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.
Save us from the freaky evil FriendFeed!
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?
Can we slow down time?
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.
Is Safari taking Windows users for a ride?
This morning after I logged in, Apple’s Software Update program popped up and asked me if I wanted to install Safari. “Safari? ” I wondered, “the only Apple software I’ve installed on this system is the QuickTime+ITunes bundle. Why’s it asking me about Safari?”
But I’ve mean meaning to install Safari anyway to test browser compatibility, so I said, “Sure, why not?”
Well, apparently a lot of folks out there aren’t as easygoing about this as I am.
Mozilla CEO John Lilly says:
It’s wrong because it undermines the trust that we’re all trying to build with users. Because it means that an update isn’t just an update, but is maybe something more. Because it ultimately undermines the safety of users on the web by eroding that relationship. It’s a bad practice and should stop.
Of course he’s not biased.
I guess maybe most users don’t pay much attention to what they’re installing on their systems, and just click OK to anything that pops up and asks for their permission. Maybe it’s becoming a knee-jerk reaction in response to Vista’s UAC.
My own opinion is that this isn’t such a big deal. What I was choosing to install was quite clear to me, and I had the option of saying no without losing any other functionality or security. And if you don’t know what Safari is, Google can take you there as its first result.
What do you think? Is Apple pushing its products in too subtle a fashion here?
Oh, and as for that browser compatibility test… it looks like I may have some work to do.
Take the television but leave the Internets alone!
By Mark O’Neill
A new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that more Americans would prefer to give up the television than lose their internet connection by a margin of 45% to 43%.
It also found that losing their internet connection for a sustained period of time would make people think they had been transported back to the Dark Ages. This leads to the best quote of the article :
“I suspect for a lot of people, if you cut that cord, they wouldn’t know what to do with themselves,” said Bob Papper, a media professor at Hofstra University on Long Island, N.Y. “They’d be paralyzed without the internet. They might have to read.”
As well as being funny, it is also very startling. It makes you realise how much the internet has penetrated our lives to the point that we’d be ‘paralyzed’ without it. That losing the internet would force us to do something as basic as read a book. That’s why I chose a man and a noose as the illustration for this post – because losing their internet connection and their computer would probably make a few die-hard net surfers choose the ultimate way out. It’s sad but it’s probably true.
What about you? Being a geek, I’m sure the TV would be history if you had to choose but if the internet connection went down, how long is too long? How long before you started chewing the sofa or ripping the wallpaper in frustration? How long before you considered picking up that book and starting to read? How long before you declared Holy War on the internet provider?
Lenovo X300 versus MacBook Air Comparison
Yep folks, Lenovo has decided to try and compete against the MacBook Air with their new x300 ultra-light and ultra-thin laptop. Here is a quick comparison chart between the two ultra-portables:
| Lenovo Thinkpad X300 | Apple MacBook Air |
| Processor: Core 2 Duo Weight: 2.9 to 3.1 pounds Thickness: 0.92 in. Screen: 13.3 LED Resolution: 1440X900 Removable Battery Connectivity: Ethernet, Wi-Fi 3 USB ports DVD drive: YES Price: $2700 to $3000 USD
|
Processor: Core 2 Duo Weight: 3 pounds Thickness: 0.76 inches Screen: 13.3 LED Resolution: 1280X800 Non-Removable Battery Connectivity: Wi-Fi Only 1 USB ports DVD drive: NO Price: $1800 to $3100 USD
|
Ok, the X300 may be a little thicker, but it has a lot more features, including 3 USB ports, an Ethernet port, and a DVD drive. I think this makes the X300 a much better option for people on the move when compared to the MacBook Air, even if it’s running XP. Business users looking for portability won’t even have to look twice before purchasing this one.
A good reason to NEVER pull the fire alarm at a gas station for fun
The following video shows why you should never, ever pull the fire alarm at a gas station for fun.
Now that you’ve seen what happens, no need to be curious… right?
Service Review: Professional Drive Recovery Service
Losing a hard drive full of data is certainly a stressful affair. Not only will you likely go through the five clinical stages of grief, but then you’ll have to figure out exactly how you will continue on after this traumatic event. Can you actually recover any data from the drive? How bad is it? What steps do you take?
Say you don’t have a backup plan in place, as is the case with most people. What do you do when your world suddenly comes crashing down upon you (and I do mean this in the most literal sense)?
Tags: Disaster Recovery, Drive, Failure, Hard Disk, Hard Drive, Recovery
New wireless neckband enables users to make voiceless phonecalls
Yes, you read that right: Voiceless phonecalls. Keep on watching to learn more about the technology.
I just hope this thing cannot recognize unappropriate thought patterns! I wouldn’t want anyone to hear me “thinking” about how stupid or annoying I think they are.
:)
The future of portable tech: Solid-state fans
The biggest reason behind mobile technology being limited in size and performance is the inability of manufacturers to cool hardware appropriately. Every portable device on the market is either horribly underpowered or larger than necessary. This is because most gadgets with acceptable specs need large fans and heat sinks to keep them from burning through your lap.
Nowadays, if a manufacturer wants to cool something down, they smack a fan on it and call it a day. Not only do these fans move minuscule amounts of air, they’re large, waste battery power, and have a limited life-span.
The new, tiny, solid-state fan from Thorrn Micro Technologies uses similar principals as those ionic air purifiers. Basically, the fan emits ions that create an electric field which then pushes air molecules. I was a little skeptical at first, however, the fan can reportedly move air at up to 2.7 meters per second, whereas regular mechanical fans in portable electronics only push about .7-1.7 meters per second.
Research and development of the SSD fan has already been completed and it is now being prepared for marketing to computer manufacturers; the people behind it are expecting to push these onto the market as early as next year. In other words, it may never happen.
Microchip-sized ‘fan’ has no moving parts
Tags: fan, ions, mechanical, solid-state