This is one of the pictures that was made to illustrate Fortune Magazine’s special about Steve Jobs. It was originally designed in December 2007 and later adapted to include some of Apple’s newest products, like the MacBook Air. Impressive isn’t it? Click on the picture for a larger version.
[Via Flickr]
By Mark O’Neill
Arnold may have moved onto California to “lead, not to read” as Governor but the Terminator story continues nevertheless in the form of the Sarah Connor Chronicles. As geek fans wait with baited breath to see if a season 2 is about to be commissioned (the signs are good), the debate rages online – is the series a worthy addition to the Terminator series? Or is it nothing more than an embarrassing joke which should be consigned to TV hell?
Intel announced this week they are working on a new Wi-Fi solution with a maximum range of 60 miles. Scheduled for release in the second half of 2008, Intel’s Rural Connectivity Platform (RCP) will allow people living in areas unsupported by high-speed infrastructures to get on the net at a speed of up to 6.5 Mbps.
To make the solution work, a city interested in getting the service needs to purchase 2 routers, priced at about $500 each. Then, both routers will have to be set up in a point-to-point connection between a node that has access to high-speed Internet, and one in the locality needing coverage. From this point, access could be provided to the area using standard cables and wireless routers.
Not only will RCP help bring schools in rural locations access to the modern world, but I also see the technology being of great help to medical services and humanitarian organizations all around the globe.
The following video provides more details about RCP.
Unfortunately, I don’t think these lightsabers are actually of the real, flesh-disintegrating kind. That’s just too bad, they may come in handy in case of an eventual full-scale Sith invasion. Kudos to the folks at SpikeTV for this brilliant marketing idea. For those of you who live in New York, this bus-shelter ad is located on the corner of West 34th and Eighth Avenue.
[Via amNewYork]
After seeing the ABB Flexpicker in action, I have no doubt that one day, human workers will be pretty much useless in factories. This robot is apparently the fastest in the world, its arm going from 0 to 280 mph in barely 1 second.
By Mark O’Neill
Bad news geeks. A psychiatrist is pushing for internet addiction – “excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging” – to be classified as a mental illness which means the most serious cases could warrant medication or even a stay in a hospital, like all those gamers in China. Do you get broadband in hospital?
“Like other addicts, users experience cravings, urges, withdrawal and tolerance, requiring more and better equipment and software, or more and more hours online”, according to Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Dr. Block says people can lose all track of time or neglect “basic drives,” like eating or sleeping. “Relapse rates are high”, he writes, “and some people may need psychoactive medications or hospitalization”.
With China and South Korea already doing something about their internet addicts, Dr Block wonders if it is about time that the rest of the world starts doing something too. But colleagues are deeply sceptical, wondering if internet addiction is still in its early stages to be called a mental condition and they argue that it is extremely difficult for a doctor to determine when someone’s internet addiction has crossed over from being normal to being unhealthy.
If internet addiction is an illness, I’m a terminal case!
But don’t worry boys and girls. The next edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” isn’t due out until 2012. Until then, I think we’re safe. In the meantime, you can go back to your World of Warcraft. Play on.
Here’s some great news for all you die-hard XP fans: XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will be released in April! This is most assuredly the last major update the operating system will receive until the end of its life, as Microsoft will remove it from store shelves in June.
SP3 contains 1073 patches and hotfixes. Of those, 114 are security-related. The 959 remaining are geared toward improving the performance and reliability of the OS. It even seems that SP3 could improve XP’s performance by up to 10 percent!
When I think that Vista SP1 didn’t improve anything on my work system, I can’t help but feel depressed.
Located in Tokyo and designed by Japanese designer Yasuhiro Yamashita, the Penguin house uses the manipulation of light and space to make itself look much larger than it actually is in reality. I wish occidental designers were as innovative as Mr. Yamashita, especially with the current skyrocketing price of real estate in North America.
By Mark O’Neill
Sometimes I don’t know why I bother with all the technophobes of this world.
I’ve been working on the internet exclusively for the past two years now. This makes for some very interesting conversation at dinner parties when someone asks me what I “do”. I’m sure you’ve had the same problem explaining what you do for a job. You have the doctor explaining the latest rectal examination technique, the lawyer bragging about the latest billion dollar lawsuit they’ve just won, the businessman giving you the ups and downs of the NASDAQ…..then they turn to me and I start talking about the unfairness of the new Digg algorithim. Is it me or is everyone fidgeting? Why is that woman looking at her watch? Why is the lawyer holding the butter knife as if he wants to use it as a murder weapon?
In the following video, string theory pioneer Michio Kaku investigates claims of time dilation under the influence of adrenaline and other chemicals, including various drugs. These substances can apparently affect the chemical pathway of our stopwatch, effectively slowing down our perception of time, bullet-time style.