Tag Archives: technology

You couldn’t get away from this story on the news this weekend, but it’s so cool, I’ve got mention it here. MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy. With Daniel Nocera’s and Matthew Kanan’s new catalyst, homeowners could use their solar panels during the day to power their home, while also using …

What a weird last few days on teh interwebs, a regular triple play of nonsense. First Haloscan crashes, then Google locked thousands of bloggers out of their accounts, then on Friday afternoon any site with the Sitemeter script on it would no longer open in IE, affecting many thousands of sites. We got a heads-up from the CEO of JS-Kit, …

Have you been reading the hype about Cuil (pronounced “cool”), the new search engine that supposedly tracks three times the number of web pages as Google? I just Cuil-ed myself and among the first ten results are my year-old post about the death of Jerry Falwell, a couple of years-old Daily Kos pages tagged with my name, and other ancient …

Could textbooks be Kindle’s killer app? I sure would have loved not to have to lug around a giant pile of over-sized textbooks. To say nothing of the their outrageous prices and the bother of selling them at the end of the term. On the other hand, I’m not so sure I’d be able to get a handle on flipping …

JMG reader Rafael tips us to the news that the Mars Phoenix Lander has found evidence of water ice on Mars. Fascinating. The confirmation that water ice exists in the area directly surrounding the lander is big and good news for the Martian mission. NASA’s stated goal for the Mars Phoenix was to find exactly this — water ice — …

If you’re looking for the absolutely gayest thing to do this Pride season, get this: It turns out the immortal Judy Garland never really croaked (but please don’t tell that to the gays who rioted all those years ago at Stonewall, making history partly because they were pissed that Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz was gone. They’ll feel used.) …

A few keyboard tricks for Firefox users that I didn’t know: CTRL-L: Jump to URL boxCTRL-K: Jump to Google search boxCTRL-T: Open a new browser tab You got any more? (Via – Andrew Sullivan)

The faster, smaller, cheaper iPhone: Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, introduced a new cheaper iPhone model on Monday that navigates the Internet more quickly, expanded its distribution overseas and displayed a range of new applications and services in order to establish Apple as a major player in the cellphone industry. Apple, the maker of consumer electronics and computer …

Hey, remember last year when we all laughed at the Kindle? Said e-books would never take off? Especially with such a fugly e-reader? Via CNET: Calling it the iPod of the book business, CitiGroup analyst Mark Mahaney says the Kindle e-book reader will generate three-quarters of a billion dollars for Amazon.com in less than two years. CNET thinks the analyst …

A New York state Senator has proposed providing cops with miniatures cameras attached to their guns which would turn on whenever the gun is unholstered. The technology has been around for awhile, but recent cases like NYC’s Sean “50 Shot” Bell shooting have renewed calls for its implementation. In a flash, a police officer draws a handgun from its holster. …

An electronic speaker that emits a high-pitched tone which only young people can hear is being used to clear out unwanted teen hangouts. The Mosquito, which targets loiterers, projects a shrill noise audible only to teens and young adults. Almost 1,000 units of the device, called the Mosquito, have been sold in the United States and Canada after the product …

After nosing around on some techie forums, I’ve learned that the Red Lasso videos I’ve been embedding have been causing a lot of sites to lock up. Therefore, I’ve removed those videos and reduced the numbers of days’ posts on the main page from ten to five. JMG should load for you now in 10 seconds or less*. Heh. “Load.” …

I’m being told by readers that the Beta version of Firefox 3 has fixed the bugs that were causing JMG to crash or freeze some of your browsers. I don’t know if the fix is related to the Blogger template or to the Javascript embedded in some video players, but whatever, yay. Y’all should upgrade if you haven’t already and …

Here’s a sign of the times. A California company is selling car dealers a device that disables your car when your payment is late. A Riverside County company is cashing in on the subprime credit crunch. Murrieta-based, Sekurus, sells a device that will disable a driver’s car if a payment is missed. The so-called ‘On-Time’ device is actually a little …

Via the The Independent (UK): Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take “immediate steps” to reduce exposure to their radiation. The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the …

Looks like the final nail is in the HD-DVD coffin: HD DVD’s pulse has been steadily getting weaker since the Warner blow, and now Hollywood Reporter is saying that Toshiba is getting ready to put it down following the Netflix and Best Buy shutouts. The official Toshiba word is that they’re going to keep breathing, though they’re going to “study …

Microsoft is ceasing sales of Windows XP and that’s got some PC wonks in a dither. Goodbye, Windows XP. Microsoft, which released its latest operating system, Vista, last year, plans to stop selling Windows XP in stores and through its PC partners on June 30. It’s a typical move in the high-tech industry, as older models make way for new …

Microsoft has made a $44B bid for Yahoo!, which has been struggling of late and is set to lay off over 1000 employees. Microsoft said the booming online advertising market “is increasingly dominated by one player” — a reference to Google — and suggested that with Yahoo under its wing it could better compete in the bonanza. Online advertising sales …

Immediately on the heels of Apple’s unveiling of their new movie download program comes word that Time Warner Cable is planning to test a new pricing model that charges broadband users based on the amount of data they download in a given month. Under the experiment, TWC will offer customers four tiers of service starting with an introductory level that …