Technology Category
Independent news, views, opinions and reviews on the latest gadgets, games, science, technology and research from Apple and more. It’s about the technologies that change the way we live, work, love and behave.
Early Flying Car Soars Above Rome (1947)
IN 1947, a flying car –a propellor-driven automobile that flies– took its first test in Rome, Italy. While cruising down the road, the vehicle’s wings stay folded and when its ready to soar, the “driver/pilot” stops and unfolds them. This newsreel by British Pathé, titled “The Flying Car”, shows this two-passenger hybrid vehicle in action, both on land and in the sky.
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Posted: 15th, January 2014 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment
Intel Declares Itself Conflict Free! Coltan Congo Killers Sacked
OR rather Intel declares that its processors are now made without the use of conflict minerals. These so called “conflict minerals” are the stuff mined by the rapists and murderers out in Eastern Congo. With such names as “coltan” and “wolframite” they’re the sources of some of the metals (tantalum for example) that go into making all of our electronics.
And obviously it’s a good idea that people aren’t being enslaved to produce these minerals for us:
Did you know violent militias and rebel groups control many mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and surrounding countries, reaping millions of dollars from the sale of minerals extracted by exploited workers to fund conflict and human rights violations? With a firm conviction that a corporation can make a positive difference in the lives of global citizens by changing the way it does business, Intel is leading efforts to help address this problem by striving to eliminate these so-called “conflict minerals” from our supply chain. And today we are proud to offer the world’s first conflict-free1 microprocessors as one major step on this continuing journey.
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Posted: 7th, January 2014 | In: Money, Technology | Comment
No, We’re Not All Going To Get 3D Printers At Home
Tiny objects produced by a 3D printer sit on a table at the newly opened James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University in Raleigh on Friday, Jan. 4, 2013. The printer, an automated book retrieval system and walls that double as video screens are among the many innovations in the new, state-of-the-art facility.
GIVEN that some businesses are now successfully using 3 D printers there’s a bit of technophile crowing that the whole world is about to change. That we’ll all have one at home, producing anything and everything we want, and we’ll finally be clear of this capitalism shite and live forever in peace and harmony.
It’s true that certain businesses are indeed using them successfully:
British defence giant BAE Systems has become the latest company to take advantage of 3D printing technology to help manufacture components for fighter planes.
The company said on Sunday that a Tornado fighter jet fitted with parts that were printed in a machine, completed a successful test flight, potentially paving the way for the wider use of the technique in other manufacturing processes. The flight is significant as it is claimed to be the first made by a combat aircraft fitted with such parts.
Many experts are predicting that 3D printing will transform manufacturing and reduce the cost of making a range of products from advanced technology to plastic toys, with consumers able to make their own products at home on demand.
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Posted: 7th, January 2014 | In: Money, Technology | Comment
Help! Help! The American Spies Are Trying To Make Quantum Computers!
NOT that many of us know what a quantum computer is of course but if the Americans spies are trying to make one it must be evil, right? And yes, this is the latest revelation from the Edward Snowden papers about what complete, total and utter bastards the NSA is.
In room-size metal boxes secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world.
According to documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the effort to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” — a machine exponentially faster than classical computers — is part of a $79.7 million research program titled “Penetrating Hard Targets.” Much of the work is hosted under classified contracts at a laboratory in College Park, Md.
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Posted: 7th, January 2014 | In: Money, Technology | Comment
1930: The Plan To Drain And Dam The North Sea And Create DOGGERLAND
IN September 1930, plans were created to increase the size of Europe by linking the British Isles to the Continent. The new one would be called…DOGGERLAND.
Make your own jokes.
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Posted: 6th, January 2014 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment
No, The NSA Can’t Hack Your iPhone Any Time It Likes
ONE of the claims that was made over the break was that the NSA, the US crypto spies, could hack into anyone’s iPhone any time. This was all as a result of the Edward Snowden documents of course. The sad thing about this is that it was rather blown up out of proportion by one Jacob Appelbaum, one of the hangers on along with Glen Greenwald and Laura Poitras, around those Snowden documents.
Appelbaum went on to demand that Apple reveal which of the two dastardly things it had been doing: had it been cooperating with the NSA? Or had it just left the most appalling security breach open just for the hell of it?
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Posted: 2nd, January 2014 | In: Money, Reviews, Technology | Comment
My Cloud Pal: Danielle Bruckman Recreates 2013 In Selfies Taken On Her Lost iPhone
MY Cloud Pal is Danielle Bruckman’s journey though the selfies of the man who has her iPhone.
On January 1, 2013 my phone escaped me and somehow fell into the hands of a man with a killer mustache. Thanks to Apple and some kinks in the cloud, I receive all of his pictures in my photo stream. Here are his selfies as re-enacted by yours truly.
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Posted: 2nd, January 2014 | In: Reviews, Technology | Comment
Italy’s Incredible Attempt At A Google Tax
THE Italians have got themselves all het up over the fact that Google doesn’t pay any tax in that country. Or at least one or two politicians have got het up about it. You know, Google sits in Ireland, selling all that advertising into Italy and the poor Italian politicians don’t get to confiscate one red euro of that river of cash. Boo hoo, eh?
In order to try and get a bit of that cash they’ve decided to pass a new law. And one incredible little piece of it is as follows:
The advertising spaces online and sponsored links that appear in the results pages of search engines ( search advertising services ) , viewable on the Italian territory during the visit of a website or the use of an online service through landline or network and mobile devices, must be purchased exclusively through entities , such as publishers, advertising agencies , search engines or other advertiser , registered for VAT issued by the Italian tax . This provision shall also apply in cases where the sales transaction has been carried out through media centers , operators and third parties advertisers.
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Posted: 30th, December 2013 | In: Money, Technology | Comment
When Computers Were Giant
IT BOGGLES the mind to think that computers which literally filled rooms a few decades ago couldn’t come close to the computers that easily fit in the palm of our hand today. That phone in your pocket can do much more than the giant whirring behemoths brought in on a wench in 1973… It’s an amazing advancement when you stop and think about it.
Old science fiction movies and television shows which attempted to depict the computers of tomorrow never predicted anything coming close the compactness of an iPad. They definitely overshot the artificial intelligence aspect [HAL from 2001:A Space Odyssey (1968), Colossus from Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), Proteus from The Demon Seed (1977), etc.] but seemingly overlooked the possibility that these things might get small. In other words, we knew they’d get smarter, but we always assumed they’d stay big.
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Posted: 30th, December 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Technology | Comments (6)
Marion Liebig Keeps Warm In The Under The Artificial Sunshine Infra-Red Lamp – 1960
CAN sex sell anything? Yes. It can. The question was rhetorical. Anorak harks back to January 18, 1960, when Marion Liebig, Miss Hesse 1959, was keeping warm under the artificial sunshine of an bottled-gas-powered infra-red lamp in a snow-covered park in Wiesbaden, Germany, Jan. 18, 1960. The shivering bystander who forgot his swimwear and relying on the view to warm his cockles is unidentified.
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Posted: 30th, December 2013 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment
Jack Fletcher’s 21st Century House Of Wonders In West Covia, California – October 1954
ON Oct. 25, 1954, designer Jack Fletcher, 23, showed us around the 21st Century House in West Covina, Calif he shared with his wife, three-year-old daughter and twin baby sons.
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Posted: 30th, December 2013 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment
Flashback to 1952: Magnetised Soap
FLASHBACK to September 3 1952: Magnetised soap is shown to visitors to the annual inventors’ fair in Cologne, Germany, by the inventor, Franz Fuehrer, left, of Grosshesselsche, Sept. 3, 1952. The soap is built around a magnet which makes it stick to metal. The same principal is applied also to other toilet articles.
Posted: 30th, December 2013 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment
Can Thoughts Alter Gene Activity?
CAN thoughts change your physical body? Michael Forrester looks at the work published on TunedBody:
With evidence growing that training the mind or inducing certain modes of consciousness can have positive health effects, researchers have sought to understand how these practices physically affect the body. A new study by researchers in Wisconsin, Spain, and France reports the first evidence of specific molecular changes in the body following a period of intensive mindfulness practice.
The study investigated the effects of a day of intensive mindfulness practice in a group of experienced meditators, compared to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditative activities. After eight hours of mindfulness practice, the meditators showed a range of genetic and molecular differences, including altered levels of gene-regulating machinery and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory genes, which in turn correlated with faster physical recovery from a stressful situation.
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Posted: 29th, December 2013 | In: Technology | Comment (1)
Why Facebook Is Dead And Buried
THIS is a fairly strong prediction: that Facebook is actually dead and buried. At the same time as it manages to increase the number of users, increase the amount of time they spend on the site and also charge more money for each of the more ads they see. Sounds difficult that it could be dead as a result of all of that.
But the argument is actually a little different:
What appears to be the most seminal moment in a young person’s decision to leave Facebook was surely that dreaded day your mum sends you a friend request. You just can’t be young and free if you know your parents can access your every indiscretion. The desire for the new, also drives each new generation to find their own media and this is playing out now in social media. It is nothing new that young people care about style and status in relation to their peers, and Facebook is simply not cool anymore.
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Posted: 29th, December 2013 | In: Money, Technology | Comment
Facebook Is Dead: British Parents Use It To Spy on Their Kids Who Want To Be On Snapchat
THE death of cool is when the establishment start to get it. The BBC appearing at Glastonbury marks the big summer festival out as horribly uncool. Uncool can also be the moment your mum pokes you on Facebook. It turns out that teens in Britain and the rest of Europedon’t rate Facebook. But their parents do. Facebook is a way to spy on the kids. Who needs the NSA when you have Facebook?
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Posted: 27th, December 2013 | In: Technology | Comment
Walmart Sells Nintendo 3DS With Free Dirty Photos – Hurry Whilst Stocks Last!
“HE went to play his games, not knowing anything was on it,” says Tom Mayhew of his eight-year-old son and his ‘new’ Nintendo 3DS, the one he’d been given for Christmas. “After a while, [the kids] took pictures of themselves and when the picture was taken it went to a file. When that file was opened, there were already pictures on it.”
Not any pictures – but a dozen pornographic pictures.
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Posted: 27th, December 2013 | In: Strange But True, Technology | Comment
Are You Ready For Candy Crush, The Movie?
WE’VE entered a strange time for films. Films everyone can remember first time round are being remade, Ryan Reynolds is still getting work and, weirdest of all, films are being made based on toys.
Now, of course, action figures and the like have ended up on the silver screen, but the Rihanna-starring ‘Battleship’, based on a coordinates board game, flummoxed everyone. What next? Well, to save us all from a ‘what’s next – [insert ludicrous ‘Monkey Tennis’ idea here] joke’, we’ll cut to the chase.
Candy Crush, that’s what.
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Posted: 27th, December 2013 | In: Film, Technology, The Consumer | Comment
In 1994 Tom Tomorrow Predicted The NSA Would Spy On All Of Us
IN 1994, Dan Perkins, aka Tom Tomorrow, foresaw the NSA and the American elite’s plan to watch us all and record our movements on tapes in his work for Spin magazine.
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Posted: 27th, December 2013 | In: Flashback, Reviews, Technology | Comment
Apple Finally Signs The China Mobile Deal
THE financial markets have been waiting for this for some years: for Apple to sign up with China Mobile to take the iPhone. The importance of it is that China Mobile is the last major airtime provider around the world that doesn’t currently carry Apple’s products. And with 760 million subscribers that’s a hell of a market that Apple is missing out on. The deal has finally happened:
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Posted: 23rd, December 2013 | In: Money, Technology, The Consumer | Comment
Flashback: The Nuclear Bomb Alarm In Washington
FLASHBACK to 05/03/1960: The nuclear bomb alarm in Washington is shown. The robot ‘sensor’ detected the brilliant light of an atomic explosion and transmited an automatic warning instantly to distant Air Force command posts, signalling an attack.
Posted: 20th, December 2013 | In: Flashback, Reviews, Technology | Comment
When The Asian Call Centre Phones Ask For Agent Samantha West
TIME magazine’s Washington Bureau Chief Michael Scherer received a phone call from a Samantha West. The caller wanted to talk about Scheree’s health insurance.
He asked is she was real? She replied: “I am a real person, can you hear me okay?” The staffers called Samantha back:
She failed several other tests. When asked “What vegetable is found in tomato soup?” she said she did not understand the question. When asked multiple times what day of the week it was yesterday, she complained repeatedly of a bad connection
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Posted: 19th, December 2013 | In: Technology, The Consumer | Comment (1)
21 Facebook Status Updates Made Into Inspirational Quotes
WHAT makes a memorable, quotable quote, the kind of thing you slap in an essay at school to earn a tick, or include in an article to illustrate a point, your theories backed up by a person of note’s wit and wisdom? Like you, we have no idea. But Phil Lucas has nailed it. It could be anything. He’s taken Facebook status updates and attributed them to famous faces. No longer trite, the words are injected with meaning and depth. Well, maybe:
Karl Marx
Mikhail Gorbachev
Charles Dickens
John Lennon
Lord Nelson
Albert Einstein
Nelson Mandela
Dalai Lama
Winston Churchill
Mother Teresa
Fidel Castro
Florence Nightingale
George Washington
Tony Benn
Emily Pankhurst
Marie Curie
Terry Waite
Mahatma Gandhi
Martin Luther King
Malcolm X
Jim Morrison
Posted: 19th, December 2013 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, Politicians, Technology | Comment (1)
Woman Checking Facebook Page Falls Off Pier And Almost Dies
A TAIWANESE tourist was walking along checking her Facebook page when she fell off Melbourne’s St Kilda pier.
Victoria state police reported the news with the headline: “Status Update: OMG One Step Too Far.”
Senior Constable Dean Kelly of the Water Police Squad says: “She wasn’t splashing around too much, she wasn’t in a panic. She admitted, ‘I can’t swim but I seem to be floating OK. She seemed to be floating on her back.
She had a backpack on – we’re not sure if that was providing her with a bit of buoyancy or something – and we were able to pull her aboard the boat. She had a mobile phone in one of her hands and when we pulled her aboard the first thing she did was apologise, say sorry, and then she explained that she’d been on her phone checking her Facebook page when she left the jetty unexpectedly and ended up in the water.”
Lest we forget:
Posted: 18th, December 2013 | In: Strange But True, Technology | Comment
The Detonation Cord Christmas Tree Lights Up Everything
CHRISTMAS Tree of the day is this one made from detonation cord. Flick the switch and ka-boom. Look at that fairy go:
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Posted: 18th, December 2013 | In: Technology | Comment
Organising Traffic By Colour: A Beautiful Time Lapse Video
CY Kuckenbaker filmed a 4-minute shot from the Washington Street bridge above State Route 163 in San Diego at 2:39pm Oct 1, 2013. “My aim is to reveal the colour palette and colour preferences of contemporary San Diego drivers in addition to traffic patterns and volumes,” he says. “There are no CG elements, these are all real cars that have been removed from one sample and reorganized.”
Posted: 18th, December 2013 | In: Technology | Comment
