12 -
Have Authors Write to Your Child With Letters for Kids
When you're a child, the concept of getting your own mail is pretty exciting. Now imagine how cool it would be for your kids to regularly get letters from authors.
07.18.12 -
Unlucky Breaks: When Hollywood Gets Blindsided by Bad Timing
When The Watch hits theaters in July, 20th Century Fox is banking on stars Jonah Hill and Ben Stiller to bring in the viewers. But the movie, about a pack of subdivision-patrolling buddies who stumble on an alien invasion, took a dark turn in March thanks to some unforeseen circumstances. The first trailer—released at the height of outrage over the shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood-watch captain—showed Jonah Hill pretending to shoot at a child from a car window. The macabre coincidence got the trailer pulled (and the film's title changed from Neighborhood Watch), but The Watch isn't the first movie to suffer from terrible timing. Here are some of the most cringe-worthy examples.
07.18.12 -
Geeking Out on Kickstarter Statistics
I'm not a huge stats geek, but I do enjoy looking at things like Kickstarter's yearly round-ups. However, it's apparently hard to dig up more specific details about Kickstarter projects which did ???not??? hit their funding goals. Kickstarter's own stats page says there were 27,086 total projects launched in 2011, of which 11,836 were funded. But then what?
07.18.12 -
toys: Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?
It was a sort of early Christmas in my house last month when several boxes of The Dark Knight Rises toys arrived from Mattel to play with and review. Included were adult toys, such as a Batman mask, action figures of Bane, Batman and Catwoman, a Hot Wheels set that can be wall-mounted, a remote control Hot Wheels Tumbler, and various kids action toys. But the one that was opened first was the Batman Tumbler RC Vehicle.
07.18.12
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Newest U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy: Trolling
Inside the State Department, a Silicon Valley veteran has quietly launched an improbable new initiative to annoy, frustrate and humiliate denizens of online extremist forums. The idea is nothing less than to teach Muslims around the world how to become effective trolls. It's hardly a substitute for drone strikes and commando raids, but as terrorist recruitment has moved online, it might prevent al-Qaida from attracting new terrorists. The only thing missing is a strategy.
07.18.12 -
A Google-a-Day Puzzle for July 18
Google's daily brainteaser helps hone your search skills.
07.18.12 -
The GeekDads Podcast Cancelled (Again) This Week
Ken is out of town and Matt's computer isn't quite up to the challenge of hosting, so we must cancel this week's GeekDads podcast, which we would ordinarily record tonight. HipTrax will be back next week on schedule, though, and the GeekDads podcast will record again on the night of July 31st. We hope you can join us in the chatroom then! Have fun seeing The Dark Knight Rises!
07.17.12 -
VMware Swaps Microsoft Vet Maritz for Ex-Intel Man Gelsinger
VMware has named Pat Gelsinger as its new CEO, moving the industry veteran from parent company EMC, where he served as president and chief operating officer. Gelsinger replaces current VMware boss Paul Maritz, who will move to EMC, where he will serve as chief strategist.
07.17.12 -
Watch Me: The West Philadelphia Kids That Took on the X Prize
Frontline tells a pretty amazing underdog tale in its new documentary, ???Fast Times at West Philly High.??? It???s about a group of inner-city high school kids who entered the Progressive Automotive X Prize, a $10 million competition to create a superefficient car. The Philly kids and their teachers didn???t have CAD software or much of [...]
07.17.12 -
Review: Olympus LS-100 Portable Recorder
This is one of the best -- and best-sounding -- portable audio recorders you can buy.
07.17.12 -
Syrian Rebels Use YouTube, Facebook for Weapons Training
Rebels fighting against Bashar Assad in Syria's civil war are outgunned, outmanned and largely aren't professional soldiers. So they're turning to social media for tutorials in how to use their weapons.
07.17.12 -
Observation Deck: At Comic-Con, All the World’s a Stage
Comic-Con International is perfect for people-watching. Just like in a typical city, everybody is either a performer or an audience member.
07.17.12 -
Dell Launches Flying Data Center at War Fighters
We're still waiting for Google's Data Center Navy. But Dell is doing its best to feed the Data Center Air Force. On Tuesday, the Texas computing giant took the wraps off what it calls the Dell Tactical Mobile Data Center -- a kind of data-center-in-a-box that's specifically designed for military outfits looking to air-lift temporary computing power into emergency situations.
07.17.12 -
AT&T; Charging for FaceTime Would Breach Net Neutrality, Groups Say
AT&T "would almost certainly" violate net neutrality rules if it begins charging for using FaceTime over its cellular network when Apple's newest mobile operating system debuts in September, the digital rights group Free Press said Tuesday.
07.17.12
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Games for Change: Teaching With Portal, Fixing Brains With iPhone
I attended the Games for Change Festival in New York last month, and what I saw there gave me reason to believe that there will be some big hits for education and health videogames in the near future.
07.17.12 -
Barnes & Noble Launches Web-Based E-Reader
Part of the appeal of the e-reader ecosystem is the ability to read the same book over multiple devices. From a dedicated e-reader to a smartphone, keeping up with your favorite protagonist's exploits without missing a beat regardless of the devices is key to happy book fans. Barnes and Noble recognizes this and is extending their ecosystem to browsers. Even Internet Explorer.
07.17.12 -
Wish List: Best Proposed Robotic Missions to Other Planets
A gallery looking at the best potential robotic probes that could seek out and explore the strange worlds of our solar system.
07.17.12 -
ARGs on Your Bookshelf: New Book Explores Transmedia Entertainment
Andrea Phillips recently published A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling. The book provides a taste of the creative and practical considerations that go into transmedia projects.
07.17.12 -
How to Steam Penguins: The Valve Linux Blog Goes Live
If you have ever dabbled in Linux or Steam and wished for the two to combine forces, look no further. The Linux Valve blog went live on July 16 - watch this space for open source game development news.
07.17.12 -
Convicted Murderer Hans Reiser Ordered to Pay His Kids $60M
A California jury on Tuesday found Hans Reiser financially liable for killing his wife, Nina, four years ago, ordering the imprisoned Linux guru to pay the couple's two children $60 million.
07.17.12 -
Study: WikiLeaked Data Can Predict Insurgent Attacks
Insurgencies are amongst the hardest conflicts to predict. Insurgents can be loosely organized, split into factions, and strike from out of nowhere. But now researchers have demonstrated that with enough data, you might actually predict where insurgent violence will strike next. The results, though, don't look good for the U.S.-led war.
07.17.12 -
Dead Again! Smallville Season 11 Revamped to Exclude Stephanie Brown
It could be the plot of a young adult novel: Teenage girl from a broken home discovers that her father is a super villain and decides to be a hero to work against him. She has to deal with other crimefighters who don’t think she’s qualified, an unplanned pregnancy, a horrific torture and beating, a [...]
07.17.12 -
VMware ‘Replaces CEO’ On Flight To The Clouds
VMware is on the verge of a major shakeup that will see the company replace CEO Paul Maritz and spin-off Cloud Foundry, its highly-regarded open source cloud-building platform, according to reports citing unnamed sources.
07.17.12 -
House Party! The 3-D Light Show You Can Control With an iPad or Wii
There was a time when concertgoers were perfectly happy just listening to the band play. Not anymore. Today fans expect to see pyrotechnic spectacles with elaborate lighting and special effects for the price of admission. When the time came to create the visuals for Floating -- a new album by Danish electronic artist Rumpistol / Red Baron -- design studio Futura Epsis 1 made something that was a bit of both.
07.17.12
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