|
|
posted by on Jun 28
With gas above $4 a gallon, hybrid cars are hotter than a laptop battery. But is gas-electric propulsion the future of personal transportation? It’s definitely on the fast track. Federal forecasters predict hybrid sales could approach 2 million vehicles by 2013, accounting for 11 percent of the total U.S. auto market, up from 2.5 percent today. By then, we’ll have 89 hybrid models from which to choose (including the hot little Honda pictured), up from 16 today.
Excerpted from:
Hybrids To Account for 11 Percent of Autos by 2013
posted by on Jun 21
Bill Gates looks back at the road he and Microsoft have traveled, and at what’s ahead for his foundation.
Source:
Gates: Microsoft, the Suit and His Foundation
posted by on Jun 21
That photo of 11 weirdos in ’70s clothes you may have seen on the Internet really is the original Microsoft team, snapped Dec. 7, 1978, on the eve of the company’s move from Albuquerque, N.M., to Seattle. Almost 30 years later, a few weeks before Bill Gates’s departure from Microsoft, the group (looking better) reconvened.
Read the original:
posted by on Jun 21
The icon of the tech world will focus on philanthropy as the company he founded faces turbulent seas.
Credit:
Microsoft After Gates. (And Bill After Microsoft.)
posted by on Jun 21
The icon of the tech world will focus on philanthropy as the company he founded faces turbulent seas.
Go here to read the rest:
Microsoft After Gates (And Bill After Microsoft)
posted by on Jun 21
The icon of the tech world will focus on philanthropy as the company he founded faces turbulent seas.
More:
Microsoft After Gates (And Bill After Microsoft)
posted by on Jun 21
New GPS-powered features could help reposition a gizmo that has historically appealed to the young and the reckless.
See more here:
posted by on Jun 21
New GPS-powered features could help reposition a gizmo that has historically appealed to the young and the reckless.
Excerpt from:
posted by on Jun 21
Proponents say they replenish the ecosystem. Some scientists aren’t so sure.
Credit:
Environment: The Ecology of Artificial Reefs
posted by on Jun 20
For us Netflix users, it seems that the king of DVD mailings is opting to make some changes,?? in the hopes of improving customer service.???? Netflix is going to eliminate additional profiles on customers accounts. These additional profiles can be used by anyone in a customers family, to add additional queues to the primary account. By trimming down the queues, Netflix believes that all customers will benefit.
According to an e-mail sent out to subscribers last night, Netflix is eliminating the convenient feature and removing all additional account profiles in September. And to add insult to injury, the additional profiles cannot be migrated to a new account. So all the effort you may have put in to rating hundreds, if not thousands, of movies and carefully crafting the perfect queue will be obliterated. The rental history will be merged with the main account owner, so your recommendations could suddenly change to reflect other profile users’ tastes. And, parents will no longer be able to easily monitor children’s rentals if they opt to open a separate account. But, Netflix will happily e-mail you your queue before they delete it so you can manually recreate it if you bothered to sign up for a separate account.??
I’m not sure how this is going to improve the customer experience for any Netflix user. If fact, this could just piss folks off and have them try another service. In a time of economic uncertainity, it could be a bad time to make any changes at all. I know of several of my family members who are changing services just to cut costs. Netflix is taking a chance making this move now.
But what do you think? Is this going to change the way you use Netflix?
Comments welcome.
Source.
Related Articles:
Read the original here:
Netflix Making Changes To Their System
posted by on Jun 20
I just read a story over at Tood Bishops blog in which he describes one man’s fight to get his printer working with his Vista computer. Normally this wouldn’t be much of a story, but what was amazing, to say the least, it took someone from Microsoft to actually figure out what the problem was. For those of you who are not familiar with Todd Bishop he is a blogger who posts at the seattlepi.com, which just happens to be in the area of Redmond, WA., where Microsoft is based.
When he originally posted the tale of woe this one man was having, a test manger from Microsoft, actually visited the mans home. It was discovered that the man had installed the drivers for XP that had come with his Dell 942 all-in-one printer. Even after installing the correct Vista drivers from Dell, it was still no go. The article states:
The underlying problem reflects the huge changes Microsoft made from Windows XP to Windows Vista, and the need for hardware makers to adjust. At the same time, the experience may provide a good reminder for PC users making an upgrade.
Mr. Walling is not alone in encountering the problem. Dell has since published a patch (dated Feb. 19) that removes a Windows XP printer driver from a Windows Vista machine, allowing for a clean installation of the new driver. That’s how White fixed Mr. Walling’s machine.
The story end with:
Too bad every PC user can’t have a Windows test manager on call. But as for Mr. Walling, he’s just happy he can print his genealogy records again.
What is noteworthy about this story is that it took some 13 months for Dell to issue a patch. One could conclude Mr. Walling was the only person in the entire world who was having this issue, which is highly unlikely. The most likely scenario was that Dell took action after being contacted by a Microsoft test manager.
You do have to wonder how many other folks suffered, gave up, and just bought new hardware.
Comments welcome.
PS I am sure this problem was not limited to Dell printers. 
Source.
Related Articles:
Read the original:
One Man’s Problem Getting His Printer To Work With Vista - Amazing!
posted by on Jun 19
A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about a stray cat, Dexter, that I took in.?? Dexter is FIV+, and for the last few weeks I have been trying to get him into one of the no kill cat sanctuaries here in Tucson, Arizona.?? I received word tonight that a local shelter will be able to take him in, and care for him.?? Dexter will be going to Casa de los Gatos, which is one of the few no kill cat shelters in the city.
Casa de los Gatos was founded in 2005 by Beth Montes, a life long animal lover and feline care provider. Initially Casa de los Gatos functioned primarily as a sanctuary for special-needs cats. The organization quickly expanded to accommodate cats of all kinds; from the tiniest of orphaned newborns to abandoned geriatric cats and even several unclaimed cats displaced during Hurricane Katrina.
From the spring of 2006 to the spring of 2008, Casa de los Gatos has helped almost 2,500 felines get the nine good lives they deserve. With the communities help, we hope to help thousands more felines for years to come!
This cat shelter is a non-profit organization, and currently has about one hundred more cats than they should.?? This is a hard time of a year for stray cats in Arizona, as the temperatures outside reach upwards of 110 degrees farenheit during the day.?? If anyone would like to help this shelter, I am sure they would be very grateful.?? Since the shelter is a non-profit organization, donations should be tax deductible.
With Chris Pirillo’s permission I am posting a donation widget for Casa de los Gatos.?? The widget links directly to their paypal account, so any money you donate goes directly to them.?? To get to the widget, you have to go to the full version of this post:
Thank you to anyone who is able to help out the shelter, http://www.lockergnome.com/jfcapasso/2008/06/19/no-kill-cat-sanctuary/
From there, the widget is at the top of my sidebar.?? WordPress decided not to let me post it within the body of this post.
Justin Capasso
Related Articles:
Continued here:
No Kill Cat Sanctuary
posted by on Jun 19
When I see something in the news about the Phoenix Mars Lander, it hits really close to home.?? This is because the research and data gathered from Mars is being transmitted and analyzed at the University of Arizona, in Tucson; where I go to school.
It seems that the Mars crew may have found what they were looking for; water.
June 19, 2008 — Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen water that vaporized after digging exposed it.
“It must be ice,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. “These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice. There had been some question whether the bright material was salt. Salt can’t do that.”
Link: Phoenix Mars Mission
I mean, WOW!?? Can you imagine what other information we can gather from Mars??? Water is, as far as we know, the most essential element to life. I am not saying that because water is on Mars, there must be life on the planet.?? However, it is a good indication that there could have been, at one time, life on Mars.?? More research needs to be done; but the fact that water is probably on Mars gives scientists some hope.
Justin Capasso
Related Articles:
View original post here:
The Mars Breakthrough - Water
posted by on Jun 19
What we’ll be driving in five years.
Read the original post:
Naughton: The Car of the Future
posted by on Jun 18
With technology getting more sophisticated and easier to use, is it costing us our intelligence? As we rely more and more on technology to do small tasks, we are forgetting how to do these tasks without technology. If a day comes where the battery dies or the electricity goes out; most people will be at a loss for what to do. A great example of this is GPS technology.
But, just like with spell-checker before it, some experts believe that the guiding device gives less than what it takes away. The price we pay for the convenience, they say, could be our sense of direction.
Link: Lost or Found: GPS May Make Us Dumb
If you think about life after the invention of a spell checker; the ability to spell has gone downhill. I know that if I do not know how to spell a word, I can guess to the best of my ability and then right click the word and get the correct version. It makes life easier for me, but when it comes time to hand write something I am out of luck.
With GPS starting to become standard in new vehicles, drives find themselves using it because it is easier than getting lost. But when the GPS satellite doesn’t work because of the rain, the only result will be frustration.
Technology leads to convience. However convience is not always the best way to go.
Comments and opinions are welcome: Is technology making the current generation dumb?
Justin Capasso
Related Articles:
Read more here:
Does Technology Cost Intelligence?
posted by on Jun 18
Mozilla may have broken two records. One for the most downloads in a 24 hour period. The second for needing a vulnerability fix only 5 hours after being released. The latter I am sure was not expected. But what the heck. Nobody is perfect and the folks at Mozilla are only human. It is going to be interesting to see how quickly this can be fixed.
TippingPoints / DV Lab reports:
A number of people who monitor our Zero Day Initiative’s Upcoming Advisories page noticed yesterday that we reported a vulnerability to Mozilla (ZDI-CAN-349). Taking into account the coincidental timing of the Firefox 3.0 release, many are asking us if this is the first reported critical vulnerability in the latest version of the popular open source browser.
What we can confirm is that about five hours after the official release of Firefox 3.0 on June 17th, our Zero Day Initiative program received a critical vulnerability affecting Firefox 3.0 as well as prior versions of Firefox 2.0.x. We verified the vulnerability in our lab, acquired it from the researcher, then promptly reported the vulnerability to the Mozilla security team shortly after. Successful exploitation of the vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code. Not unlike most browser based vulnerabilities that we see these days, user interaction is required such as clicking on a link in email or visiting a malicious web page.
I am sure the folks at Mozilla might feel that this could put a damper on their world record for downloads. I don’t believe it will. What is unfortunate is that this was not found before the final release. 
Comments welcome.
Source.
Related Articles:
The rest is here:
Mozilla Firefox 3 Needs A Fix Already
posted by on Jun 18
I recently downloaded a new application launcher for Mac called Sapiens. This is a pretty cool application launcher, but I prefer Quick Silver Much more.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/9iRWZxu-CBc" width="350" height="288" wmode="transparent" /]
Wanna ask me questions and give me ideas, feel free to email me at tadstech@gmail.com
Download Sapiens Here
Youtube Channel
Related Articles:
Excerpt from:
Application Review - Sapiens
posted by on Jun 18
How many hours have you spent on YouTube watching super short clips of funny, stupid or otherwise entertaining video clips? How many of your friends have sent you a link to YouTube Human Tetris?
YouTube has filled in the gaps between professional journalism — but what hapens when the people at YouTube decide to allow longer videos; will YouTube replace journalism all together?
The company outlined the new policy in a memo emailed to content partners last week:
Long Form Content
You now will be able to upload and monetize videos in your account that are longer than 10 minutes. This feature is exclusively for partners. Independent Film makers that partner with us will now be able to upload their feature films on our site. Please note that for long form content, the maximum file size is 1GB.
How much is a one gig? A lot: Almost enough space for a full-length, standard definition movie. Most full-length films on iTunes, for example, are 1.1GB to 2GB. A standard-def copy of “Semi-Pro” runs an hour and 38 minutes and consumes 1.1GB.
Link: YouTube Strategy Shirts, Tries Long-Form Video
I do not think that professional news has anything to worry about, as they have built up their credibility; most of the videos on YouTube and homemade ‘Americas Funniest Home Videos’ that have no real creditble source.
YouTube has done some very interesting things to our society; instead of going outside for a walk, we post or watch videos on YouTube. The video website has become a place for people to try to become noticed. Are these people being noticed or are they just using an outlet thinking someone will notice them. When we spend time watching a baby crawl towards a cobra or a sneezing Panda (Google “Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil YouTube episode), that says something where our society put its priorities.
I think that the longer videos on YouTube will be quite beneficial to those who are able to use the function. It will allow artists to create longer videos that will keep people on the website for longer.
Smart move on YouTube’s part; traffic should be going up for them.
Justin Capasso
Related Articles:
Continued here:
The YouTube Effect
posted by on Jun 18
Nanotechnology is paving the way toward improved solar cells. New research shows that a film of carbon nanotubes may be able to replace two of the layers normally used in a solar cell, with improved performance at a lower cost. Researchers have found a surprising way to give the nanotubes the properties they need: add defects.
Currently, these solar cells, called dye-sensitized solar cells, have a transparent film made of an oxide that is applied to glass and conducts electricity. In addition, a separate film made of platinum acts as a catalyst to speed the chemical reactions involved.
Both of these materials have disadvantages, though. The oxide films can’t easily be applied to flexible materials: they perform much better on a rigid and heat resistant substrate like glass. This increases costs and limits the kinds of products that can be made. And expensive equipment is necessary to create the platinum films.
Jessika Trancik of the Santa Fe Institute, Scott Calabrese Barton of Michigan State University and James Hone of Columbia University decided to use carbon nanotubes to create a single layer that could perform the functions of both the oxide and platinum layers. They needed it to have three properties: transparency, conductivity, and catalytic activity.
Ordinary carbon nanotubes films are so-so in each of these properties. The obvious ways of improving one, though, sacrifice one of the others. For example, making the film thicker makes it a better catalyst, but then it’s less transparent.
Previous theory had suggested that materials may function better as catalysts when they have tiny defects, providing sites for chemicals to attach. So the researchers tried exposing the carbon nanotubes to ozone, which roughs them up a bit. Very thin films, they found, became dramatically better catalysts, with more than ten-fold improvement.
In fact, the performance gets close to that of platinum. “That’s remarkable,” Trancik says, “because platinum is considered pretty much the best catalyst there is.”
In order to address the trade-off between transparency and conductivity, the researchers tried another trick on a bottom layer of tubes: they created carbon nanotubes that were longer. This improved both conductivity and transparency.
The carbon nanotube films might be used in fuel cells and batteries as well.
“This study is an example of using nanostructuring of materials – changing things like defect density and tube length at very small scales – to shift trade-offs between materials properties and get more performance out of a given material,” Trancik says. “Making inexpensive materials behave in advanced ways is critical for achieving low-carbon emissions and low cost energy technologies.”
[Jessika Trancik @ Santa Fe Institute]
[rssbullet:http://xml-us.amznxslt.com/onca/xml?Service=AWSECommerceService&Version=2005-07-26&Operation=ItemSearch&ContentType=text%2Fxml&SubscriptionId=1TNCMT2927RM2D7Z0FR2&ResponseGroup=Large&Style=http%3A%2F%2Ftagjag.com%2Fcss%2Famazon.xslt&SearchIndex=Blended&Keywords=solar+power]
Related Articles:
Read the rest here:
Perfecting A Solar Cell By Adding Imperfections
posted by on Jun 18
The Associated Press have dug themselves a hole, which can be best described as their own grave. One would of thought that the Associated Press would of not pissed off the bloggers of the world in their attempt to regenerate revenues that they themselves are losing. Here is the real scope on why AP is acting so erratic these past few weeks.
It seems that AP woke up one morning and took notice that when a story was run through Google, they were not coming up at the top of the list. It was also being noticed by some newspaper folks that they were getting better local news coverage from other internet sources and not from AP. Yes, the bloggers were doing a better job that AP. So a number of newspapers apparently made mention of this:
A few weeks back the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, on “On the Media”, talked about how newspapers in Ohio were reaping great benefits trading material, and linking and cross linking. More importantly, she said she was no longer reliant on The
|
