brett jordan

Phone size comparison site

2012-01-30T07:46:00.000Z

phone-size.com does exactly what it says on the tin. Useful.
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Smart E-Book Interface Prototype Demo

2012-01-27T07:48:00.000Z

1912 American Type Founders Specimen Book

2012-01-26T07:32:00.000Z

Kottke reports: [edited]

The Internet Archive is hosting a copy of the American Specimen Book of Type Styles released by the American Type Founders Company in 1912. It's a 1300-page book listing hundreds of typefaces and their possible applications.
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Smartr for iPhone

2012-01-25T07:48:00.003Z

iLounge reports: [edited]

Xobni has released Smartr Contacts for iPhone, an iOS adaptation of its popular contact and relationship management solution for other mobile and web platforms.

Smartr Contacts is a free app that allows users to extract information from their e-mail data and social network connections to create integrated profiles for their contacts, combining details from different sources such as phone numbers, photos, e-mail history and social network status updates.

Contacts are further ranked within the app by importance rather than alphabetically, placing the most commonly referenced contacts nearer to the top of the list and also provides linked contextual e-mail and calendar information for each contact.

For more info, click here
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Magnus iPad Stand

2012-01-24T07:46:00.002Z

Ten One Design reports: [edited]

Magnus is first machine-crafted from pure aluminum and then hand-finished using the latest manufacturing techniques. After that, customized magnets are installed into the base, and rubberized feet are fitted to the bottom surface.

Our designers targeted a reduced silhouette. Viewed from the side, you see only the iPad's tilt, and a flat plate on the desk.

Magnus may look like it's defying gravity, but it feels like a permanent attachment. You may need two hands to separate it from your iPad.

Price: $49.95
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Free Font - Open Sans

2012-01-23T07:57:00.001Z

Open Sans is available in 5 weights (with their complementary italics) from Font Squirrel.
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Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition Android tablet

2012-01-20T07:24:00.001Z

Register Hardware has published a review of Motorola's latest tablet.

Snippets follow:

"Like Goldilocks with porridge, I’ve yet to find a tablet size that I think is just right. Seven inch models are too small, 10.1 inchers too big. The iPad with its 9.7in screen should do the trick but it’s just too square for me – physically and metaphorically."

"Motorola may just have cracked the problem with a cut-down version of its Xoom 2 . The key difference is the screen which now measures 8.2in corner to corner but keeps the Xoom 2’s resolution of 800 x 1280."

"At 8.9mm thick, 216mm wide and 140mm tall it’s much easier to slip into a backpack or bag, and at 388g it’s the lightest high-end tablet you can buy."

"The new reduced shape, size and weight make the Xoom 2 ME a very fine e-book reader too. Holding it in one hand for prolonged periods is no chore and the rubberised back minimises the chances of it slipping through your fingers to virtually nil."

"Some of the weight saving is also due to the reduced sized battery. At 3900mAh it’s only just over half the capacity of the 7000mAh battery in the Xoom 2. Looping a 720p MP4 video, it managed 4 hours 20 minutes from a full charge but in more general use you can easily get over seven hours depending on screen brightness, Wi-Fi use and so forth."

"Inside you get a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 dual-core chip, 16GB of storage, 1GB of RAM and 1.3 and 5MP cameras pointing forward and backwards respectively. Usefully the web cam now works with Skype video calls."

Price £330
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Free Font - Mosaic Leaf

2012-01-19T07:26:00.001Z

Behance Network reports: [edited]

This is a free font created by emptypage design studio, inspired by the Akzidenz Grotesk typeface.

If you use our font in your design, please tell us about this and show your work. Font contains Western and Central Europe encoding, and also Baltic and Turkish. Mosaic Leaf include also Nordic characters set, numbers, punctuations and symbols and currency symbols.
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Video Notebook

2012-01-18T07:35:00.000Z

Mocha reports: [edited]

The VHS video may now be just a nostalgic memory for most of us. But this retro video notebook revisits the now obsolete format.

Celebrating the best parts, the Video Notebook comes complete with a protective video cover and a set of those famous sticky labels. It is ideal for carrying around in your bag, taking on your travels, keeping on your desk or storing on your bookshelf.

Ruled - 260 pages. Dimensions: H19 x W11 x D2.5cm. £11.50 + p&p.
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Sculpteo App

2012-01-17T07:45:00.002Z

Mobile Beat reports: [edited]

3D printing service Sculpteo have announced a free iPhone app that you can use to design 3D objects, upload your designs to the cloud, and receive a ceramic object in the mail a few days later.

The designs are based on photographs you take of yourself or a friend. Sculpteo’s app turns your face’s profile into a 3D object, such as the vase shown here. You can also transform it into a number of other objects, such as a bowl, plate, or mug. Once you’ve completed the design, you upload it and Sculpteo sends it to a local 3D printing facility which manufactures the object using a ceramic printing process.

Pricing depends on the size and complexity of the object: Large objects such as the vase above cost about $300, while a small cup costs just $70.

via Keith Seckel, via Ronda Couch
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Polaroid SC1630

2012-01-16T08:01:00.001Z

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

Making use of its Android platform, SC1630 users will be able to download a wide range of apps and games.

The company points towards the SC1630s camera credentials – a 16Mp CCD sensor and 3x optical zoom – as features smartphones fail to match. On the rear there's a 3.2in touchscreen display, with a host of production functions, scene modes and editing tools. There's Bluetooth and WiFi and there will be a 3G option.

Polaroid has yet to announce pricing or a release date.
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Canon Powershot S100

2012-01-13T07:33:00.000Z

Digital Photography Review have published a comprehensive review of Canon's flagship 'enthusiast' compact.

Conclusions [edited]

The S100 combines the best qualities of a pocketable point and shoot and an enthusiast compact camera. It provides well thought-out full manual control in a form factor approaching the size of Canon's Elph series.

Canon S100 boasts fast continuous shooting speeds and short shot-to-shot times. The S100 is one of the few compact cameras that stays light on its feet even in RAW+JPEG mode (assuming you're not trying to shoot continuous bursts).

The S100 produces well-balanced JPEG images that are full of detail and color. In typical Canon style, minimal default chroma noise reduction in the S100 results in JPEG images that retain a good amount of low-contrast detail without appearing desaturated.

Overall, the S100 is very competitive: it is capable of delivering very good image quality in an addictively small package, in a wide range of shooting environments. It is also a genuine pleasure to use, thanks to its effective and well thought-out operational ergonomics.

The Canon S100 is well-suited to two types of photographers: compact camera shooters looking to upgrade to a similarly small camera with more control, raw mode and better image quality, and DSLR photographers looking for a compact 'take anywhere' pocket camera with much of the same manual control as their larger cameras.

- - - - -

For a more anecdotal review, click here
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XO 3 Tablet

2012-01-12T07:10:00.000Z

The Register reports: [edited]

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has been showing off the first models of its XO 3 tablet at the Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The 8-inch tablet uses the 1GHz Marvell ARMADA PXA618 processor, 512MB of RAM and comes with a 1024x768-resolution LCD, or a lower cost Pixel Qi sunlight-readable display. Connectivity is via an Avastar Wi-Fi system-on-chip and the tablet can be hand-cranked for power, or there’s an optional solar cell contained in the tablet cover.

OLPC said that the tablet could be configured with either a Linux or Android operating system and will be sold exclusively to governments and aid organisations. The lowest cost tablet is expected to be around $100, although that would rise if Microsoft’s lawyers decide to extract an Android patent tax.

It is tablets like these that will be dropped by helicopter into remote villages as part of an research project by Professor Sugata Mitra into machine learning, that will test if people can teach themselves to write and use the internet without instruction. The project could revolutionise literacy programs around the world.
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Op/Tech Camera Wrist Strap

2012-01-11T08:05:00.001Z

My Panasonic G1's neck-strap was rarely used as intended. Usually I wrapped it around my wrist, but it was bulky and clumsy, and occasionally obscured the lens.

This wrist strap is comfortable to use, and substantial enough to support medium-size cameras. It is also easily detachable.

£15.67 inc. p&p from Amazon.
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MakerBot Replicator

2012-01-10T08:23:00.002Z

Engadget reports: [edited]

MakerBot just took the wraps off the Replicator, a new 3D printer that solves one of the technology's biggest problems at the moment - printing large.

It also offers up the company's Dualstrusion technology, making it possible to print in two colours. The Replicator can take either ABS (the plastic found in Lego) or biodegradable PLA plastic. The Replicator will run $1,999 for the dual extruder or $1,749 for a single.
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Kingston DataTraveler Micro USB Flash Drive

2012-01-09T07:50:00.001Z

MyMemory reports: [edited]

Easily add 16GB of extra storage to your PC, netbook, notebook, car audio and more without increasing the size of its footprint. Kingston’s DataTraveler Micro USB Flash drive is designed in an ultra-small form factor that it even can be permanently left in the device while on the move.

£11.99 inc. p&p

Thanks to Mel for the heads-up
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Samsung DV300F

2012-01-06T07:46:00.000Z

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

The DV300F has a 5x, 25-125mm, F2.5-6.3 stabilized zoom lens and a 16MP CCD sensor. It also features a 1.5" LCD on its front plate to allow easy self-portraits.

Its stand-out feature is its WiFi capability, that allows it to be remotely controlled from an Android smartphone (an iOS version is being developed). It can also automatically backup your images to your home computer via a WiFi network, or to a 'cloud' service such as Microsoft's SkyDrive or Samsung's All Share Play, avoiding the need to remove the camera's MicroSD card.
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How Doctors Die

2012-01-05T07:28:00.007Z

Zócala has published an excellent article by Ken Murray on how medical professionals approach their own deaths.

The key quote is the introductory paragraph:

"Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could triple a patient’s five-year-survival odds – from 5 percent to 15 percent – albeit with a poor quality of life. Charlie was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with family and feeling as good as possible. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation, or surgical treatment. Medicare didn’t spend much on him."

via kottke
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Insync

2012-01-04T07:07:00.004Z

lifehacker reports: [edited]

Insync is a new syncing and backup service similar to Dropbox, but with a bunch of additional features, like syncing your Google Docs and Gmail contacts.

Insync creates an always-in-sync folder on your computer that copies files to the cloud and to other machines running Insync. It also syncs your Google Docs to this folder as well, which is pretty great. If anyone shares a Google Doc with you it'll show up in your Insync folder, on your Insync page, and (of course) in Google Docs:

When you make changes locally, those changes are synced back up to Google Docs almost instantly. If you want to keep an eye on anything and everything Insync is up to, you can check in the menubar (system tray in Windows):

Revisions are tracked with your synced docs, too, so a quick right click can let you look back on all the revisions you've made. Here it is in action:

You can also drop any file into the Insync folder and it'll save it to your cloud storage and sync it with your other machines.

Insync is free for individual users and business accounts (limited to five users). Both account types come with 1GB of free storage. Additional storage options are forthcoming.

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: I'm giving it a try, and it works fine, however, there is a (Google-imposed) 10MB limit on individual file sizes. Dropbox remains my 'cloud' storage of choice, but I'm using Insync to free up space on it for larger files.
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Resolutions 2012

2012-01-03T08:31:00.000Z

1. Read through TNIV Bible using Robert Murray M'Cheyne plan.

2. Study Joshua - 2 Samuel using commentaries.

3. Resolve house insurance dispute.

4. Begin refurbishment of house.

5. Choose and purchase replacement for current vehicle.

6. Take regular long walks.

7. Improve guitar skills (at least 30 minutes per week).

8. Read at least one novel.
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Resolutions 2011 Review

2011-12-31T14:17:00.009Z

1. Study Genesis - Deuteronomy using commentaries.

Check (thanks Antony for the commentary recommendations)

2. Begin design/building work on house.

Insurance claim still pending with Financial Ombudsman

3. Get Pilates progress professionally assessed.

Nope

4. Improve guitar-playing skills, at least 30-minutes per week.

Nope

5. Continue de-cluttering of house.

Check

6. Continue to work at not picking at fingers.

Partial success

7. Work through two 'expert' books on use of Photoshop.

Check

8. Complete, frame and hang 'kidz kanvas 2011'.

Completed, yet to be framed/hung

9. Watch 24 movies.

Check

10. Watch 3 television series.

Check

11. Continue book/DVD purge.

Check

12. Do 3 of Andrew Duncan's 'Favourite London Walks'.

Nope

13. Develop/mix-up/improve Pilates & weight-training.

Check

14. Digitise mum & dad's 35mm slide collection.

Check
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London-Somerset-London, 27 & 28-12-11

2011-12-28T17:34:00.001Z

Merry Christmas Baby - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Baby Sittin' Santa - Barry Richards
She's So Cool - Catherine Porter
I Was Born On Christmas Day - Saint Etienne
The Christians And The Pagans - Dar Williams
Me, Doctor - Monty Python
Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens
Can't You Hear My Heartbeat - Herman's Hermits
Slung-lo - Erin McKeown
Ready to Go - Republica
I.O.U. (AEIOU) - Freeez
Stand And Deliver - Adam & The Ants
Helena Beat - Foster the People
Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Slow Club
Goldstar - Cashier No. 9
Next Girl - The Black Keys
Perfect Gentleman - Wyclef Jean
I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You - Black Kids
National Express - The Divine Comedy
Required qualities in a woman - Emo Philips
Seven Joys Of Mary - Great Big Sea
4th of July / Christmas Rag - Peter Case (with David Perales)
We Will Become Silhouettes - The Postal Service
Boyfriend - Best Coast
Brand New Lover - Dead Or Alive
Two Doors Down - Mystery Jets
Frontier Psychiatrist - The Avalanches
Pop Culture - Madeon
Sexy and I Know It - LMFAO
Get Behind Me, Santa! - Sufjan Stevens
Someone To Call My Lover - Janet Jackson
I wanna be sedated (Ramones cover) - The Offspring
Call It What You Want - Foster the People
Sunday Morning After - Amanda Marshall
Stand By Me - Timon and Pumba (Lion King)
I'm His Girl - Friends
If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar
Post Apocalypse Christmas - Gruff Rhys
Drop dead gorgeous - Republica
Back Door Santa - Clarence Carter
Walking around in women's underwear - Weird Al Yankovic
Isabel - Baxter Dury
Worry - Little Comets
Away in a Manger - Hyperbubble
Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing) - Tim Wheeler & Emmy the Great
Maybe Holding Hands Wasn't Such a Good Idea - Modern Day Escape
Video Games - Lana Del Rey
St. Croix - Family of the Year
Saved - LaVern Baker
Sleepyhead - Passion Pit
Get Out Of Your Lazy Bed - Matt Bianco
Playa Boi - Cher Lloyd
Two Doors Down - Dolly Parton
Murder on the dance floor - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Car Wash - Rose Royce
Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
Little White Bull - Tommy Steele
Oh Pity - Cashier No. 9
You Got What I Need - Freddie Scott
Twelve Days Of Christmas - John Denver & The Muppets
Moonage Daydream - David Bowie
Black Betty - Ram Jam
Lovely Cup - Grouplove
Christmas Number One - The Black Arts
Picture This - Blondie
Do You Know (I Go Crazy) - Angel City Ft. Lara McAllen
Shuffle - Bombay Bicycle Club
All Alone On Christmas - Darlene Love
Goody Two Shoes - Adam & The Ants
Sylvia - Focus
Portions For Foxes - Rilo Kiley
Long Hard Times to Come (From "Justified") [feat. T.O.N.E-Z] - Gangstagrass
Something Good '08 (Radio Edit) - Utah Saints
Take on me - a-ha
Jeans on - David Dundas
Second Fiddle (To an Old Guitar) - Jean Shepard
Angel Eyes (Techno Remix) - A-Teens
C30, C60, C90, Go! - Bow Wow Wow
Pretty in pink - Psychedelic Furs
She Is Beautiful - Andrew W.K.
Mushaboom - Feist
In The Shadows - The Rasmus
Wessex Boy - Frank Turner
Just a Friend (Single Version) - Biz Markie
Marshmallow World - Emmy the Great & Tim Wheeler
Jeepster - T. Rex
That Golden Rule - Biffy Clyro
I say nothing - Voice of the Beehive
Wherever You Will Go - Charlene Soraia
God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II - KISS
The Bay - Metronomy
Santa Claus Is Comin to Town - Joseph Spence
Ciao! - Lush
Frosty The Snowman - The Ronettes
Jonny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
Nowhere - Therapy?
Back Of Your Neck - Howler
Living Doll - Cliff Richard & Young ones
Hey Mister - Custom
Too good to be forgotten - Amazulu
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The Gırl with the Wıngs of an Angel in her Eyes

2011-12-25T07:46:00.002Z

What was she expecting,
The girl with the wings of an angel in her eyes?
A child, yes, a son…
But having known no man in the Biblical sense,
Having no physical father to ponder,
What, she must have wondered,
As mind and stomach stretched,
Might a man, born of divine essence
And sweet obedience,
Resemble?

An angel, a seraph? Or some holy paragon?
With the first Adam’s pure fresh gaze?
Jacob’s smooth hands, Moses’ radiant face,
Or the wavy, raven locks of Solomon
And a body like polished ivory?
How would God manifest his glory?
Could she conceive this son of the most high,
Would choose to look really rather ordinary?
Miracles, she would learn, are not all discerned
With the naked eye.

©Mark Greene 2011
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Free Font - Geotica

2011-12-23T07:28:00.000Z

Jos Buivenga has made a '2012' weight of his Geotica font available here.

There is a free solid weight of Geotica available here.
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How Computers Work

2011-12-22T07:38:00.001Z

From the Boing Boing archives comes this marvellous pastiche.
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Mind over Matter

2011-12-21T11:29:00.003Z

Lifehacker has published an intriguing article entitled Top 10 Tricks that Give You Power Over Your Body. Worth a browse.
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Mirrorless Camera Roundup

2011-12-20T07:56:00.002Z

Digital Photograpy Review has published a helpful roundup of the latest mirrorless (EVIL) cameras available.

Conclusion: [edited]

The Mirrorless sector may be relatively young but it's already starting to offer some pretty mature products. There are still manufacturers such as Canon and Fujifilm that have yet to show their hands but, even as it stands, there are plenty of impressive products that we've really enjoyed shooting with.

The Nikon 1 cameras are the only ones to make a convincing stab at continuous autofocus but that's about the only significant weakness of Mirrorless as a concept - most of the rough edges of the first generation models have now been smoothed off. And, of course, Mirrorless cameras can offer features such as touch-screen focus positioning and face detection that DSLRs simply can't match - and all without the need for focus fine-tuning.

We're not about to proclaim the DSLR to be dead, but it faces more and more interesting competition by the day. And, if you don't feel one of these models suits your needs, you may still benefit from the DSLR makers having to react to the rise of the Mirrorless camera.
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Sony NEX-7

2011-12-19T07:56:00.002Z

Digital Photography Review have published an in-depth review of Sony's high-end 'EVIL' camera.

Excerpts from conclusions follow:

There's little doubt that the NEX-7 is one of the most exciting cameras of 2011.

The EVF [electronic viewfinder, Ed.] is excellent, stills image and video quality superb, and the handling is remarkably good for such a small camera. The use of three dials to control each of the main exposure parameters makes so much sense that it seems odd no-one's done it quite like this before. The fact that these dials can also be used to change a wide range of other settings, cycled through by pressing a button on the top plate, borders on genius.

In fact the NEX-7 is so good in so many respects that any criticism almost feels like nit-picking. It's not perfect, but then again no camera is, and its imperfections can generally be overcome.

The NEX-7's image quality is difficult to fault. The 24MP sensor is capable of recording huge amounts of detail (just as long as your lens can deliver it), while also offering excellent high ISO performance for low light work, with quite useable results up to ISO 6400.

It's no stretch to say that, at its best, the NEX-7 offers the finest still image quality of any APS-C camera, bar none.

If there's a problem for the NEX-7, it's the ambition of launching such a sophisticated, high-end enthusiast camera into a relatively undeveloped system. Once you look beyond the camera body to the lenses you'll want to use with it, your options are - at launch at least - rather limited. There's the Carl Zeiss Sonnar E 24mm F1.8, which is without doubt a fine lens, but is larger than the kit zoom and costs almost as much as the camera again.

Even if you have the money to shell out for the NEX-7 and 24mm F1.8, there's also little doubt you'll get better value elsewhere - at least in terms of building a flexible system to work with now. For example, for the same price you could buy the Olympus PEN E-P3 with EVF, 20mm F1.7 and 45mm F1.8 lenses, and have plenty of change to spare. The sensor's not as good, but the lenses give you more creative options.

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: The image quality of this camera could tempt me from my Panasonic G1, however the combination of cost, lack of lens choice and the promise of a successor to the GH2 in early 2012 will keep me watching and waiting.
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Elevation Dock

2011-12-16T07:46:00.001Z

Kickstarter reports: [edited]

If you have tried using docks for your iPhone, you have probably felt our frustration: Undocking is difficult, many aren't designed to work with cases, they are lightweight, and are generally made as a cheap afterthought accessory.

That's why we designed the Elevation Dock - Simple to use, quick undocking, and it works with or without a case. We didn't stop there - It's beautifully precision machined from solid aluminum and it comes in a gorgeous set of surface finishes, setting a new bar for quality and something that looks really good on your desk. It complements the high-level craftsmanship of the iPhone like no other.

Expected prices: $59 for standard dock, more for the Dock+ with shielded line level audio out and a USB wall power adaptor.
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Hipstamatic 'Disposable' Camera

2011-12-15T07:22:00.001Z

iphoneography reports: [edited]

Hipstamatic introduces the new D-Series iOS app, set to release this Thursday December 15th.

Hipstamatic's Disposable camera makes it a snap to create and share a camera with your friends. From the first snap to the last, everyone shoots to one roll, and at the end photos are instantly exchanged to all of the camera's contributors. You'll never have to swap doubles or email from your friend's phone again.

Sharing a roll of film has never been this much fun. Users share a set of 24 exposures through a cloud sync'd camera creating a social sharing application to instantly connect and exchange with friends. The D-Series launch, marks Hipstamatic's first ever FREE download and will launch with three in-App Purchase Cameras to create sharable analogue images."
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Game of Thrones Season 2 Teaser

2011-12-14T07:30:00.001Z

Roll on April!
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23 and 1/2 Hours

2011-12-13T07:57:00.003Z

A Doctor-Professor answers the question "What is the single best thing we can do for our health?".

Dr. Mike Evans is founder of the Health Design Lab at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto, and a staff physician at St. Michael's Hospital.
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The World’s First Flash Supercomputer

2011-12-12T08:19:00.002Z

Wired reports: [edited]

Supercomputers aren’t what they used to be. The Chinese are building a supercomputer with their own microprocessors, shunning American chip giants Intel and AMD. The Spanish are building one with cellphone chips. And this week, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) officially plugged in the first supercomputer that uses flash storage rather than good old-fashioned spinning disks.

Naturally, they call it Gordon.

Gordon uses 300 terabytes of flash, spanning 1,024 high-performance Intel 710 series drives, and the system includes new software designed to aggregate resources from multiple physical server nodes into “super-nodes,” so users have immediate access to data, rather than waiting for the system to access particular drives. Allan Snavely, the SDSC’s associate director, sees this as the world’s largest thumb drive.

According to Snavely, Gordon can run massive databases up to 10 times faster than traditional memory, and it now ranks 48th on the official Top500 list of the fastest supercomputer in the world. The project is part of a larger trend in the supercomputer game, where systems are moving away from traditional components, toward new types of hardware that can improve speed, cost, efficiency, and, in the case of the Chinese, independence from the West.

Bob Sinkovits, applications lead for the Gordon project at SDSC, says that using flash memory is just a better idea. “Flash memory has a number of advantages over traditional hard drives, including higher bandwidths or the rate at which large blocks of data can be read or written, lower power consumption, and greater mechanical stability owing to the lack of moving parts. For data-intensive applications, though, the biggest advantage is much lower latency, or the delay between a request for data and the delivery of the first byte.”
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Orexin

2011-12-09T07:34:00.000Z

Wired reports: [edited]

Secreted by a small cluster of neurons in the hypothalamus, orexin is a neuropeptide that regulates an astonishing array of mental properties, from sleepiness to hunger. Low levels of orexin make people feel rundown and tired.

Several studies have demonstrated that the intake of sugar can decrease the activity of orexin cells, which is probably why we want to nap after a carb heavy lunch. This phenomenon also begins to explain the downward spiral of obesity triggered by our warped modern diet. Because we eat lots of refined sugars, washing down Twinkies with cans of Coke, we continually reduce levels of orexin in the brain, which then reduces levels of physical activity.

It’s long been recognised that meals high in protein are both more filling and less exhausting. Although the biological mechanism behind this dietary wisdom has been unclear, that’s beginning to change – we finally understand why consuming protein can be an effective weight loss tool. The answer returns us to orexin.

According to a new paper in Neuron led by scientists at the University of Cambridge, consuming foods high in protein can increase the activity of orexin neurons. This, in turn, leads to increased wakefulness and bodily activity, helping us burn off the calories we just consumed. Furthermore, eating protein in conjunction with glucose can reduce the inhibitory effects of sugar on orexin.
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How the Potato Changed the World

2011-12-08T07:38:00.003Z

Smithsonian.com have published a lengthy article on the importance of the humble spud.

Highlights follow:

Many researchers believe that the potato’s arrival in northern Europe spelled an end to famine there. More than that, as the historian William H. McNeill has argued, the potato led to empire: “By feeding rapidly growing populations, [it] permitted a handful of European nations to assert dominion over most of the world between 1750 and 1950.” The potato, in other words, fuelled the rise of the West.

When Prussia was hit by famine in 1744, King Frederick the Great, a potato enthusiast, ordered the peasantry to eat the tubers. In England, 18th-century farmers denounced S. tuberosum as an advance scout for hated Roman Catholicism. “No Potatoes, No Popery!” was an election slogan in 1765.

Any general history of Europe without an entry in its index for S. tuberosum should be ignored. Hunger was a familiar presence in 17th- and 18th-century Europe. Cities were provisioned reasonably well in most years, their granaries carefully monitored, but country people teetered on a precipice. France, the historian Fernand Braudel once calculated, had 40 nationwide famines between 1500 and 1800, more than one per decade. This appalling figure is an underestimate, he wrote, “because it omits the hundreds and hundreds of local famines.” France was not exceptional; England had 17 national and big regional famines between 1523 and 1623. The continent simply could not reliably feed itself.

The potato changed all that. Every year, many farmers left fallow as much as half of their grain land, to rest the soil and fight weeds (which were plowed under in summer). Now smallholders could grow potatoes on the fallow land, controlling weeds by hoeing. Because potatoes were so productive, the effective result, in terms of calories, was to double Europe’s food supply.

“For the first time in the history of western Europe, a definitive solution had been found to the food problem,” the Belgian historian Christian Vandenbroeke concluded in the 1970s. By the end of the 18th century, potatoes had become in much of Europe what they were in the Andes—a staple. Roughly 40 percent of the Irish ate no solid food other than potatoes; the figure was between 10 percent and 30 percent in the Netherlands, Belgium, Prussia and perhaps Poland. Routine famine almost disappeared in potato country, a 2,000-mile band that stretched from Ireland in the west to Russia’s Ural Mountains in the east. At long last, the continent could produce its own dinner.

via kottke
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Using an iPad as your primary computer

2011-12-07T07:30:00.001Z

Harry McCracken has published an excellent article entitled 'How the iPad 2 Became My Favorite Computer'.

The whole article (and the comments) should be read for balance, but for the time-pressed/attention deficit disordered among you here are some highlights...

I think it’s possible to use an iPad as one’s primary device for professional-level content creation. Actually, scratch that. I’m positive it’s possible – because I’ve been doing it for the past three months, and I’ve been having a really good time.

This hasn’t been one of those experiments-for-the-sake-of-experimentation in which someone temporarily forsakes a PC for another device in order to write about the experience (like, say, this). No, I’ve been using the iPad for my daily activities – running Technologizer, writing for TIME, CNET, and AllBusiness.com, and more–because I find it to be the preferable tool in multiple respects. I’ve been using it about 80 percent of the time, and using my MacBook Air about 20 percent of the time.

The ZaggFolio [Bluetooth keyboard/case] changed the way I use my iPad. Without the ZaggFolio, I used the iPad mostly for reading and light productivity. I’d happily type brief e-mails on it, but never anything as long as a meaty blog post or article. But Zagg’s no-compromise keyboard made typing every bit as comfy as it is on a notebook. All of a sudden I could write hundreds of words on the iPad. Or thousands of them.

[On the importance of battery life] With the Macbook Air, or almost any other portable computer I’ve ever used, I’m lucky to get three or four hours of life out of a charge, and therefore have to bring my power brick and obsess about plugging in whenever possible. It’s an enormous hassle, and sometimes I simply run out of juice.

With the iPad, I didn’t even bother to bring the power adapter to the IFA show: I worked all day, going online as much as I wanted, without fully draining the battery. I ended up only using the MacBook Air in my hotel room.

My iPad 2 has one other hardware attribute that’s a huge upgrade over the Air: It has AT&T wireless broadband built in.

Another simple joy of using the iPad as a blogging/writing tool: Its utter predictability and simplicity.

When you use a PC/Mac you get dragged down by the responsibilities and obligations of using a computer. Even if you’re very familiar with a program, you need to bob and weave your way around icons and menu items you don’t require at the moment to get to the ones you do need. Programs other than the one you’re using may vie for your attention...

With the iPad, all that goes away. You can devote nearly every second of your time to the task at hand, rather than babysitting a balky computer. I don’t feel like I’m “using an iPad to write.” I’m just writing. It’s a far more tranquil, focused experience than using a PC or Mac.
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Kindle Fire Usability Findings

2011-12-06T07:42:00.004Z

Jakob Nielsen has completed a 4-user study on Amazon's colour tablet.

In a sentence:

Mobile web sites work best on the 7-inch tablet. Users had great trouble touching the correct items on full sites, where UI elements are too small on the Fire screen.

Excerpts from study:

To get an early understanding of a 7-inch tablet's content, services, and apps usability, we ran usability sessions with the Kindle Fire. Test participants had between 1.5 and 2.5 years' experience using touchscreen devices: half used Android phones and half used iPhone. This was a small study, with only 4 users, but qualitative studies often generate deeper insights than bigger, more metrics-focused quantitative studies.

The most striking observation from testing the Fire is that everything is much too small on the screen, leading to frequent tap errors and accidental activation. You haven't seen the fat-finger problem in its full glory until you've watched users struggle to touch things on the Fire. One guy spent several minutes trying to log in to Facebook, but was repeatedly foiled by accidentally touching the wrong field or button — on a page with only 2 text fields and 1 button.

Our iPad testing showed that full sites work quite well on 10-inch tablets. Conversely, testing mobile phones revealed that specialized mobile sites are superior on smaller touchscreens (typically, 3.5-inch diagonal).

For reading fiction, the older Kindle design wins.

The magazine reading experience could be good but actually is miserable because the content isn't designed for the device or for interactive reading:

"Page View" is unreadable and "Text View" has the worst layout I've seen in years. Illustrations are either too big or too small and are usually located far from the place they're discussed in the copy.

Kindle Fire suffers from bad UI design in many areas. For example, the highlighting feedback for touching a button is so small that your finger usually covers it, making it invisible:

If I were given to conspiracy theories, I'd say that Amazon deliberately designed a poor web browsing user experience to keep Fire users from shopping on competing sites. Amazon's own built-in shopping app has great usability, so they clearly know how to design for the tablet.
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Little Printer & Berg Cloud

2011-12-05T08:13:00.005Z

bergcloud.com reports: [edited]

Little Printer lives in your front room and scours the Web on your behalf, assembling the content you care about into designed deliveries a couple of times a day. You configure Little Printer from your phone, and there’s some great content to choose from — it’s what Little Printer delivers that makes it really special.

Our launch partners are Arup, foursquare, Google, the Guardian, and Nike.

Little Printer is more like a family member or a colleague than a tool.Plus paper is like a screen that never turns off. You can stick to the fridge or tuck it in your wallet. You can scribble on it or tear it and give it to a friend.

Little Printer will be available in 2012.
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giffgaff

2011-12-02T08:03:00.004Z

giffgaff reports:

We're a SIM only, mobile provider with great value prices and no contracts. There's none of that big mobile network nonsense from us. Our SIMs work on smartphones and you can keep your existing mobile number.

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: giffgaff is a 'virtual network operator' using the O2 network, and with non-contract rates starting at £10 per month with 250 UK minutes, unlimited UK texts and unlimited data, it offers very good value for money. Two of my children are now using the service (with another one just about to), and so far there are no major complaints.
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Image retouching detection tool

2011-12-01T07:45:00.000Z

Wired reports: [edited]

A new photograph-analyzing tool quantifies changes made by digital airbrushers in the fashion and lifestyle industry, where image alteration has become the norm.

In a Nov. 28 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study, Farid and doctoral student Eric Kee debut a computational model developed by analyzing 468 sets of original and retouched photographs. From these, Farid and Kee distilled a formal mathematical description of alterations made to models' shapes and features. Their model then scored each altered photograph on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 signifying heavy retouching.

To validate the scores, Farid and Kee then asked 50 people randomly picked through Amazon's Mechanical Turk task outsourcing service to evaluate the photographs. Computational and human scores matched closely. "Now what we have is a mathematical measure of photo retouching," said Farid. "We can predict what an average observer would say."

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: The full article is worth a browse, especially the 'before/after' image examples.
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Ice Cream Sandwich

2011-11-30T07:38:00.000Z

Register Hardware have produced a succinct hands-on review of Android's latest (V4.0) release, AKA 'Ice Cream Sandwich' (ICS).

Excerpts follow:

"In terms of design, ICS is a quantum leap forward over previous incarnations of Android. Taking inspiration from iOS and WinPho 7, the UI is now replete with visually pleasing animations that give the impression that the UI is alive to your touch."

"The menu button now migrates around the screen depending on context and app. Sometimes it appears in the app menu bar at the top, sometimes at the bottom and sometimes next to the running apps window in the system bar. Call me old fashioned but I like a menu button that stays in one place.

"The virtual keyboard may not look that different from the v2.3 Gingerbread implementation but it’s much easier to use and now has that same degree of uncanny accuracy the iOS keyboard is blessed with, complete with pop-up letters to tell you what you have hit."

"The new photo gallery not only looks better but it works faster. Much faster. Assuming your data connection is up to snuff, your Picasa gallery thumbnails appear as fast as they do from local storage. The system’s ability to see newly added media has also been improved."

"The Android web browser has also been given a good going over. It’s gained a bucket load of extra speed and, at long last, an option to render web pages in their desktop format by default. Pages can now also be saved for off-line reading directly from the browser menu."

"Navigate to the camera app and you move from the Gingerbread stone age to the Ice Cream Sandwich 21st century. The new interface is much improved and comes with a built-in panorama mode that works surprisingly well. Tap the screen while shooting a video and the camera takes a still capture."

"When it comes to wholly new features there are a couple of interesting additions to the Android playbook. Pride of place goes to Face Unlock which uses facial recognition to unlock the handset. Impressively, the system never failed to recognise me as the authorised user but equally was never fooled by anyone else’s fizog or even by a large picture of yours truly."

"With Ice Cream Sandwich Android moves its game on by the greatest degree yet. In terms of look and feel it’s now hard on the heels of iOS and well ahead of WinPho 7.5 and BlackBerry 7."
------------

Pi budget computer

2011-11-29T07:47:00.000Z

The Register has published an excellent article on this British-designed computer.

Excerpts follow:

"the most remarkable thing about this low-power credit card-sized computer is its price tag: little more than £20 for a fully functional system capable of, among many things, 1080p video playback and hardware-accelerated graphics."

"The Pi is powered by a 700MHz ARM-compatible processor with hardware support for OpenGL ES 2.0 and Blu-ray-grade playback (1080p30 H.264), and features 256MB of RAM, TV, HDMI and audio outputs, a USB port, a Flash memory card slot, 100MBit Ethernet and a number of I/O pins for a serial port and general purpose hacking. This is all fitted on a low-cost 85.60mm x 53.98mm board that's about 20mm high, weighs 40g and is powered from a 5V supply."

"The reliance on removable boot memory ensures the kit can't be bricked, not even by the most inquisitive or vindictive schoolchildren."

"The RaspberryPi Model A and Model B (a reference to the BBC Micro) are expected to go on sale in December priced $25 and $35 (16 and 22 quid respectively). The Model A will have 128M of RAM and no Ethernet, whereas the Model B will be produced in larger numbers and have 256M of RAM plus 10/100MBit networking."
------------

LUCA

2011-11-28T08:09:00.004Z

New Scientist reports: [edited]

ONCE upon a time, 3 billion years ago, there lived a single organism called LUCA [Last Universal Common Ancestor, Ed.]. It was enormous: a mega-organism like none seen since, it filled the planet's oceans before splitting into three and giving birth to the ancestors of all living things on Earth today.

This strange picture is emerging from efforts to pin down the last universal common ancestor - not the first life that emerged on Earth but the life form that gave rise to all others.

The latest results suggest LUCA was the result of early life's fight to survive, attempts at which turned the ocean into a global genetic swap shop for hundreds of millions of years. Cells struggling to survive on their own exchanged useful parts with each other without competition - effectively creating a global mega-organism.
------------

Fujifilm X-S1

2011-11-25T07:25:00.000Z

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

Fujifilm has announced the X-S1, a premium-grade superzoom compact. The X-S1 is part of the company's high-end 'X Series' and is built around the same 12MP 2/3" CMOS sensor as the X10 compact.

Despite the comparatively large sensor, it manages to include a 26X 24-624mm equivalent F2.8-5.6 zoom lens. It also features Raw shooting, a 1.44M dot electronic viewfinder and 460,000 dot rear LCD along with a rubberized coating and metal dials to emphasize its premium 'Made in Japan' status.
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Can the iPhone 4S replace a 'real' digital camera?

2011-11-24T07:32:00.002Z

Infinite Loop have prepared a compare/contrast review of the image-taking performance of an Olympus XZ-1 point and shoot, a Canon 20D DSLR with EF-S 10-22mm lens, an iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy SII.

Edited summary:

"In real life use, each camera has a mix of benefits and drawbacks. The iPhone 4 was our previous favorite in smartphone cameras, and the iPhone 4S improves on that. The lens is a bit sharper and the hybrid IR filter seems to improve color rendering and possibly white balance. The new sensor also seems to have slightly less noise, better dynamic range, and three million more pixels to work with."

"The combination of an updated sensor and the dual-core A5 processor also make the iPhone 4S much faster to start up and take pictures. It was nearly as fast at launching, focusing, and snapping sequential images as the Olympus XZ-1, and certainly faster than previous compact cameras we have used."

"For snapshot purposes, the iPhone 4S is comparable to the 8MP Canon 20D when it comes to image quality. But that comparison is a little unfair — you can easily achieve better results with newer DSLRs in terms of exposure, noise, and megapixel count. What you can't do with any DSLR, though, is (again) slip it into your pants pocket. Lenses that have as bright an aperture as the iPhone 4S's f/2.4 will also either be limited to a single focal length or generally be much larger and heavier than the lightweight kit lenses that many users have."

"As we said at the outset, every camera choice comes with its own set of compromises and won't suit every individual photographer. Still, we have no qualms recommending the iPhone 4S as great alternative to compact, point-and-shoot cameras. It can take great photos when travelling or out with friends. Since it's also your phone, you'll always have it with you, so you may be able to grab shots in situations when you might not be able to otherwise take pictures at all."
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Free Fonts: Novecento

2011-11-23T07:25:00.002Z

behance.net reports: [edited]

This is the revised and improved version of Novecento, an uppercase-only font family inspired on European typographic tendencies between the second half of 19th century and first half of the 20th.

It looks rational and geometric. However, it is optically corrected and balanced.
This font face is designed to be used mostly for headlines, visual identities or short sentences, both in big and small sizes.

Novecento is available both in opentype format (.otf) and as a webfont (@fontface), with 6 weights available free.
------------

Scrabble Letter Mugs

2011-11-22T07:48:00.000Z

The Spoon Sisters reports: [edited]

There's a colourful hidden surprise inside each mug, and a letter distribution table on the other side. Ceramic. Holds close to 350ml.

Price: $11.95 each. Full alphabet: $310.70.
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Breaking the yachting sound barrier

2011-11-21T08:24:00.004Z

New Scientist reports: [edited]

Along a stretch of Namibia's wind-blasted Atlantic coastline, one man is about to try to sail faster than any sailor has ever done before. This attempt to set a world record requires technical expertise, courage and luck. It will take place in the Vestas Sailrocket 2, which barely even looks like a boat and is, astonishingly, based on a design that is 40 years old.

For the past few months, the team has been making trial runs. If their innovative design hits 60 knots (111 kilometres per hour), it will change the future of speed sailing.

"Going from 50 to 60 knots is like breaking the sound barrier," says the boat's pilot Paul Larsen.

But it won't be easy. In 2008, the first version of the boat flipped out of the water in a spectacular accident just as it was approaching record-breaking speeds.

Click here for latest updates.

If you Twitter, they have a Twitter Feed.
------------

National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

2011-11-18T07:52:00.000Z

The Atlantic reports: [edited]

National Geographic is currently holding its annual photo contest, with the deadline for submissions coming up on November 30. For the past nine weeks, the society has been gathering and presenting galleries of submissions, encouraging readers to vote for them as well.

National Geographic was kind enough to let me choose among its entries from 2011 for display here on In Focus. Gathered here are 45 images from the three categories of People, Places, and Nature, with captions written by the individual photographers.
------------

Fujifilm FinePix X10

2011-11-17T07:22:00.001Z

This recent offering from Fujifilm is getting excellent reviews.

For £500 you get a pleasingly 'retro' looking body, an optical viewfinder, a bright (f2.0-2.8) 28-112mm manual zoom lens, fast focus and decent low-light performance.

For ePhotozine's review (including sample images) click here

For more sample images, courtesy of Digital Photography Review click here
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Trumstand

2011-11-16T07:33:00.002Z

Firebox reports: [edited]

Weighing in at a hefty 4.3kg the Trumstand’s curvaceous horn is crafted in brass and plated with nickel or gold powder, giving it the look of an antique gramophone. Even the base is made from a machined block of aluminium.

You won’t find any woofers or tweeters in the Trumstand because just like an antique gramophone the sound is generated purely from resonance created by the trumpety shape of the horn. Yes, there is a power cord but that’s only there to charge your gizmo when it’s docked. The sonic result? Amazingly vivid aural ambrosia with a hint of old-school gramophone warmth.

£1500, including delivery.
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Graphene, the new silicon?

2011-11-15T07:34:00.000Z

The Guardian reports: [edited]

Somehow it seems appropriate that the government might be basing some of its hopes for the economy's recovery on a substance that is one atom thick. The substance in question – graphene – 200 times as strong as steel, seems to some designed to carry the weight of almost anything – but George Osborne's Plan A? That would indeed make it a miracle material.

Nevertheless the chancellor made a detour from the Tory conference in Blackpool in September to visit Manchester University, graphene's spiritual home, and to announce a £50m investment. Graphene is claimed by some as an innovation that will prove as revolutionary as the silicon chip, or even plastics, both of which it may supersede.

Sitting in his lab at the university, Konstantin Novoselov one half of the 2010 physics Nobel prize-winning team that "discovered" graphene, runs through the superlatives of his material – uniquely strong and flexible and the best conductor of electricity yet found.

Graphene may be formed of unique bonds, but the synergy between research and application, between university and industry is still nowhere near as tight as it might be. I imagine, universities and corporations are throwing money at graphene research in other parts of the world?

"Yes," Novoselov says, "but money is not the only thing. Before the £50m we had no more than any other lab, but we still kept at the front of this. It's more time than money." If you think that you can make a new kind of transistor and put it into your computer straight away, he suggests, then you are wrong. How to integrate this into existing technology let alone allow it to begin to shape new technology will take years if not decades. He points to the example of silicon. "The first transistor was maybe 1947, silicon appeared six or seven years later and then it was another 10 or 20 years before integrated circuits." 2D technology may take even longer to become properly commercial, but he has no doubt that it will.

"The real excitement at the moment is the way we can now layer graphene with different 2D materials," he says, "with each layer having different properties." The stacking means that in theory it will be possible to design materials with the properties to meet any needs. "You tell me 'I want blue and highly conductive and bendy' and we can make it."

To a certain degree, he suggests, the only limits to graphene may be those of imagination. "We still tend to think of how this material might be used in the form of current objects. We can imagine, say, a 2D layered photodetective material, with a solar cell and transistor combined which would allow you to make a very thin plastic touchscreen that generated its own power."
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Shapecatcher

2011-11-14T08:16:00.001Z

shapecatcher.com reports: [edited]

You know what some character looks like, but you've forgotten its name or its Unicode code point. Now what do you do? Shapecatcher is a new website, that helps you to find specific Unicode characters, just by sketching their shape. Currently about 10000 of the most important Unicode characters are compared to your sketch and are analysed for similarities.
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Smartphone OS Shootout

2011-11-11T07:54:00.002Z

Register Hardware has published a compare/contrast review of the four dominant smartphone operating systems.

Edited verdict:

None of the operating systems get it staggeringly wrong. RIM's BlackBerry is starting to look long in the tooth - sometimes I thought I'd slipped back into Windows Mobile - and, like Android, is prosaic rather than pretty.

Undoubtedly, iOS is the most aesthetically pleasing phone OS.

WinPho is the newest OS, so it has some catching up to do to match the others for functionality. But it's getting there. And, for the moment at least, it's pleasantly quick.

Apple's excellent content shops and playback capabilities are sufficient to satisfy anyone unopposed to or disinterested in the walled garden.
------------

Shape Type

2011-11-10T07:24:00.002Z

Shape Type tests how well you can restore a crippled character to its intended proportions. More difficult than you might think.
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Chevrolet Speedometers 1941-2011

2011-11-09T07:46:00.006Z

Christian Annyas has published a lovely collection of Chevrolet speedometers. I heartily concur with his comments, including...

"The design of speedometers hasn’t changed much over the decades. Recently, however, there’s a trend towards digital meters. They’re probably supposed to look fresh and new, but due to the use of digital stopwatch-like typefaces they actually look extremely primitive and dated."
------------

Savannah III Rocking Chair

2011-11-08T08:13:00.003Z

Jolyon Yates makes beautiful things with wood. This is one of my favourites.

To view more of his work, click here.
------------

Panasonic DMC-GX1

2011-11-07T08:07:00.002Z

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

Panasonic has announced the Lumix DMC-GX1, an enthusiast-oriented Micro Four Thirds camera that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Lumix DMC-GF1.

The GX1 sports a 16MP 'Live MOS' sensor, a maximum ISO sensitivity setting of 12,800, a touchscreen interface and a revamped AF system. The GX1 is also the first camera compatible with Panasonic's brand new high-resolution LVF2 viewfinder, sold separately.

The GX1 is available in a black or silver body with MSRP starting at $699.99 without lens.

For a hands-on preview and video click here.
------------

PlugBug

2011-11-04T07:32:00.001Z

twelve south reports: [edited]

PlugBug is a 10W USB wall charger that piggybacks onto your MacBook Power Adapter, creating an all-in-one, dual charger for MacBook + iPad or iPhone. That means you can charge your MacBook + iPad or iPhone at the same time using one wall outlet.

Price: $34.99
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Jawbone Up

2011-11-03T08:08:00.002Z

Mashable reports: [edited]

If Jawbone has its way, you’ll soon be wrapping this $99, bendable, waterproof gadget around your wrist, tracking your health with it — and hardly ever taking it off.

It syncs with Jawbone’s Up app for iPhone (an Android version is in the works) via an audio jack hidden under that silver cap at the end. It also charges via the audio jack, which you’ll need to plug into a USB connector every ten days or so.

What is the wristband tracking? In short: sleep and exercise. It looks for micro-movements at bedtime and can tell when you’ve fallen asleep. It will wake you with gentle vibrations in the morning instead of music or noise. It can track whether you’re in light or deep sleep, and will wake you within a certain window of time, when your sleep is at its lightest.

The Up will also track your movements throughout the day. It’ll capture all the little moments of exercise you don’t think you’re getting, as well as your deliberate workouts.
------------

Hifiman Express HM-101

2011-11-02T07:38:00.001Z

CNET reports: [edited]

I wasn't expecting much from the Hifiman Express HM-101; it's just a $39 outboard USB digital-to-analog converter and headphone amplifier. Well, this tiny USB-powered device definitely pumped up the sound of my Audio Technica ATH-M50 headphones. Sure, the Mac's sound is perfectly acceptable - until you compare it to something better. The Express is a lot better.

It also has a line-out 3.5mm jack you can run to a set of desktop-powered speakers. Switching over from the computer's headphone jack to the Express, the first thing I noticed was that the Express could play a lot louder.

When playing drummer Ginger Baker's "Going Back Home" CD at equal volume levels from the computer and the Express, the Express unleashed more of the drummer's hard-hitting dynamics.

And it's not just power; I heard a difference when I played Gillian Welch's gorgeous "The Harrow & the Harvest" CD; her vocals and banjo were clearer over the Express. The background noise level was lower, so I felt closer to Welch's performance.
------------

Royal Society Journal Archive

2011-11-01T07:40:00.003Z

The Royal Society reports: [edited]

The Royal Society has announced that its world-famous historical journal archive - which includes the first ever peer-reviewed scientific journal - has been made permanently free to access online.

Around 60,000 historical scientific papers are accessible via a fully searchable online archive, with papers published more than 70 years ago now becoming freely available.

Philosophical Transactions had to overcome early setbacks including plague, the Great Fire of London and even the imprisonment of Oldenburg, but against the odds the publication survived to the present day. Its foundation would eventually be recognised as one of the most pivotal moments of the scientific revolution.

Treasures in the archive include Isaac Newton’s first published scientific paper, geological work by a young Charles Darwin, and Benjamin Franklin’s celebrated account of his electrical kite experiment.
------------

BTS-PHF38 Bluetooth Wireless Headphones

2011-10-31T08:03:00.001Z

For a 'No Need To Cry If It Gets Lost Or Broken' (NNTCIIGLOB™) Bluetooth headset, look no further.

At £22.46 (inc p&p) it allows you to listen to music, answer calls on your smartphone. And when not in use, it folds into a (provided) drawstring bag. And the (provided) charging cable is a standard 'mini-usb' connection, so if you forget/lose it, you'll have no problem finding another one.

The sound quality is very listenable, although the 'closed' earpieces leak a lot more sound than the Sennheiser MM 400 unit I reviewed.
------------

Sennheiser MM 400 Bluetooth Headphones

2011-10-28T07:47:00.006+01:00

My regular searches on audiophile forums for a pair of portable wireless headphones that sound as good as wired headphones had me move towards purchasing a pair of MM 400s, but the £200 list price seemed a bit steep.

A half-price offer on Amazon encouraged me to take the plunge, and a couple of days later the familiar brown & black cardboard package arrived. First impressions were good. They are a well-built, with soft leather padding on the ear cups and headband. When folded they fit neatly into the provided 11 x 18 x 5cm nylon carrying case, which has a side pocket for cables.

Charging is via your computer's USB port, or with the provided mains charger. The headphones have a non-standard socket, meaning you have to use the Sennheiser-supplied cable, and the cover for the socket is flimsy and poor-fitting, one of the plastic hinges on it has already broken after just a few months use. Claimed operating time is 10 hours, but if the batteries expire, you can connect directly using the supplied cable.

Pairing to my iPhone was simple and quick. The closed earpieces are comfortable, and keep the sound extremely well contained. The volume (like all Bluetooth headsets I have used) won't go as loud as a wired pair, but is perfectly adequate.

The sound quality is not as detailed as the B&W P5s but the overall quality is involving and enjoyable to listen to for long periods of time. And despite being closed, the earpieces remained comfortable.

The play/pause/skip/volume controls on the right earpiece all work efficiently and mean that you can leave your iPhone in your pocket/bag most of the time. The Bluetooth reception is the best of any headset I have used, with only the occasional 'blip'.

I am also pleased to report that they stay firmly in place on my Sunday 4-mile runs, although the isolating effects of the closed earpieces does mean you have to be extra careful when crossing roads!

Although I don't use my iPhone much as a phone, the couple of times when incoming calls have occurred, the pause/resume buttons worked fine, and the microphone picked up my voice just fine.
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Nokia Lumia 800

2011-10-27T07:32:00.000+01:00

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

Nokia has officially launched its Windows Phone range, kicking the line off with the Nokia Lumia 800.

As expected, the 3.7in, 1.4GHz phone resembles the N9 but runs Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, through which the Finnish outfit has included an array of features unique to Nokia.

One of these is Nokia Drive, the company's navigation system. Users can download maps to save on roaming charges, get a 3D view of the area and navigate with voice control.

Then there's Nokia Music, a platform for all that jazz. This includes Mix Radio, which throws up preset music mixes free with no subscriptions or logins required. These can also be taken offline for times with no signal.

Vodafone, Three and Orange have already confirmed they will offer the 800, as have Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U, who both have the handset available from free on £31-per-month contracts. Pay as you go versions are available for £450.
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Nest

2011-10-26T07:49:00.002+01:00

Technologizer reports: [edited]

Tony Fadell took an idea he had for a new gadget to Apple. It was a pocket-sized hard-disk MP3 player. Apple was impressed – and, just over a decade ago, released Fadell’s creation as the iPod.

While Fadell was working on his house, he had a new brainstorm. Why not take the thermostat – one of the most boring devices on the planet, and make it interesting?

Inspired, he co-founded a company called Nest Labs. It’s announcing its creation, the Nest, which it plans to ship in November for $249.

Unlike most modern thermostats – the Nest is a sophisticated piece of consumer electronics. Inside the metal ring you spin to control it is a round color LCD. It’s also got Wi-Fi and embedded motion detectors, allowing it to have a sense of what’s going on around it.

It can pay attention to its surroundings and turn down the heat automatically when it notices you’re not around.

As you adjust the temperature, it can pay attention, learn, and start to adjust it itself to mirror your habits.

It allows you to control it remotely over the Web or using an iOS app.

When you set it to a particular temperature, it tells you how long it’ll be until it reaches it.
------------

MacBook Pro range upgraded

2011-10-25T07:57:00.004+01:00

The 13" MacBook Pro now comes with 2.4GHz and 2.8GHz processors, up from 2.3GHz and 2.7GHz. The standard hard drive sizes have been increased from 320GB and 500GB to 500GB and 750GB.

The 15" models have been given 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz processors, replacing the 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz processors in previous models. The graphics cards have also been updated — the 2.2GHz gets an AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512MB GDDR5, and the 2.4GHz version gets an AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5.

The 'base' 17" MacBook Pro has a 2.4GHz processor, 750GB hard drive and an AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5.

Prices remain unchanged, starting at £999, although if you're visiting the US you could pick up a shiny 13" MacBook Pro for £250 less.
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Michael Winslow performs Whole Lotta Love

2011-10-24T08:17:00.002+01:00

AKA, Sgt. Larvelle 'Motor Mouth' Jones in the Police Academy series.
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LED lighting

2011-10-21T07:29:00.001+01:00

I dislike conventional 'energy saving' bulbs, their long warm-up times annoy me, and I don't like the quality of the light even when they are glowing at full strength.

LED lights reach full brightness instantly, last for ages, sip energy and run cool. But up until recently they have suffered from high initial price, and the quality of the light has been too direct and 'blue' for most tastes.

From the excellent reviews on Amazon.com of the $179 Beacon 600s pictured above, it would appear that the light-quality issues are being conquered. And the predictions are that, like flat screens, prices will tumble over the next couple of years.
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iPhone 4S video quality

2011-10-20T07:39:00.000+01:00

via Benjamin Dowie
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Bowers & Wilkins P5 Headphones

2011-10-19T07:50:00.001+01:00

I recently got the chance to borrow a pair of B&W's high-end (£250) 'designed for iPhone/iPod' headphones. They are an 'open' design, meaning they sit on your ears rather than enclosing them. The advantage of this is that they allow you to hear what is going on around you. The disadvantage is that they allow other people to hear what is on your iPhone/iPod's playlist.

The earpieces/headband are covered with soft, comfortable leather. First impressions of the sound quality is of a pleasant, clear and open sound, but lacking in bass. However, after half-an-hour of listening, you begin to notice intricate details in the songs and become involved in the music. A particular highlight was walking down Regent Street on a busy Friday evening, with the music from the headphones mingling with the sounds of cars and revellers in a way that gave the walk a surreal 'I'm starring in my own music video' quality.

The volume rocker on the wire is useful if you listen to a wide range of music, allowing you to boost classical sections and mute the death metal tracks without having to take your iPhone/iPod out of your bag/pocket.

They were comfortable over long periods of use and remained firmly in place while being jostled on Tube trains and during brisk walks along Oxford Street, though not when running across busy roads.
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iPhone 4S - First Impressions

2011-10-18T07:45:00.005+01:00

My 64GB iPhone 4S arrived yesterday morning.

Transferring the O2 microSIM and the 28GB of information that had previously resided on my iPhone 4 proceeded without a hitch. I still get a kick out of how easily I can transfer so much data from one machine to another.

Can't comment on iCloud, because I haven't made the switch to Lion, but MobileMe is working fine for syncing my calendars, etc.

Operations are significantly quicker, registering more as 'smoothness' than 'speed'.

My first attempts at using Siri were promising, but a 'live demo' to some colleagues ended in a mixture of hilarity and profanity. However, I did create a couple of texts and reminders on my drive home that I would have otherwise not been able to.

The camera is significantly better than the (far from rubbish) one on the iPhone 4. Compact camera manufacturers must be wondering how long it is before sales hit terminal decline.

I think the speaker/amplifier may have been upgraded (or the one in my iPhone 4 was defective). The sounds seem louder, richer and clearer... my alarm this morning made me jump!

Otherwise, everything is comfortably familiar. No new case to purchase, the same tight build quality, the same beautiful screen.
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Smartphone Earphone Review

2011-10-17T08:07:00.003+01:00

Register Hardware has published a review of 10 mid-range earphones. The best 'bang-for-your-buck' comes out as the £40 Sennheiser MM30i (pictured above).
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Cheese or Font?

2011-10-14T07:53:00.003+01:00

Simple. Educational. Brilliant.

click here
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kerntype

2011-10-13T07:36:00.000+01:00

type.method reports: [edited]

Your mission is simple: achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters. Typographers call this activity kerning. Your solution will be compared to typographer's solution, and you will be given a score depending on how close you nailed it.

via kottke
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Best review of the iPhone 4S

2011-10-12T08:11:00.003+01:00

If you're pondering whether to acquire Apple's latest iPhone, Daring Fireball has published a full, fair and succinct review.
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Thanks Dad...

2011-10-11T07:50:00.002+01:00

for being such a good Dad.

Thanks for taking me overseas.

Thanks for taking me to where you worked.

Thanks for all those days when you went to work,
even when you really hated it.

Thanks for building me a shiny yellow catamaran.
Whatever did happen to it?

Thanks for helping me learn to ride (and fix) my bicycle.

Thanks for not killing me when I ruined
your tools learning how to fix my bicycle.

Thanks for making sure I learned to swim before
I learned how to sink, metaphorically and aquatically.

Thanks for not letting me feel sorry for myself. For laughing
when I fell down stairs. At least, I think I'm grateful for that.

Thanks for teaching me how to sail.

Thanks for letting me drive your cars.
Yes, there were a few near misses.

Thanks for teaching me how four- and two-stroke engines work.
I still use those diagrams to teach other people how they work.

Thanks for letting me have a motorbike.

Thanks for helping me fix real four- and two-stroke engines.

Thanks for getting angry when I lied. I don't remember what I lied about, but it was under the treehouse in Kalamunda. You were really cross. It didn't stop me lying, but it was a start.

Thanks for believing in me and for standing by me when I messed up.

Thanks for teaching me about hard work. By word and example.

Thanks for showing me how to draw World War II fighter planes.

Thanks for putting up with me practicing the Eb horn, trumpet and guitar. Just be thankful I never took up drumming.

Thanks for a million things I don't remember just now, or have plain
forgotten. It's probably more than a million. Anyway. Thanks Dad.
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Funeral today

2011-10-10T06:51:00.004+01:00

My dad died died peacefully in his home at 3am, 1 October 2011. Will publish a tribute tomorrow.
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Sony NEX-5N

2011-10-07T07:50:00.000+01:00

Digital Photography Review has published a full review of Sony's mid-range EVIL camera.

Conclusion summary:

"The NEX-5N is a significant update to the NEX-5 in terms of both usability as well as customizability. The NEX-5N's image quality is excellent. The 16.1MP sensor in the 5N is capable of capturing images that rival some of the best APS-C format DSLRs on the market, and up to ISO 6400 image quality is impressive. Even at ISO 12,800, image quality is perfectly acceptable for online use and for small prints, and far ahead of most of the NEX's Micro Four Thirds competitors."

"Like the NEX-5 the 5N has a more pronounced hand grip than the one found on NEX-3/C3 which we find more comfortable to hold, especially when shooting in one hand. The NEX-5N is not a large camera by any means but the possibility of pocketability becomes unlikely with anything besides the 16mm pancake lens."

"Considering its sub-$700 price point this is truly impressive, and makes the 5N a very attractive option for anyone looking to upgrade from a compact camera, or even as a second body alongside a more conventional DSLR outfit."

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: The Sony NEX series is the only EVIL camera that has tempted me to consider moving from the Micro Four Thirds format. However the ergonomics and lack of decent 'prime' lenses, along with the promise of improved Micro Four Third sensors in the near future will keep me loyal for a while.
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How the iPhone changed my photography

2011-10-06T07:51:00.000+01:00

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

Over-extended metaphors aside, as every photographer knows, the best camera you own is the one that you have with you. And the funny thing about phones is that (with the apparent exception of my mother) most people carry them around pretty much all the time.

I never learned to love the 3G's 2MP output, but I did learn how to exploit the camera's few strengths (good metering, nice colors and acceptable detail in decent light) and to use its 'distinctive' characteristics creatively.

For me though, what really transformed the iPhone into a serious photographic tool was not the hardware, which until the iPhone 4 was poor compared to most compact cameras, but the huge ecosystem of applications which sprung up around it. In the years since the iTunes app store was launched, the impact of both the iPhone as hardware and the idea of 'apps' on consumer level digital imaging has been profound.

With a range of carefully-chosen apps installed, my iPhone can create moody black and white images, atmospheric lomo-esque shots and fake Polaroids. Of the thousands of photography apps available for the iPhone, Hipstamatic is one of the most popular, and fun.

The iPhone has made me more open-minded. I don't get out with my DSLR as much these days as I'd like to, but when I do, this new open-mindedness extends to my more 'serious' photography as well. I'm less liable to get hung up on the technical risks of attempting a certain shot, and more likely just to go for it, and see what happens.

My iPhone has also proved invaluable for keeping in touch with friends and family back home in England, and I'm not just talking about phonecalls. Services like Instagram allow me to share photographs I've taken on my various wanderings around America. Friends follow my Instagram stream, and I follow theirs. It's no substitute for a conversation, but it is nice, nonetheless, and helps narrow the 5,000-mile gap a little.

At a major tradeshow last year I got talking to a fellow journalist who was using his iPhone 4 exclusively to illustrate his online coverage of the event. His reason? He likes the images it takes, the quality is fine for the web, and it's much less bulky than his normal DSLR. My initial reaction was that there was no way I could - or would - use my iPhone in the same way, but the conversation made me think. Why not?
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iPhone 4S

2011-10-05T08:01:00.004+01:00

The latest iPhone gets Siri (voice control), a faster processor, a better camera & 1080p video. And up to 64GB of RAM.

Available from 14 October, from £499.

For more info, including videos, click here.
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Origo - My First 3D Printer?

2011-10-04T07:59:00.007+01:00

Origo 3D Printing reports: [edited]

Hello, I am Origo. I am a 3D printer for ten year olds.

You can draw your very own things in 3Dtin and I’ll build them for you.

Right now, I am just an idea. I will be as easy to use as an Xbox or Wii. I’ll be as big and expensive as three Xbox 360s. I will sit on your desk and quietly build your ideas, drawings and dreams.

There are other 3D printers. But none will be as easy to use as I will. None will be as reliable or work as hard for you. I’m not a kit or an industrial machine. I’m not complicated. I’m an appliance, like a toaster or a microwave. Only I’m purple and make your stuff.

You don’t have to be ten to use me, but it helps. Sure adults are older and can do lots of different things such as drive a car and use a drill. But, adults aren’t really good at imagining things. They’re afraid. Afraid of failing, afraid of not making the perfect thing. They see the world as it is, not as it could be.

They see what can’t be done, not what could become. Kids are not afraid. They’ll draw anything and everything. They’ll make whatever it is they feel like. They’ll imagine, dream and create. And that’s what I’ll help you do. You could share me with your brothers, sisters and parents and make together. You could teach them how to make the world as they want it to be. Most of all though, I’m a tool for you.
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Amazon releases lighter, smaller, faster Kindle

2011-10-03T08:01:00.004+01:00

- 30% lighter than before, less than 170 grams
- 18% smaller body, same 6" screen size - fits in your pocket
- Most advanced E Ink display, reads like paper
- Built-in Wi-Fi - Get books in 60 seconds
- 10% faster page turns for seamless reading

For more information, click here.
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Self-healing materials

2011-09-30T08:05:00.003+01:00

BBC reports: [edited]

New developments in self-healing technology have been pioneered by Prof Nancy Sottos and her team at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, involving the impregnation of plastics with a fine network of channels, each less than 100 millionths of a metre in diameter, that can be filled with liquid resins.

These "micro-vascular" networks penetrate the material like an animal's circulation system, supplying healing agent to all areas, ready to be released whenever and wherever a crack appears.

Limitations still blight this technology however, as the healing process relies on the slow wicking action and diffusion of the healing agent into a crack.

The researchers have therefore taken another lesson from biology to improve on the self-healing material's performance. "In a biological system, fluids are pumping and flowing," said Prof Sottos, so they have devised a way to actively pump fluids into their micro-vascular networks.

Syringes on the outside of the material put healing fluids under pressure so that when a crack appears, a constant pressure drives the fluid into the cracks.

In the experiments that Prof Sottos' team carried out, two parallel channels are created in a plastic and pumped with a liquid resin and a hardening chemical that triggers the resin to solidify.

"Micro-capsule technology will enable damaged openings around 50-100 millionths of a metre to be filled, whereas pumping healing agents through a micro-vascular network can fill major cracks up to a millimetre across," said Prof Sottos.
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Amazon launches Kindle Fire

2011-09-29T07:39:00.003+01:00

The Sydney Morning Herald reports: [edited]

With a glossy 7-inch colour touch screen and a dual-core processor, the Kindle Fire, a new mobile device introduced by Amazon, sure looks like a tablet, and one not so different from the Apple iPad.

But Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon's founder and chief executive, has another word for it. "I think of it as a service," he said in an interview on Wednesday after the launch. "Part of the Kindle Fire is of course the hardware, but really, it's the software, the content; it's the seamless integration of those things."

Amazon is counting on the its online warehouse of more than 18 million e-books, songs, movies and television shows, as well as access to a selection of Android applications, to help it beat competitors like the iPad and the Nook from the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble.

The other advantage Bezos is counting on is price: The Fire will sell for $199, while the cheapest iPad sells for $499. Amazon began taking orders for the Fire on its website on Wednesday; it will start shipping them November 15, but only to customers in the United States.

Amazon custom-built the Fire's mobile web browser, called Amazon Silk, so that it loads media-rich web pages faster by shifting some of the work onto Amazon's cloud computing engine, called EC2.

The Kindle Fire's 8GB of memory is capable of storing 80 apps and either 10 movies, 800 songs or 6000 books. The tablet also includes a free cloud-based storage system, meaning that no syncing with cables is necessary.
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Glitch

2011-09-28T08:31:00.002+01:00

"Glitch is a web-based massively-multiplayer game which takes place inside the minds of eleven peculiarly imaginative Giants. You choose how to grow and shape the world: building and developing, learning new skills, collaborating or competing with everyone else in one enormous, ever-changing, persistent world."

For more information, click here.
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Slinky Magic...

2011-09-28T07:31:00.000+01:00

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NASA Ring Tones

2011-09-27T07:55:00.000+01:00

NASA reports: [edited]

Here's a collection of NASA sounds from historic spaceflights and current missions. You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" every time you get a phone call.

Or, you can hear the memorable words "Houston, we've had a problem," every time you make an error on your computer. We have included both MP3 and M4R (iPhone) sound files to download.
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Printing blood vessels

2011-09-26T07:59:00.000+01:00

BBC reports: [edited]

3D printing technology has been increasingly used in numerous industries, ranging from creating clothes, architectural models and even chocolate treats.

But this time, Dr Tovar's team had a much more challenging printing mission. To print something as small and complex as a blood vessel, the scientists combined the 3D printing technology with two-photon polymerisation - shining intense laser beams onto the material to stimulate the molecules in a very small focus point.

The material then becomes an elastic solid, allowing the researchers to create highly precise and elastic structures that would be able to interact with a human body's natural tissue. So that the synthetic tubes do not get rejected by the living organism, their walls are coated with modified biomolecules.
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The World of Seven Billion

2011-09-23T07:43:00.002+01:00

National Geographic have published an attractive set of infographics about our planet's human population.
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Metal 3D Printing

2011-09-22T07:35:00.000+01:00

Technology Review reports: [edited]

Chris Turner, an engineer at EADS Innovation Works near Bristol, England, twists a lever on a boxy black machine, and a porthole opens to reveal a dark cavity with a floor covered in gray powder. An invisible beam sweeps across the powder, and sparks fly. The box is an additive-layer manufacturing machine, sometimes known as a 3D printer, and it is making a small part for an Airbus A380 airliner.

3D printers can make complex shapes that can't be manufactured with conventional techniques. Until recently, however, they couldn't print strong, durable objects. The machine Turner is using can make intricate forms out of high-grade metal, an advance that has allowed researchers to apply the design possibilities of 3D printing to mechanical parts.

The printers use software that works out where the parts need to bear loads and places material just in those areas, halving the weight of the complete part without sacrificing strength. That saves energy, metal, and money. The complex, curving forms that result couldn't be cast in a mold or carved out of a larger block even with the most advanced computer-controlled tools, but they can be printed in a succession of layers tens of micrometers thick.
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The McGurk Effect

2011-09-21T07:59:00.000+01:00

Thought-provoking...

via kottke
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Seabreacher

2011-09-20T08:18:00.002+01:00

Tech News Daily reports: [edited]

A new watercraft is giving wealthy adventure-seekers a taste of what it’s like to zip through the water like a killer whale.

Innerspace's Seabreacher Y vessel - which resembles a killer whale and is similar in size and dimension - is part submarine, part speedboat and can even leap out of the water.

Price: $86,000
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i'mWatch

2011-09-19T08:16:00.000+01:00

This is the nearest thing to what my previous blog was talking about, and it (allegedly) works with all the major smartphone operating systems.

The problem is, it's not available yet, with the official unveiling happening at the ARM Technology Conference, Santa Clara, October 25 – 27 2011.

For proposed technical specifications, click here

If you're willing to take a risk, you can pre-order it, with prices starting at €250 (but you can spend up to €15,000 if you require the white gold and diamonds model).
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Return of the Wristwatch

2011-09-16T07:38:00.000+01:00

Fast Company reports: [edited]

Chances are, you don't wear a watch and haven't for quite some time. Meanwhile, your smartphone is shoved in a pocket, briefcase, or purse, and all your SMSs, phone calls, Twitter updates, and Facebook statuses are sitting in the fabric-lined darkness. Wouldn't it be, erm... handy to have all that viewable on your wrist?

Apple's touchscreen iPod Nano was an unexpected hit as a watch, spawning a large industry in peripheral watch straps. But the existing Nano doesn't have any connectivity, and while it does run apps, they're all proprietary and can't be changed.

It's possible Apple is planning something novel with the device to turn it into a full-fledged wrist computer. The first clue is the incorporation of Bluetooth 4.0 in newer Apple gear. The standard lowers power consumption and offers simpler 'pairing' between devices.

The always-accessible nature of a smartwatch could appeal to a generation who're used to 'checking in' on Foursquare everywhere they go, as well as basic status reading and updating on Facebook. And all those rumours of NFC payments get even more interesting if you could pay by simply waving your wrist over a sensor pad, with all the NFC circuits in the watch and its wristband, and all the hardware handshaking - including store loyalty cards and in-store downloaded ads - happening on the phone, securely in your pocket.
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An Immune System Trained to Kill Cancer

2011-09-15T07:32:00.000+01:00

The New York Times reports: [edited]

A year ago, when chemotherapy stopped working against his leukemia, William Ludwig signed up to be the first patient treated in a bold experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Ludwig, then 65, a retired corrections officer from Bridgeton, N.J., felt his life draining away and thought he had nothing to lose.

Doctors removed a billion of his T-cells — a type of white blood cell that fights viruses and tumors — and gave them new genes that would program the cells to attack his cancer. Then the altered cells were dripped back into Mr. Ludwig’s veins.

At first, nothing happened. But after 10 days he began shaking with chills. His temperature shot up. His blood pressure shot down. He became so ill that doctors moved him into intensive care and warned that he might die. His family gathered at the hospital, fearing the worst.

A few weeks later, the fevers were gone. And so was the leukemia.

There was no trace of it anywhere — no leukemic cells in his blood or bone marrow, no more bulging lymph nodes on his CT scan. His doctors calculated that the treatment had killed off two pounds of cancer cells.

A year later, Mr. Ludwig is still in complete remission. Before, there were days when he could barely get out of bed; now, he plays golf and does yard work.

Mr. Ludwig’s doctors have not claimed that he is cured — it is too soon to tell — nor have they declared victory over leukemia on the basis of this experiment, which involved only three patients. The research, they say, has far to go; the treatment is still experimental, not available outside of studies.
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Windows 8 tablet preview

2011-09-14T09:12:00.002+01:00

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

Developers attending Microsoft's BUILD conference will go home with a brand new Windows 8 tablet from Samsung. And it's not half bad.

The fondleslab is rather curiously named the Samsung Windows 8 Developer Preview PC – no mention of the word tablet – and it's unlikely to see the light of day as a commercial product. But it provides some interesting insights into what kind of tabler Microsoft would like to see people using.

In hardware terms, this tablet beats anything else on the market for sheer grunt. The system ignores wimpier Atom or Tegra processors in favour of a second generation Intel Core i5 processor, and it includes 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 64GB SSD hard drive. The 11.6-inch Super PLS 1366-by-768 display looks as good as - if not better than - anything else on the market, and it accepts input from either the finger or the pen.

The rub is that the unit weighs in at around two pounds, which makes it difficult to hold with one hand.

It’s likely that this level of hardware would make the device the most expensive tablet on the market - and battery life would be an issue too. But this machine is meant for developers to debug the applications they'll be writing for Windows 8, so there has to be a good level of power.

The tablet comes with a universal extensible firmware interface (UEFI) that provides a quick boot up - around five seconds, in limited tests – and generally, we were impressed with how easy it is to use the device. The touch interface felt much more precise than what you get on an equivalent Apple or Android fondleslab. Fingers are generally good enough to hit the icon you want, but the pen is needed for finer control.

The Metro interface works well, with smooth side-to-side scrolling and an excellent virtual keyboard. Both sound and video playback are good, and the dual microphones would be handy for running voice recognition software.
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PhotoFast i-FlashDrive

2011-09-13T09:12:00.001+01:00

iSmashPhone reports: [edited]

Introducing the perfect solution for memory expansion via a USB Flash Drive. The small accessory is a USB memory stick which sports a universal USB plug at one end while on the other sporting an Apple 30-Pin connector.

It uses a free downloadable App for file management. The USB connector means users don't have to carry a separate USB stick. The PhotoFast i-FlashDrive is compatible with both Mac, Windows, Linux and all iOS powered devices.

The i-FlashDrive is available with 8GB, 16GB and 32GB.

Price: $95 - $180
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Printed Food

2011-09-12T08:30:00.002+01:00

Fast Company reports: [edited]

Typically, 3-D printers are discussed in light of the efficiencies they bring to industrial design and fabrication. They will soon help chefs create foods that can’t be made by hand if Cornell Creative Machines Lab, or their peers in the industry, can make them accessible.

The newest 3-D food printer, now being honed at CCML, can produce: tiny space shuttle-shaped scallop nuggets (image above); and cakes or cookies that, when you slice into them, reveal a special message buried within, like a wedding date, initials (image below) or a corporate logo. They can also make a solid hamburger patty, with liquid layers of ketchup and mustard, or a hamburger substitute that’s made from vegan or raw foods.

The CCML food printers require edible inks and electronic blueprints called FabApps. This machine prints food using multiple cartridges, going line by line until the desired shape is extruded. "The electronic blueprint specifies exactly which materials go where - it is essentially a blueprint of the food item," says Hod Lipson, the head of the lab.

The head of the project at CCML, Jeffrey Ian Lipton, has developed a new printing technique that allows the printer to change the texture of the food being printed. Called stochastic printing or squiggle printing, the food buckles and coils as it comes out of the syringe instead of falling in a straight line. This results in very porous structures whose absorbent quality can be completely controlled.

Using corn masa dough, the lab team along with Chef David Arnold printed a new form of corn chip in the shape of a flower that could be deep fried evenly. "If it were solid you would burn the outside before the inside was fried," says Lipton. "By making it porous we can deep fry the whole thing at the same time. Therefore we can make much larger objects to deep fry."
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Citroen Tubik Concept

2011-09-09T07:49:00.001+01:00

Totally Motor reports: [edited]

Tubik draws on the practical yet pleasing design of Citroen's Type H or “TUB” van from the late 1930s; a half-million-seller that the French firm produced over 34 years. But, Tubik is all about delivering human passengers in refreshed style.

Inside the Tubik’s 4.80m long x 2.08m wide x 2.05m tall footprint-space is a “lounge-style cocoon dedicated to comfort and relaxation” with space for up to nine passengers and luggage, and “modular seats designed to be arranged in many different ways; semi-reclined, face-to-face, etc.” And now you’re sitting comfortably there’s a “giant semi-circular screen and high-definition surround sound” to keep you and your buddies happy.

And it gets even better with “felt seats, silken backrests and door panels, and a leather floor”, as well as “ambient lighting in the cabin highlighting the colours and materials.” It sounds like this lounge could easily turn into a snoozer’s paradise with so much softness to nap on!

The driver is also well-looked after reclining in a black full-grain leather seat; once they’ve passed the fingerprint ID system, that is. There’s also a head-up display screen, mounted immediately in front of the steering wheel that relays all the sat-nav information.

Tubik’s driving position is dominated by what the Citroen designers call the “cyclotron” - a module that groups the seat, pedal assembly, steering wheel and curved head-up display in one circular form. And with a cockpit this groovy you’ll never be short of designated drivers.

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: This would make a very worthy replacement for my ageing Toyota Previa. For more images, click here
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