What do all of the world’s social media users have in common? Besides having a rabid obsession with making Mark Zuckerberg even more money, we’re all going to die. Continue reading
Death and social media
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Category Archives: Technology
Geek-out Sunday part XXII: autonomous quadrotor swarms
The General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania (my alma mater) has produced a number of fascinating experiments lately focused on the uses of quadrotor helicopter robots. Four-propeller aircraft designs were popularized in the 1920s and 1930s to help solve some of the persistent issues with vertical flight (i.e., torque-control). Continue reading
Internet usage in 2012
Ever since I first got onto the Internet in the late 1980s and involved in its commercialization in the early 1990s I’ve seen year after year of brilliant (and sometimes silly) innovation and growth. It should be no surprise that pundits the world over are looking to 2012 to be yet another record-setting year wherein more people get online and stay online in ways that are well understood and some that may emerge before our very eyes (Pinterest, anyone?). Continue reading
Twine and Spool
Unless you’re living in Bill Gates’ house, chances are most of the objects around you aren’t Internet-connected. In fact, the vast majority of appliances, mechanical systems, and even doors/windows are “dumb” with respect to their ability to tell you much of anything unless you’re standing immediately in front of them. Continue reading
Geek-out Sunday part XIX: geeks vs. nerds
Since the dawn of man there has been a war waging between two immovable forces and throughout the ages this war has spilled out into the streets of the unsuspecting world. No, this is not the plot of Priest or any one of the Underworld films (although you deserve some geek cred points for relating to those references). Continue reading
2012: The Year of Facebook
There are those who would say that any one of the past several years could be called “The Year of Facebook” although I would argue that none will be larger than 2012. First of all, the social networking giant will be floating their monster IPO this year which will doubtlessly be met with a tremendous (and perhaps disproportionate) level of rabid enthusiasm. Continue reading
Samsung’s Smart Window
Wow. There’s been a lot of press lately about Samsung being the next Apple which is a pretty bold statement in and of itself but when you take a look at the breadth of products Samsung produces – as well as the high attention to user experience, quality, and design – it might be a little easier to imagine. Continue reading
Parrot’s AR.Drone 2.0
As I mentioned back on 13 December 2011, about once a month a robotics or cybernetics related article crossed my inbox that really piques my curiosity. True to my word, I was perusing some of the myriad updates from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that’s kicked off today in Las Vegas and I came across the Parrot AR.Drone 2.0. Continue reading
Music milestone
50.3%
Nielsen SoundScan have announced their 2011 tally of full year music sales and airplay for the 52-week period 03 January 2011 through 01 January 2012. With it comes hundreds of interesting data points if the music industry is your thing, the report also included one specific item that has been making headlines the world over: for the first time in history digital music purchases exceeded physical sales, accounting for 50.3% of all purchases. Continue reading
Geek-out Sunday part XVIII: help desk humor
There are few things in the technology geek-o-sphere that are as universal (and aggravating) as help desks. The entire technology world depends on their existence and without them we wouldn’t have the material for the hysterical videos below. Continue reading
