Thursday: September 10, 2009
- NASA figures out a way to levitate mice using superconducting magnets.
Scientists have previously managed to levitate frogs and grasshoppers, but mice are more useful test subjects because their physiology is closer to humans.
Monday: November 14, 2011
- Five future technologies for passenger air travel presented by National Geographic.
What does the future hold for passenger air travel? National Geographic takes a look at some future technologies being developed right now. You just might be commuting at twice the speed of sound in a dart-like airplane and then arriving at the airport of the future. Do all airplanes of the future all have free in-flight wi-fi? That would be totally cool.
Wednesday: November 9, 2011
- Bret Victor's not-so-brief rant on the future of interaction design.
If you haven't seen Microsoft's video entailing what they think the future of technology holds, you should watch it (readily available on source URL as an embedded clip). So watch that video and then read Victor's thoughts on the matter. That being said, I do have a minor point of contention. I did get some hands-on time with a Kinect-enabled Xbox 360 this past weekend and it was a fun, dare I say, semi-magical experience. I highly reccomend Double Fine's Once Upon a Monster (even the demo is fun).
- Adobe gives up on trying to get Flash to work on mobile devices.
Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations.
Wednesday: August 3, 2011
- An interesting video showing off the impressive CGI used in Game of Thrones.
Andy Gavin has written a post with a behind the scenes video from HBO's Game of Thrones depicting how most of the locations are built using modern CGI and clever scouting. If you've watched the show (and I highly recommend that you do) some of the per-CGI moments in the video may actually take you by surprise, once you see their post-CGI counterparts.
Friday: July 15, 2011
- Disney testing out new mug technology in an effort out to stop drink refill abuse.
The rampant use of hotel guests taking advantage of their refill privelages have finally put Disney over the edge. DIS Unplugged reports that they are currently testing new mugs that have embedded RFID chips in them. If you've exhausted your free refill privelages for that day, no soda dispensed for you. Take that, thrifty guests!
Friday: July 8, 2011
- Live coverage of the last NASA Shuttle launch ever.
Some exact details for those interested: launch vehicle: Space shuttle Atlantis, launch pad: 39A, launch window: 11:21 - 11:31 a.m. EDT. Wow, that launch window seems pretty small, just ten minutes. Targeted launch time is 11:26 a.m. EDT. To infinity and beyond!
Tuesday: May 18, 2010
- Brand new computer algorithm actually capable of detecting sarcasm.
...the team scanned 66,000 Amazon.com product reviews, with three different human annotators tagging sentences for sarcasm. The team then identified certain sarcastic patterns that emerged in the reviews and created a classification algorithm that puts each statement into a sarcastic class.
Monday: April 26, 2010
- Sony ceases production of floppy disks. In other news, Sony was still making floppy disks.
Most other floppy disk manufacturers had long since pulled out of the market, and Sony itself has already ceased sales to most of its overseas markets. With the release of the iMac in 1998, Apple was the first computer maker to take the plunge and eliminate the floppy completely.
- NASA releases brand new Hubble images in honor of the telescope's 20th birthday.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured over 570,000 images of roughly 30,000 objects in our known Universe? What, you didn't know that? Then go ahead and start your day off right with some additional cosmic photography.
Tuesday: April 20, 2010
- NASA to send first humanoid robot out into space later this year.
The robotics aren't quite advanced enough yet to send an actual android that is advanced as the ones you've seen on Star Trek - but it's a start. As to when these robot astronauts will turn on their masters and decide to destory all of our satellites - anybody's guess.