Spiceworks 3.0: Taking Network Management to the Next Level

By Rob Dunn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

If you already are familiar with Spiceworks, then you can skip ahead to “Brief History” – but if not, read on.

Network Inventory for the budget-crunched masses

If you are a systems administrator or IT manager who maintains a small to medium sized shop, you probably don’t have a lot of money to spend (heck, who does these days?) on proactive network monitoring and inventory tools. So, any company that puts out an inexpensive high-quality tool to help you manage your network is a welcome sight.

Of course, if it is a free high-quality tool… well, that’s even better!

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Steve Ballmer getting egged in Budapest

Yes folks, Mr. Ballmer can finally join his buddy Bill in the “getting food trown at me” club. In the following video, you’ll see steve about to start talking at a conference at the Hungarian University of Economy in Budapest, when suddenly, an angry student gets up and start throwing eggs at him while yelling something completely unintelligible.

And as a bonus, here’s the video where someone smashes a cream pie on Mr. Gates’ face. Enjoy!

Web games to help computers get smarter

By Mark O’Neill

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have introduced a website with games designed to make peoples computers get better at doing certain tasks.

It’s one of those “for the common good” things, where you play the games and the researchers collect the results together and then use them to improve existing applications for everyone.

To give you an example, one of them is a game where you are shown a picture and you have to give words to describe that picture – you may know it better as Google Image Labeler. So these aren’t silly little league games. Some big money is involved here!

There’s only five games at the moment but I’m sure more will be added in the future.   If anyone criticises you for playing the games, just tell them you’re “doing your bit to improve the internet”.

Via SF Gate TechBits



The Underwear of the Future?

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Boxers, briefs, or high-tech underwear that can monitor your health?

No joke, gentlemen: Scientists have just filed a new patent for underpants that monitor your blood pressure.

The special skivvies come equipped with waistband sensors that use conductive rubber to measure how fast your blood is pulsing through your body.

“Electrodes are so arranged as to measure the passing of pulses of the central artery, and the left and right femoralis, as well as the ECG,” the patent says.

“The system may also be arranged to monitor the temperature, the posture, and the level of activity of the subject.”

Hmm. No word what the system indicates if you happen to be in the midst of viewing Tila Tequila pictures on the internet.

Open Culture – one of the best sites on the internet

By Mark O’Neill

There are a lot of crap websites on the net that I wouldn’t miss for an instant if they disappeared. But if Open Culture vanished, I would be really hacked off. This is one website that I monitor constantly for updates because everything they post is interesting.

I mean, look at what they have right now.   A recording of what is supposedly Walt Whitman reading his poem “America” (which then makes you wonder if the recording is real or not).   Then a rare early recording of the human voice (which made me comment that it isn’t really a recording of a human voice at all but more a recording of static!).

They also collect together essential jazz albums, books you should be reading, YouTube videos you should be watching, free podcasts you should be listening to, blogs you should be reading, and much more.    I am still wading my way through a free Mozart symphony that I found on iTunes thanks to Open Culture pointing it out to me.

This is definately one website you should have in your RSS reader.    You could easily waste an entire day going through Open Culture’s archives.

Surveillance Through Your Home Appliances

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

All right, surveillance junkies, I’ve got a new one for you: a just-developed device that can turn your air conditioning system into a sophisticated home monitoring tool.

Shwetak Patel of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta came up with the protocol, featured in New Scientist today. The tool monitors changes in air pressure to detect human movement. It uses five air pressure sensors inside the AC’s filter to figure out when doors open and when someone walks in or out of a room. Scientists say it functions on a real-time basis.

The implications are endless. The technology could lead to energy efficient systems that sense what rooms are occupied or empty and adjust temperatures accordingly. It could also be used for burglar alarms that detect unexpected activity in a home or area of a building, or for any number of other surveillance-related purposes.

Patel will present his invention at an international conference in Australia later this month.

This isn’t the first time regular home appliances have been used for monitoring. As New Scientist points out, a Seattle engineer also created a tool that places microphones on a home’s plumbing system to detect and monitor activity. That’s right, on the plumbing system. I don’t even want to think about the kind of data that thing has collected.

Are all mathematicians geeks?

By Mark O’Neill

I had to laugh at this one because to me, being viewed as a geek is probably not the only reason people don’t continue to study mathematics. I didn’t continue it because I sucked at it and my maths teacher begged me to leave her class before I forced her into a mental breakdown.

I have always adhered to the Billy Connolly philosophy when it comes to mathematics. He has always maintained that he has never seen the point of things like algebra and their practical use in the world. He famously told Conan O’Brien that the only two things that a school needs to teach kids today are “how to make money and how to get laid. Nothing else matters”. Conan choked on his coffee and the audience went into an uproar.

So do you agree with the study? Is it hard these days to get people to seriously study mathematics? Does the geek stereotype get in the way?

Control Your Appliances With Your Mind

By JR Raphael
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Prepare yourself for what may be the most powerful remote ever made: the mind-reading hat.

Scientists from Taiwan have just finished developing the first protocol of this thing. Aside from a rather obvious antenna jutting out the back, the hat looks stylish enough. But this baby isn’t about fashion; it’s about function. Inside, its electrodes can monitor the EEG signals from your brain and translate them into action.

So far, the hat’s been tested to read how alert users are and tell them whether they should be driving. But it’s the future possibilities that will blow your mind.

The researchers say they’ll eventually be able to have the hat sense your thoughts about appliances like your TV or computer, then act on them. So you could think, “I wish my TV would turn on,” and — boom! — it happens.

Coolness aside, the technology would have huge implications for people with disabilities who can’t physically get to their televisions to adjust them. The engineers are also looking at using the hats for medical monitoring and exercise training.

The hat operates on a completely wireless system, sending data via Bluetooth to a remote receiver. Its batteries can power it for two days before a recharge is needed.

The research was published in a medical journal called IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. You can read more about it here.