And Hanukkah too, if you celebrate that. The two holidays coinciding won't happen again for 70,000 years! If you're celebrating the Festival of Lights and feeling especially techie, there are some surprising tech alternatives to a traditional Menorah. Consider the circuit board Menorah, for example:
Or perhaps you would just prefer a Menorah app:
Or just go for broke, and have a robot do the whole thing for you!
But what about Thanksgiving? If you're in space, you get to have a freeze-dried celebration! Me, I think that would be perfectly fine, seeing as you're enjoying it IN SPACE! Here's more info about the specifics of the foodstuffs that astronauts use to celebrate liberating the Earth from martians.
If you've ever had your blood drawn, you know that while it's not necessarily a pleasant experience, but it's not so bad, either. A little pin-prick, a few vials of blood and an Oreo cookie later and it's all over.
That is unless they can't find a vein, or have to stick you more than once, or one of any other issues that can crop up. If only there was some way to find your vein easily, have a Google map of the arm or something like that.
Well now there is. A new product from Evena Medical allows the phlebotomist to see the blood flowing right beneath the skin. It's pretty remarkable, a little creepy, and another example of some nifty medical technology. Watch the video below and be amazed.
You may recall when we were discussing hardware we talked about dual-core and quad-core processors, which are single chips that act as though you had multiple CPUs all running at once (remember, that's very difficult to program for).
We also talked about how we are seeing not just desktop PCs but phones and tablets with multi-core processors, and discussed the potential advantages (speed) and disadvantages (battery life) to having such power in a small device.
Well it turns out we were discussing old-hat! The first ever 8-core mobile processor. Mobile is the operative word,since 8-core processors for larger devices have been around for a while.
So soon, if you have the need to use your phone or tablet to remotely pilot a 747, or design the next space station, or chart the evolutionary path of armadillos, or an endless amount of other large-scale tasks, well now you can.
Well, in a nod to that beast of physics and discovery, and in response to some emails and Facebook notifications I've received about it, I would like you to feast your eyes on the most beastly PC I've ever seen. The editors over at PC Gamer have developed what they call the Large Pixel Collider, a PC meant to test the limits of PC gaming functionality. Like it or not, gaming pushes computing technology further than any other force outside of government research, and many of our best technologies have come from it (pathfinding artificial intelligence, leaps in graphical fidelity, input methods, etc.).
It's not just that this machine is in a case that could house a small family, or has 8 storage bays, or a 1200 watt power supply; no, it's the quad-SLI graphic setup they put in. What that means, simply, is that they have four graphics cards all running together serving as a single device. Specifically, four NVidia GTX Titans which run about $1000 apiece.That means it will be able to push images and video at beyond-4K resolution.
Four fans, massive liquid-cooling...if you're a PC enthusiast, prepare to drool. If not, prepare to ask 'Why would anybody *do* this?' Just don't ask if it can play Angry Birds. Because it can! It'll fling those birds clean off the screen and onto your desk!
Well, it has finally happened. The computer virus, started way back (at least in its popular form) on the Apple IIe, has made it's way into outer space! The International Space Station has been infected with a virus carried by one of the astronauts on a USB stick. In fact, that is how *all* viruses are transmitted; they need a host of some sort. Whether it's a file set through email or a physical vector like a flash drive, viruses can't act or propagate on their own.
On a related note, look what came up while I was researching this: Just another example of why you have to be careful what yo read and where it comes from. They're not quite exact opposites, but they're close.
So which was it?
I'm more amazed by the fact the ISS has a USB port!
Thanks to Cynthia for sending an article about a very interesting (terrifying, maybe? Unnerving? Perhaps nefarious?) article about a new and unexpected technology being used downtown. Street lights known commercially as 'Intellistreets' are light fixtures that can strobe, play announcements, be controlled from an iPad, but can also record audio and video. Specifically, audio and video of *you.*
As expected, the current line on these lights is that these homeland security (seriously, that's what they call them) features are not being utilized, and they have no current plans to do so. But that also hints there might be *future* plans to do so.
Here one is.
It might sound like I'm completely against this, but I'm not, in principle. You can't have 100% security and 100% safety, they're mutually exclusive. Some monitoring has to take place in the interests of public security. The question is, will these contribute to that, or will they be a violation of the rights to privacy that we do have? Remember, if you are in a public place, your privacy rights are limited. DO you have the right to privacy and confidentiality on the grounds of city hall, or while you're in a restaurant, or only at home? Even legal experts aren't sure.
One other thing I'll mention; the fact they are wireless presents a potentially significant security risk. Although everything is recorded to a server, the ability to intercept recordings or take control of the lights is very real. Wireless signals are very susceptible to manipulation.
Continuing on the theme of whipping the public into a frenzy, there is another article linked in the original one about safety warnings being broadcast in Wal*Mart stores. While the intentions are good, I can see this leading to far more trouble than it might be worth, causing everyone to think everyone else is suspicious. Has anyone actually seen these?
Remember, we do need to intercept people who are planning something terrible. But do we need to monitor everyone in the process? Slippery slope, or necessary evil?
Like the guy in the hat? If not, do you at least use Twitter? Now that it has had its IPO, everyone who runs the company has become an instant millionaire/billionaire.
In fact, Twitter share prices rose sharply after the initial announcement, meaning an even larger take for those involved with the opening. It's an interesting phenomenon, since Facebook has four times as many users and Instagram is growing at a faster pace, Twitter seems to be the service that actually has the most immediate influence since it's used for security alerts and emergency warnings, political announcements and revolutions as well as letting people know what sandwich you just ate.
Even if you're not a billionaire just yet, do any of you by any chance use Twitter? Have an account but don't use it? Use it a lot? Follow anyone else? These questions are important because Twitter, for all the bluster over its IPO, is not profitable and only vague promises about how it will become so have been made. Facebook did it, so perhaps Twitter can as well.
Actually, this article is just discussing a newly-developed ability of robots to learn "behaviors" described by vague instructions. As the article notes, robots are terrible at doing this, as are all digital devices, they need very specific, step-by-step directions to complete even a simple task. Now, however, it appears that robots that will help us in the future will be able to pick up on cues during their training and learn the proper way to behave.
I can't believe I just typed that. I'm not thinking of I, Robot at all!
Geez, we can't even win simple children's games anymore. First it was crosses and naughts (tic-tac-toe as we call it in the U.S.), then it was chess, checkers, and any other game you can imagine. Now, they can even win - every single time no less - at rock, paper, scissors.
A robot has been developed in Japan that is so fast at determining what shape is being made by its opponents hand that it is impossible to beat. However, as the article notes, it's not really playing, it's cheating. Still, it's wining. Every time. When robots start winning at rock paper scissors, all hope for humanity is lost.
