This past fall when NASA astronaut Colonel Douglas H. Wheelock took command of the International Space Station he began posting photos to his Twitpic account of the incredible views he was encountering from his lofty perch. My favorite is this photo of an island that looks like a hat. Link
Read more here:
Incredible Space Pics from Astronaut Twitpic Account
The authorization process Windows imposes on its users is pretty picky, sometimes causing problems with legitimate copies. What do you do when you follow the rules and Windows authorization still fails you? More
To kickoff 2011, we announced the Autism Connects technology and design competition, an international design challenge for students . The competition asked students to help individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to better connect with the world around them and allow individuals who do not have ASD to better understand and connect with those who do by combining technological and creative solutions. After a month of deliberating, we are proud to share the design challenge jury and community winners below! Stay tuned as we give you a more in-depth look at the winning projects.
JURY WINNER
GOBUG
By Team gman
Gobug is an interactive toy designed to facilitate an inclusive social learning experience for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. However, individuals of all ages and abilities are welcome to join, play, and learn.
RUNNER UP
weSYNC
By thisisnoel
weSYNC is an application that creates a specialized profile for the autistic individual by gathering knowledge from each caregiver and establishing a centralized location where it can be accessed and edited. Establishing a dialogue among doctors, therapists, teachers and parents allows them to reinforce one another’s efforts.
RUNNER UP
VISUAL WATCH
By cam
Visual Watch is a time management and picture exchange communication system (PECS) tool designed specifically for people with Autism. My concept tackles two issues. Sense/Management of Time and a more mobile PECS system.
ADDITIONAL COMMUNITY WINNERS
COMMUNICATING THROUGH MUSIC
By candemosse
This game board facilitates positive change in the behavior of children with autism in a “safe” environment. Placing a cube in different positions along the x-axis the notes climb the pentatonic scale, variance along the y-axis effects the pitch of the note.
LINE UP
By cam
Line Up is a fun game for autistic children, that harnesses their interest in lining up toys and other objects, to to teach them facial recognition skills that are essential for communication.
BEARHUG
by squeezeease
BearHug is an inflatable vest for giving Deep Pressure Therapy to help ease anxiety and regulate the sensory system. Using air, adjustable pressure can be distributed safely and evenly to the torso, to meet each child’s specific needs and calm the child so that they can interact with others, concentrate better, and be more effective at completing daily tasks.
Special thanks to our esteemed Jury including Yves Behar (fuseproject), Lisa Strausfeld (Pentagram), Richard Seymour (Seymourpowell) and our own Allan Chochinov (Core77) and the Autism Speaks team!
See the original article here:
Autism Connects Design Challenge: Competition Winners
Even in the early days of humanity, people were lazy. They wanted a way to kill each other without having to go to all the trouble of bashing each other’s heads in with rocks. So they turned to better living (briefly) through chemistry. Find out how wolf crap and chilis won wars. More
Yesterday, we found out that E Ink Holdings won’t be releasing a new electronic paper display until 2012 and now, we know why. Turns out, the Pearl manufacturer has been busy refining its screen tech acumen, and extending it to a variety of different surfaces. The Digital Reader recently caught up with Sriram Peruvemba, E Ink’s VP of global sales and marketing, who confirmed that his company has developed a SIRF display that can be printed on cloth, effectively turning any t-shirt into a flashing, black-and-white billboard. E Ink’s engineers have taken a similar approach to Tyvek cloth, creating a display that could make your vanilla postal envelopes a little more dynamic. And, as you might expect, the company has been experimenting with an e-ink screen capable of supporting colorful, full-motion video — though it looks like E Ink still needs to smooth out some of the grainy kinks in that one. All three demo videos are available for your viewing pleasure, after the break.
[Thanks, Nate]
E Ink develops flashing displays for cloth and Tyvek, experiments with color FMV (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 11:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Looks like 3D isn’t just a fad, folks, so long as we’re talking about silicon — Intel just announced that it has invented a 3D “Tri-Gate” transistor that will allow the company to keep shrinking chips, Moore’s Law naysayers be darned. Intel says the transistors will use 50 percent less power, conduct more current and provide 37 percent more speed than their 2D counterparts thanks to vertical fins of silicon substrate that stick up through the other layers, and that those fancy fins could make for cheaper chips too — currently, though, the tri-gate tech adds an estimated 2 to 3 percent cost to existing silicon wafers. Intel says we’ll see the new technology first in its 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs, going into mass production in the second half of the year, and it’s planning 14nm chips in 2013 and 10nm chips in 2015. Also, 3D transistors won’t be limited to the cutting edge — Intel reps told journalists that they “will extend across the entire range of our product line,” including mobile devices. Three videos and a press release await you after the break.
Intel will mass produce 3D transistors for all future CPUs, starting with 22nm Ivy Bridge (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We’ve heard Sony explain itself at length regarding the gigantic PlayStation Network breach, but this might be the most useful version of the story yet — it’s the one that Sony’s Kaz Hirai is forwarding to US Congress members concerned about your personal information. The official PlayStation.Blog has the full English document up on Flickr for your perusal, and we’ll warn you it’s much the same tale — Sony says all 77 million PSN and Qriocity accounts have had information stolen, but the company’s still not sure exactly which pieces have gone missing, whether credit card numbers are compromised or no, or who could be behind the hack. Sony does say, however, that it had 12.3 million credit card numbers on file, and 5.6 million of them from the US, and that investigators found a file on one of the servers named “Anonymous” with the words “We are Legion” inside it. Hard to draw many conclusions from that.
Sony responds to Congress: all 77 million PSN accounts compromised, finger pointed at Anonymous originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 12:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Pandora is stretching its wings a bit, expanding its stellar recommendation engine beyond just music and into stand-up comedy. Categories range from PG to “working class” to “urban,” or you can sort by a favorite comic. More
Look out iTunes, Spotify has just launched its new music download service in Europe. What’s more, the company that had been synonymous with music streaming will let you sync your downloaded MP3 playlist bundles to your USB-connected iPod classic, nano, or shuffle via a new “Devices” section of the Spotify app running on your computer. And listen up freeloaders, Spotify Mobile iOS and Android app users can now sync playlists wirelessly without a premium subscription. Here’s a quote from Daniel Ek, Spotify CEO, sure to create some angst in Cupertino:
“From today, Spotify really is the only music player you’ll ever need. Our users don’t want to have to switch between music players, but they do want to take their playlists with them wherever they go, on a wider range of devices, more simply and at a price they can afford. Now we’ve made that possible on one of the world’s most popular consumer devices.”
Spotify download prices for its nine million users of the free service (not premium subscribers) breaks down as follows:
All the new features will begin rolling out today as part of an automatic update. See the full press release after the break as well as a quick introduction video to get you started.
Continue reading Spotify launches music download service with iPod sync, puts iTunes on notice
Spotify launches music download service with iPod sync, puts iTunes on notice originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 May 2011 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.