Technology

Metered Parking In A High-Tech World

I just spent an extended weekend in Montréal (Picasa album with some highlight photos), and one thing I noted is the parking payment system — New York is adopting a similar system. In some places, they still have the old parking meters (well, for some val ...

Article - Barry Leiba - Aug 24 2009 - 7:57pm

Green lights and left turns

While we’re on driving-related comments, there are (at least) two interesting things that differ between Montréal and New York: The signal for a protected left turn in New York is a green arrow pointing left. In Montréal, the regular green light blinks. I ...

Blog Post - Barry Leiba - Aug 24 2009 - 7:40am

Speedometer accuracy

For the drive to Montréal, I borrowed a Tom-Tom GPS device — for fun, really; the way is straightforward. It’s the first time I’ve used one in my car, and I have to say that despite the advantage of portability, the built-in ones that I’ve seen in friends ...

Blog Post - Barry Leiba - Aug 27 2009 - 5:23pm

Lose weight by watching TV (but you may cluck like a chicken)

Behold, I bring thee tidings of the secret to weight loss: it's all in the mind. Simple, eh? And you spent all that money on gym memberships, diet supplements, and Jenny Craig dinners. But before you chuck it all and send me your life savings in thank ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Aug 24 2009 - 9:37am

Real-Life Transformers

USC's lego-like autonomous robotic units show off ability to reconfigure into different systems for different tasks. Wei-Min Shen of the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute recently reported to NASA significant prog ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 24 2009 - 12:02pm

What the f**k is social media?

Given that this is a social media site, it might be good to know what social media is, and what it can do. Here is an interesting, humorous, but intelligent slide show with a few answers. ...

Blog Post - Becky Jungbauer - Aug 24 2009 - 3:46pm

New Trend: Consumers Design Their Own Products

Think you can design a better iPhone?  We think we can, mostly by eliminating whatever attracts the more smug Apple users.   And we're not alone.   From running shoes to ceiling fans (no, Apple will not let you design your own phone- they won't e ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 24 2009 - 4:18pm

Arbo-Architecture: Literally Green Building Is A Tower Made From Living Trees

Members of the Research Group Baubotanik at the Institute of Theory of Modern Architecture and Design (University of Stuttgart) have been focusing on the idea of living plant constructions- that's right, towers made from trees. Recently their first “b ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 25 2009 - 10:13pm

Steaming To Success

Steaming To Success A hundred year old steam car speed record has just been broken by a British team.  Edward’s Air Force Base, California: Tuesday August 25th: Today at 8.19am (California time) Charles Burnett III successfully broke the land speed record ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Aug 26 2009 - 10:27am

DeathRiskRankings.com- Find Out Just How Much Time You Have Left

Worried that your cold revenge plans won't come to fruition before you shake off that mortal coil?  A new Web site, www.DeathRiskRankings.com, developed by researchers and students at Carnegie Mellon University, says they can help you plan your sched ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 26 2009 - 3:11pm