Category Archives: Tech
Canine Cravings
Way back in March I posted a video link (Dog Ballistics) showing a motorized ball launcher, allowing an automated way for a dog to play fetch.
Now, in my tireless scouring of the intertubes (is calling it tubes a felony now?), I find plans to build such a device. Your Dog Wants A FetchBot. It doesn’t have the automatic inclination adjustment, but it still launches.
[T]he cool part is that it’s built mostly out of a cannibalized document scanner. It contains some simple electronics to control the motor, but it’s totally something you could build yourself in an afternoon. C’mon, you can do it! And your dog would love you forever.
Saving Bletchley Park
More money for repairs has been found.
I'll Stop the World and Melt With You
Solar furnace. Cooks hot dogs, melts steel.
Smells Like … a Keyboard
Compromising your keyboard by sniffing the EM radiation signature.
We found 4 different ways (including the Kuhn attack) to fully or partially recover keystrokes from wired keyboards at a distance up to 20 meters, even through walls. We tested 11 different wired keyboard models bought between 2001 and 2008 (PS/2, USB and laptop). They are all vulnerable to at least one of our 4 attacks.
Neal Stephenson did this in Cryptonomicon. Of course, fictional events are trumped by actual results.
Me, Robot
It’s not as funny as the I Love Lucy episode with the chocolates, but it’s still pretty neat.
What Definition of 'Shortage' Shall We Use?
What Shortage of Scientists and Engineers?
So why do we keep hearing complaints about a shortage? One recent reason is that it’s been harder for foreign scientists and engineers to get visas since the Sept. 11 attacks. But the quickest and cheapest way to deal with that problem is to increase the number of visas (as Mr. Obama has promised to do).
Ah, I see. There is no shortage because we “import” scientists and engineers, which we wouldn’t need to do if we had enough scientists and engineers. From what I can tell, you have to have a job offer to get an H-1B, and 65,000 bachelor degree visas were granted last year, along with 20,000 more to those with Master’s or PhDs. There were 133,000 applicants, implying 68,000 more jobs would have been available.
But don’t worry. The quick and easy fix means we don’t have to teach our kids math, science and technology. We’ll just trust conditions never reach the point where foreign workers can get good tech jobs in their home country.
No Need To Add This to My Xmas Wish List
Hover-Q mini IR Hovercraft.
OMGICGMWOFE
(Omigod, I can’t get my wallet out fast enough)
Does the Name 'Pavlov' Ring a Bell?
OMG this is TFF.
Have a cat that won’t stay off your counters? I do. I finally got fed up with it enough to do something about it: scare the crap out of him with a motion-detecting blender (while recording the results for my own amusement, of course).
How-I-did-it instructions are included in the link.
Of course, we now have empirical evidence that the number of times you must scare the crap out of a cat in order to modify its behavior is a minimum of 4.
Wouldn’t be science without data.
How About a Mini-Pizza?
You’ve been there. At a party or other gathering, a drink in one hand, a plate in the other, and no prehensile tail (obviously I’m excluding the writing staff of most reality-TV shows) so you can’t actually eat the food. Instead of cursing evolution, you can get the Fingerfood tray
[C]harming little plates with rings that fit right on your finger. Now you can balance your glass and your hors d’ouevres, and look positively in control the whole time.
From the folks that brought you the Gin & Titonic.