Today, New York Councilman Daniel Dromm will reportedly introduce legislation that will force the NYPD to stop using typewriters. That’s right, the NYPD still has typewriters in all 77 precincts. Read more…
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It’s Completely Absurd That the Police Still Use Typewriters
You would need a microscope to be able to see all of the miniature components etched onto the single tiny microchip powering the clock in a digital watch. But you can see them all with the naked eye on artist Gislain Benoit’s The Clock , which is made from 1, 916 hand-soldered components that end up weighing a hefty 14 pounds. Read more…
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Some Very Patient Genius Soldered a Digital Clock From 1,916 Components
Your smartphone may be as powerful as a computer, but it’s also hobbled. You can only install apps on it from the walled garden of the official app store. Your options are limited to the small, vetted collection of “approved” apps as opposed to the unlimited options available for PCs. That’s where jailbreaking comes in. Read more…
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The Golden Age of Jailbreaking Is Over
Add / Remove Exercise bikes may be great for those looking to train in bad weather, but the experience has a number of significant drawbacks for the avid cyclist. Gone are the rolling hills of a scenic touring route, and also absent are any cycling companions to lend a sense of camaraderie and competition. Looking to address this, VeloReality’s training software simulates rides through famous scenic cycle tracks and roads via responsive HD videos. Indoor training cyclists can connect their training bikes to the software during the off-season and experience real resistance, admiring the views, which change in correspondence to the bike’s actual speed. Now, the latest incarnation of their VRide product — VRide Multi — connects riders to an online network, which enables them to find other cyclists also undertaking a VR ride, and join them on the course. To start, cyclists simply plug in the VeloReality USB hard drive to their bike, and load up the VRide Multi map of Europe showing all current users. They can then choose from any of the training courses they have purchased — each course covers approximately 40km and costs EUR 9.95 — and fast forward the cinema quality video to the current position of their new teammate or competitor. The riders then cycle alongside each other, adding friendly competition to the otherwise lonely pursuit of indoor cycling. We have already seen companies offering a range of visual stimulation and responsive equipment to motivate users — such as BitGym’s vibration based exercise platform — but VRide Multi is the first to enable remote interaction between users, injecting a welcome element of comradery to off-season training. It is currently in Beta and welcoming cycling enthusiasts to test the system. It is compatible with a growing number of indoor bikes including VeloReality’s own LYNX trainer. Are there other ways to connect athletes to each other remotely, for stimulation during training? Website: www.veloreality.com Contact: gary@veloreality.com
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Virtual reality cycle videos let indoor cyclists race each other
SolarCity, the solar power startup whose chairman is the seemingly ever-present Elon Musk, has announced a new $750 million fund created to help fund residential solar projects, including defraying the upfront costs of solar panel installation at homes in 14 different states across the U.S. and in D.C. The new fund includes a contribution of $300 million, or just under half the total value, … Read More
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SolarCity Creates $750M Fund For Residential Solar With $300M From Google
Encrypted comms company Silent Circle, one half of the SGP Technologies joint venture behind the pro-privacy Android smartphone Blackphone, has just announced it’s reached an agreement to buy out its hardware partner, Spanish smartphone maker Geeksphone. Read More
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With $50M Boost, Silent Circle Aims Blackphone At Enterprise Security
muggs sends word that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted 3-2 to approve an expansion of their ability to regulate ISPs by treating them as a public utility. Under the rules, it will be illegal for companies such as Verizon or Cox Communications to slow down streaming videos, games and other online content traveling over their networks. They also will be prohibited from establishing “fast lanes” that speed up access to Web sites that pay an extra fee. And in an unprecedented move, the FCC could apply the rules to wireless carriers such as T-Mobile and Sprint — a nod to the rapid rise of smartphones and the mobile Internet. … The FCC opted to regulate the industry with the most aggressive rules possible: Title II of the Communications Act, which was written to regulate phone companies. The rules waive a number of provisions in the act, including parts of the law that empower the FCC to set retail prices — something Internet providers feared above all. However, the rules gives the FCC a variety of new powers, including the ability to: enforce consumer privacy rules; extract money from Internet providers to help subsidize services for rural Americans, educators and the poor; and make sure services such as Google Fiber can build new broadband pipes more easily. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules
The Spark Electron is a small component that enables devices to connect to the Internet where there is no WiFi or Bluetooth. Read the rest
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New component adds cellular networking to DIY projects
An anonymous reader writes “Google today began automatically converting Adobe Flash ads to HTML5. As a result, it’s now even easier for advertisers to target users on the Google Display Network without a device or browser that supports Flash. Back in September, Google began offering interactive HTML5 backups when Flash wasn’t supported. The Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tools for the Google Display Network and DoubleClick Campaign Manager created an HTML5 version of Flash ads, showing an actual ad rather than a static image backup. Now, Google will automatically convert eligible Flash campaigns, both existing and new, to HTML5.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Google Now Automatically Converts Flash Ads To HTML5
wombatmobile writes For more than 5, 000 years, apiarists donned protective suits and lit bundles of grass to subdue swarms of angry bees while they robbed their hives of precious, golden honey. Now two Australian inventors have made harvesting honey as easy as turning a tap — literally. Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart have just been rewarded for a decades worth of inventing and refining with a $2 million overnight success on Indiegogo. Their Flow Hive coopts bees to produce honey in plastic cells that can be drained and restored by turning a handle, leaving the bees in situ and freeing apiarists from hours of smoke filled danger time every day. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Inventors Revolutionize Beekeeping