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Air Force Insists: Drone Cockpit Virus Just a ‘Nuisance’
The U.S. Air Force revealed new details Wednesday about the virus that’s been infecting the remote cockpits of its drone fleet — and insisted, despite reports from their own personnel, that the infection was properly and easily contained. In a statement — the military’s first official, on-the-record acknowledgement of the virus — the Air Force insisted [...]
10.12.11 -
Like Wonder Woman, Commandos Want Transparent Plane Armor
It’s not quite Wonder Woman’s invisible jet. But for the U.S. military’s elite commandos, it’s close enough. The U.S. Special Operations Command recently put out a solicitation that’s unusual even for a military organization that controls mystery helicopters and stealth drones. It’s after something it calls a “Transparent Ballistic Protection System,” which is pretty much what [...]
10.12.11 -
Platforms, Not Products: A Googler’s Hot-Mic Sound-Off On G+
Last night, a Google engineer learned first-hand that Google+'s strength — the privacy-controlled circles that allow you to use the network for public posts and private workgroups — is also its weakness, if you accidentally cross the streams.
10.12.11 -
Ultraportable ASUS ZenBook Challenges MacBook Air
Hoping to shatter the dominance of the MacBook Air in the ultraportable laptop market, ASUS officially launched its slick brushed aluminum ZenBooks yesterday. The notebooks are available in 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch models, and the 11-incher, the UX21, starts at just under $1,000. It comes standard with a 128 GB hybrid solid state drive, and base models [...]
10.12.11 -
Rating the Reboots: Best and Worst of DC Comics’ ‘New 52′
Wired.com's verdict on DC Comics' massive effort to upgrade its titles is in. From Action Comics to Catwoman, we round up the best and the worst of the retooled series.
10.12.11 -
Strapped to iOS 5, Foursquare Pushes New ‘Radar’ Feature
Location-based startup Foursquare today unveiled a new app feature that allows users to discover nearby places of interest based on their likes and dislikes. Dubbed "Radar," the feature sends push notifications to your iOS 5-based iPhone when you're in the neighborhood of a place you've been meaning to visit.
10.12.11 -
PopCap’s Next iOS Game Is Popcorn Dragon
The next game from the creators of Peggle and Bejeweled is called Popcorn Dragon, PopCap parent company Electronic Arts said Wednesday. To be released for iPad and iPhone this winter, Popcorn Dragon has you move a dragon to and fro about your screen with your finger, using his fiery breath to pop kernels of popcorn. Then [...]
10.12.11 -
Courtroom Science Drama: The Saga of Amanda Knox’s DNA
If you watch crime dramas, you'll be forgiven for the impression that DNA evidence makes an airtight case. And if you do have that impression, you might be confused about the internationally famous case of American Amanda Knox, convicted of murdering her British roommate in Perugia, Italy in 2007. After all, the prosecution's case was based on DNA evidence; Knox's genetic fingerprints were found by Italian police on the handle of a kitchen knife, which also had the victim's DNA on the blade -- but not all DNA evidence is created equal.
10.12.11 -
FBI Arrests Man Who Allegedly Hacked Celebrities to Steal Nude Photos
Federal authorities have arrested and charged a 35-year old Florida man for allegedly hacking dozens of Hollywood celebrities, including breaking into Scarlett Johansson's phone and leaking nude pictures of her to the internet.
10.12.11 -
Philippe Starck: Evolution and Intelligent Design (No, Not That Kind …)
As we have evolved, we super-monkeys have continually posed ourselves the same question. How can we become better, more intelligent?
10.12.11
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Clever Test Shows Meerkat Voices Are Personal
By using audio trickery to present meerkats with a puzzling situation, biologists have demonstrated that the adorable African critters recognize each other by voice. The implications go beyond meerkats: It's been suprisingly difficult to design empirical studies for truly wild animals other than primates, leaving an important aspect of animal social life in shadow.
10.12.11 -
T-Mobile’s SpringBoard Tablet Aims to Snuff Amazon’s Fire
Following the lead of Amazon's Kindle Fire, T-Mobile has teamed up with Chinese computer company Huawei to create the SpringBoard, a sub-$200 tablet positioned to undercut the glut of other Android slates currently shipping.
10.12.11 -
iPad’s Big Screen Makes Brilliant Scribblenauts Shine
How many traditional console games are actually improved by making the leap to iOS? Scribblenauts Remix must be counted as one of the few.
10.12.11 -
Nintendo Bundles Redesigned Wii With Mario
Nintendo of America will introduce a revamped model of Wii when a new bundle hits stores on October 23, it said this week. The $150 bundle, which includes New Super Mario Bros. Wii and a limited-edition copy of the Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack, is significant because is the first release of a redesigned Wii console in [...]
10.12.11 -
You Should Hope the Crazy Iranian Bomb Plot Is True
It's nearly impossible to believe the government's claim that Iranian agents attempted to pay a Mexican drug cartel to ice a Saudi diplomat. But we should hope that every word of the Iranian bomb plot is true. Because if it is, that means Iran's most feared agents are blithering idiots.
10.12.11 -
Check Out the Wired Offices Circa 1929
The website Old S.F. shows the Wired offices as they were in 1929. We take a photo from the same perspective to show how it has (hasn't) changed.
10.12.11 -
More Than 93,000 Sony Customers Affected in New Breach
Sony announced on Tuesday that more than 93,000 customers with online accounts for its various properties suffered breaches of their accounts after intruders gained access to them using their usernames and passwords.
10.12.11 -
The Revenge of the Imaginary Kraken
Contrary to my expectations, I did not have nightmares about gargantuan squid tangling with enormous ichthyosaurs in the shadowy reaches of the sea last night. That???s probably for the best ??? the mythical beastie has claimed enough of my waking hours. Since news of the Triassic squid-that-wasn???t-there broke Monday morning, I have been following the [...]
10.12.11 -
Pre-Order The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists
I’m really very excited about the impending launch of the newest GeekDad book, The Geek Dad Book for Aspiring Mad Scientists. This book takes the winning formula of projects for parents and kids to share, and turns it up to 11, focusing specifically on the wide, wild world of (mad) science. From kitchen-table particle detectors [...]
10.12.11 -
Touchscreen Braille Writer Lets the Blind Type on a Tablet
One group of people has traditionally been left out of our modern tablet revolution: the visually impaired. But a Stanford team of three has helped change that. Tasked to create a character-recognition program that would turn pages of Braille into readable text on an Android tablet, the team ended up creating something even more useful: a touchscreen-based Braille writer.
10.12.11
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Adobe Proposes New Standard for 3D Effects on the Web
With Flash falling out of favor, Adobe is focusing more on web standards. The company has already proposed a way to improve web layout tools with "CSS Regions" and now it wants to bring high-quality cinematic effects to the web with CSS Shaders.
10.12.11 -
Facebook???s Social Music Features Are Poised for Mobile Rollout
After what seemed like endless rumors and speculation, Facebook announced the launch of its iPad app this week. The app looks pretty much exactly like you???d expect it to, porting Facebook???s familiar user interface over to the iPad???s larger interface. The iPad Facebook app is fine, if a year or two late. We???re [...]
10.12.11 -
BlackBerry Outage Continues as iCloud Launches
Oh, RIM! It looked like things couldn’t get any worse, and then your messaging services go down for days. And right before the iPhone launch, too. BlackBerry owners will already know about it, but for the rest of you, BBM (BlackBerry Messaging) went down hard on Monday morning, and is still staggering along two days later. [...]
10.12.11 -
Evolutionary Comparison Finds Shocking History for Vertebrates
Evolutionary biologists from Cornell University have discovered that just about every vertebrate on Earth descended from an ancient ancestor with a sixth sense: the ability to detect electrical fields in water.
10.12.11 -
Panetta: I’ll Fight For Army Cash (Never Mind Reality)
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta really, really wants the Army to like him. In a pander-filled speech on Wednesday morning to the Army’s annual Washington D.C. convention, Panetta pledged that the Army has a big role in national security even after the Iraq and Afghanistan wars end and budget cuts ravage the Pentagon. And he all [...]
10.12.11 -
Apple Stealth Launches ‘Find My Friends’ and ‘Airport Utility’ Apps
Apple’s iCloud launches today, along with a few new iOS apps. And while we’re still waiting for the iWork and iPhoto updates that will allow us to use the new syncing and Photo Stream sharing services, Apple has released the Find My Friends and Airport Utility apps. Find My Friends was announced last week at the [...]
10.12.11 -
Oct. 12, 1928: Iron Lung, Savior to a Generation
The iron lung arrives just as there's a spike in poliomyelitis cases, a disease that could affect its victim's ability to breathe normally. Talk about good timing.
10.12.11 -
Sprint Will Sell iPhone 4S Unlocked, Verizon Will Unlock If You Ask
If you’re planning on traveling outside the U.S with your shiny new iPhone 4S, you should probably buy it from Sprint or Verizon. Both carriers have decided to unlock the micro SIM slot so any card can be popped in and used. Sprint will sell its iPhones unlocked, whereas Verizon will unlock the handset after 60 [...]
10.12.11 -
Dork Tower Wednesday
Read all the Dork Towers that have run on GeekDad. Find the Dork Tower webcomic archives, DT printed collections, more cool comics, awesome games and a whole lot more at the Dork Tower Website.
10.12.11 -
Adjustable Balance Bike for Fast-Growing Kids
Some people think that bikes are just for kids. Those people should be sterilized. But bikes are pretty great for kids, and the sooner you get them started, the sooner they’ll be riding without training wheels. Seriously. I know bike polo players whose kids were riding at three years old, which is pretty badass. Which brings [...]
10.12.11
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Outdoor Parents, Outdoor Kids
As a GeekDad, I’m keenly aware that there are more cool things to do at home than ever before in history. Between the various game consoles, internet sites, streaming video, Lego, Arduinos, ebooks, iPads, and more, we could all easily find a lifetime’s worth of amusement without ever leaving the basement. With so many modern [...]
10.12.11 -
Free App Brings Image Stabilization to iPhone, iPad
The iPad’s stills camera might be terrible, but as a video camera it’s pretty good. And combined with iMovie in the big screen, it’s hard to beat. But even the big ol’ iPad is prone to shake, and iMovie has almost no special effects. Which is where Luma comes in. Luma is a third party video-shooting [...]
10.12.11 -
Kinectimals Returns to XBox, This Time With Bears
When the Kinect was released almost a year ago, one of the launch games was Kinectimals. This game for kids allows users to interact with virtual animals through a series of simple motions the Kinect motion detector recognizes and interprets. The first iteration of Kinectimals consisted of various cubs from the cat family. The game [...]
10.12.11 -
Bobo Explores Light Will Illuminate Your iPad Learning
Say hello to Bobo, your kid’s new best friend! Well, maybe not quite, but he is the star of a new iPad app out now from developers GameCollage, which they’ll definitely love. Bobo is a cute little robot who is both your guide and fellow adventurer as you explore various aspects of one of science’s [...]
10.12.11 -
Entering This Contest Could Put Your Science Experiment in Space
If you’re a student between the ages of 14-18, you are eligible to enter a new contest announced this week, called Space Lab. The competition, sponsored by YouTube and Lenovo, gives students the opportunity to submit a science experiment that will be conducted at the International Space Station and streamed live to Earth via YouTube. [...]
10.12.11 -
I-Wood ‘Laptop’ With Chalkboard Screen
This amazing little kids’ notebook is just 2.5 cm thick (about an inch) and likely weighs in at less than even the MacBook Air. It will never get hot, the battery will never run down and the keyboard can be configured to any layout you like, from QWERTY to AZERTY to Dvorak. You’ll never have to [...]
10.12.11 -
GeekMom to Spawn a Book!
GeekMom editors Natania Barron, Kathy Ceceri, Corrina Lawson, and Jenny Williams are thrilled to announce that their book GEEKMOM: Projects, Tips, and Adventures for Moms and Their 21st Century Families is going to be published by the Potter Craft division of Crown Publishing! The book explores the many fun and interesting ways that moms and [...]
10.12.11 -
Russian Airplane Maker Enters Business Jet Market
Russian airplane maker Sukhoi is joining the business jet community with a VIP version of its SuperJet 100 regional airliner. The new Sukhoi business jet joins Boeing and Airbus, along with the Brazilian company Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier in converting airliners for private use. The Sukhoi 100 that the SBJ is based on first flew in [...]
10.12.11 -
Cadillac’s New Infotainment System Takes Cues From Tablets
Cadillac announced new infotainment system with gesture and voice controls that’s designed to seamlessly integrate up to 10 devices with a single touchscreen interface and only four buttons. Called CUE — an acronym for “Cadillac User Experience” — the system will debut in 2012 on the SRX, XTS and ATS. It’s a shot across the bow [...]
10.12.11 -
GeekDad HipTrax #78
Typically Ken and I reserve our October shows for Halloween merriment. With all our recent scheduling and technical problems, however, we’ve elected to devote this episode to some unfinished business — namely spotlighting three new releases that certainly warrant your attention. Suffice it to say you won’t be disappointed with: “Critical Hit” by MC Frontalot Frontalots new album [...]
10.12.11
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2 Interactive Books About Cars and Trucks
This summer I mentioned two picture books about cars that are a lot of fun to read. Well, here are two more books that are sure to please any kids who have a thing for wheels. They’re even interactive! Under the Hood by Cristophe Merlin is a lift-the-flaps book about Mr. Bear and his car. [...]
10.12.11 -
Wordstock Interview: Jonathan Auxier
Jonathan Auxier (pronounced “ox-ee-AY”) is a Canadian from Vancouver who now lives in LA (though will apparently be moving shortly to Pittsburgh). His first book, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, is a magical adventure about a blind orphan thief. You should read it. I met Auxier at Wordstock last weekend and talked to him about [...]
10.12.11 -
An iOS Game Built With Adobe Edge: Run Kitty Run
Run Kitty Run is a new iOS game for kids in the style of Sonic or Mario. It has been developed by Adam Kahn and his team at Crossborders using the new Adobe Edge platform. We got the chance to have a chat with Adam about the game and what Adobe Edge means for developers [...]
10.12.11 -
A Fun Google Doodle for Art Clokey’s Birthday!
Celebrate Art Clokey’s 90th birthday today with a Google doodle honoring his pioneering work in stop-motion animation! Clokey presented Gumbasia to the world in 1955 from University of Southern California. Then, from Gumby and Pokey in the 50s to Davey and Goliath in the 60s, his influence has been seen right up through this decade! [...]
10.12.11 -
A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Wed., Oct. 12, by Mayer Hawthorn
.answer {color:#fff;} .answer:hover {color:#333;} Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the [...]
10.12.11 -
Cadillac’s Connected Car System Arrives in Style
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — While Ford may be built tough, Cadillac is known best for one thing: Swagger. So when the company finally debuted its long-awaited connected-car solution in its fleet of luxury sedans, we knew it would be with style. Cut to “CUE,” Cadillac’s touch-based, in-dash entertainment control system announced on Oct. 12 at the CTIA [...]
10.12.11 -
Is The World Just?
In many American prisons, the treatment of prisoners is a national disgrace. Numerous reports have documented widespread prisoner abuse, prison rape, medical neglect and severe overcrowding. In recent weeks, for instance, there have been a number of important articles describing abuse in the Los Angeles County Jails. Here’s a sampling of headlines from the LA [...]
10.11.11 -
Duo Who Sold Lost iPhone 4 Prototype Sentenced to Probation
Two young men involved in the sale of an iPhone 4 prototype found in a Silicon Valley bar last year pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of theft Tuesday, and have been sentenced, putting an end to the drawn-out drama.
10.11.11 -
Siri Is iPhone 4S-Only Today, But Where Will It Be Tomorrow?
Apple is launching the iPhone 4S this week with the recently unveiled??integration of Siri, a voice activated “assistant.” Siri accepts voice input and can perform a range of actions on your iPhone, including looking up information, adding calendar events, and even composing short texts and e-mails. Siri shows a lot of promise in realizing [...]
10.11.11 -
William Shatner Seeks Major Tom With Album of Space Jams
Star Trek superstar William Shatner sing-talks his way through an album of rock 'n' roll cover songs based on David Bowie's fictional astronaut from "Space Oddity." Yes, really.
10.11.11
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Star Choreographer Lends Best Moves to Dance Central 2
There's a good chance that those moves you're busting while dancing in front of your Kinect are actually Frenchy Hernandez's.
10.11.11 -
Get Hacked, Don’t Tell: Drone Base Didn’t Report Virus
Officials at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada knew for weeks about a virus infecting the drone "cockpits" there. But they kept the information about the infection to themselves -- keeping the unit that's supposed to serve as the Air Force's cybersecurity specialists in the dark. The network defenders at the 24th Air Force learned of the virus by reading about it in Danger Room.
10.11.11 -
Adobe’s New ‘Unblur’ Filter Makes CSI-Style Effects Real
You know that scene in CSI and its ilk where the detective says, “Can you enhance the image?” and some faceless tech hits a few keys and suddenly the license plate is clear and readable? Nerds have been mocking those scenes for decades, but it might be time to stop. Last week at its Max Conference [...]
10.11.11 -
Brown Dwarf Bounty Hints at Odd Region of Space
Astronomers have spotted higher-than-expected numbers of the strange celestial objects known as brown dwarfs hanging out in the cluster NGC 1333, a gas and dust cloud that harbors young stars. The results suggest that there may be something particular about the environment in NGC 1333 that causes bountiful brown dwarf formation.
10.11.11 -
RSA Blames Breach on Two Hacker Clans Working for Unnamed Government
Two separate hacker groups whose activities are already known to authorities were behind the serious breach of RSA Security earlier this year and were likely working at the behest of a government, according to new statements from the company’s president. RSA President Tom Heiser, speaking at the RSA conference in London this week, said that the [...]
10.11.11 -
Mayhem, Hulk and Iron Man’s Wit Fuel First Avengers Trailer
Stuff gets blown up, jokes get made, hammers get hurled and outrageously cool crime-fighters strut their stuff in the gripping new trailer for The Avengers, which offers our first real look at the new Hulk.
10.11.11 -
Computational Model of Peace Predicts Social Violence, Harmony
A systems model of how ethnic tensions flare into violence has passed a test in Switzerland, where harmony prevails except for one region flagged by the analysis. Though tests of the model are still in early stages -- Switzerland is the third country to be analyzed -- they raise the alluring possibility that propensities to social violence can be formally quantified, predicted and even prevented.
10.11.11 -
Kiip Fast-Tracks High Scores to Guinness Book Fame
With the folks at Guinness producing an annual Gamer’s Edition of their book of world records, the definition of what constitutes a record-worthy accomplishment has been greatly expanded. Can you set a high score worthy of eternal glory? New software from the mobile company Kiip makes it easy: If you top the leaderboards in certain games [...]
10.11.11 -
German Minister Wants Investigation of State Authorities’ Use of Spyware
Germany's justice minister has called for an investigation after authorities in at least four German states acknowledged using computer spyware to conduct surveillance on citizens.
10.11.11 -
Björk’s Biophilia App Album Launches 10 Beautifully Depicted Songs
Screenshots from the iPad version of Biophilia courtesy Scott Snibbe. See Also: Bj??rk???s Lead App Developer Riffs on Music, Nature and How Apps Are Like Talkies (Part 1) How Bj??rk???s App Album Was Made: Mixing for iPad, Visualizing Music as Tunnels (Part 2) Meet the 19-Year-Old Building 3 Bj??rk Song Apps
10.11.11
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Video Premiere: I Fight Dragons “The Geeks Will Inherit the Earth”
Nerd rock band I Fight Dragons is coming strong with a new album and a brand spanking new video, premiering right here on GeekDad. That’s right folks. The video is for their single “The Geeks Will Inherit the Earth” which you may have seen some live footage from Nerdapalooza 2011. I Fight Dragons is a [...]
10.11.11 -
Huge Warplanning Tablet Does Everything But Shoot
The AAI Corporation doesn’t know the name of the two-by-three-foot tablet its representatives are showing off. “You, uh, wanna talk about what we’re gonna call this?” Chris Ellsworth of AAI asks his colleague, Todd Alexander. Alexander shakes his head. He just thinks it’ll be the primary tool of battlefield commanders in the near future. Names come [...]
10.11.11 -
Robert Scoble Shares Photography Circles on Google+
Scoble shared his entire photography contact list on Google+ early yesterday morning. By the afternoon some of those on the list had been put in more than 1,000 new circles.
10.11.11 -
What’s the Point of Points?
Maybe you already know that I am not a big fan of grades. ??I have some links at the bottom just in case you can’t remember. Ok, enough about that. ??Check out this great collection of twitter updates that Frank Noschese (@fnoschese) collected regarding points on his blog. (Action-Reaction) Here are just a couple of the twitter [...]
10.11.11 -
The First Avengers Trailer Is Here!
Finally, the first real trailer for Marvel’s The Avengers, set to hit theaters May 4, 2012, is here! It looks just as awesome as you’d hope it would, and the bits of dialogue in it are such that, even if you didn’t know Joss Whedon had written them, you’d probably guess. It appears that, unsurprisingly [...]
10.11.11 -
Humor Abuse Finding My Father Under the Clown Paint
The Seattle Repertory Theater opened its season with the play Humor Abuse in Seattle last week, written by Lorenzo Pisoni and Erica Schmidt, directed by Schmidt with a solo performance by Pisoni. Pisoni tumbles, stumbles and pratfalls his way through his childhood from his beginnings as a circus performer in the Pickle Family Circus in San [...]
10.11.11 -
‘Donatello’ Library Simplifies CSS 3 Drawings
Most modern browsers support the HTML5 canvas element and SVG for drawing and animating. There are, however, some cases — particularly with mobile browsers — where it might make more sense to use CSS-based drawing tools. Donatello is a JavaScript library that can do much of what the Rapha??l JS drawing library does, but instead of [...]
10.11.11 -
Megavirus May Be Stripped-Down Version of Normal Cell
The unusual size and genetic content of enormous viruses could explain the origin of DNA-based life -- one could set up shop in a cell and simply never leave, gradually taking over the remaining functions once performed by its host's genetic material. But a new study argues this scenario is backwards, as giant viruses may have once been cells.
10.11.11 -
How to Stop a Missile From Hitting a Tank? Shoot It Down
You basically have three options when a rocket propelled grenade or small missile is headed for your armored truck. You can try to steer it out of the way. You can hope the truck’s armor plates are strong enough to withstand the impact. And you can pray. Saab’s North American branch thinks it has a fourth [...]
10.11.11 -
Star Wars Disney Princess Cake
Talk about self-rescuing princesses! This lovely cake was made for Anthony Herrera’s daughter’s birthday. You may remember Anthony, the graphic designer who found all the hiding Ewoks in the pictures the family took on their trip to the forest. From his blog post about the cake: My daughter really enjoys Star Wars. Like many other little [...]
10.11.11
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Geologists Prepare to Drill Into Ancient Antarctic Lake
A team of British researchers are preparing to dig down through three-kilometer-thick ice to sample a lake under the Antarctic in the hope of finding new species and clues about the future impact of climate change.
10.11.11 -
Animals in Motion???With Prosthetic Limbs
There has never been a better time to be an injured animal. Thanks to some creative prosthetists and veterinarians, creatures that lose hoofs, paws, or tails can be made whole again.
10.11.11 -
History Channel’s Around the World in 80 Ways Is a Fun, Sometimes Geeky, Ride
It’s a pretty clever, and refreshingly original, idea for a reality TV series: Send two resourceful guys on a trip around the world, with the only rule being that each time they use a mode of transportation other than walking, it has to be something different. Pick two guys to star who don’t know each [...]
10.11.11 -
Student Competition Challenges High School Students to Innovate
Innovation can come from a lot of places. Often, it comes from years of research and development from companies or investors with budgets and facilities, from scientists with ideas to be tested or entrepreneurs with new businesses that challenge the status quo. But sometimes it takes an outside view of a problem to spark a [...]
10.11.11 -
Chocolate Chip Cookies and College Classes
There is no doubt that many institutions are having budget problems. But what are some possible solutions to this problem? Let me first look at another problem: chocolate chip cookies. Suppose cookie makers were also having budget problems. What could they do? Here is a diagram of a chocolate chip cookie: Now, to [...]
10.11.11 -
How to Get a Complete Set of Marriage Power-Ups? (GeekDad POTD)
It’s worth a try, right? Via Reddit. Check out the geeky wedding POTD we published back in May, too. (In case you don’t get the joke, have a hint.)
10.11.11 -
Gee, Your Car Smells Terrific!
Luxury automakers and quick-lube shops alike are betting their customers will fork over big bucks for cosmetic products with an automotive tie-in. This morning, BMW announced the release Purif-i, a hand sanitizer and moisturizer from exclusive natural Austrian cosmetics manufacturer Susanne Kaufmann. It’s the official hand sanitizer of the all-electric BMW i sub-brand, and it promises [...]
10.11.11 -
No Cell Towers, Big Problem: Army Aims for Battlefield Network
It's been four and a half years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone. Since then, the Jesus Phone and its competitors have penetrated every social stratum -- with one exception: the Department of Defense. The hardware isn't the problem. The issue is the network.
10.11.11 -
Building a Modular Synth With RJD2
The electronic musician RJD2 has been making tunes for more than a decade: First as a DJ, then as a hip-hop producer, then as a solo artist. Now, the Mad Men theme song writer is part of the duo Icebird. With the new project, he's taken his gearhead obsession further than ever.
10.11.11 -
Army: You Sure We Won’t Fight Another Ground War?
How’s this for painful irony: Right as the Army leaves Iraq and begins to leave Afghanistan following a decade at war, it’s gearing up for intense bureaucratic misery. That’s because even the Army’s alumni argue that the looming cuts to the defense budget should slice the ground service particularly deeply. But on Monday, the Army [...]
10.10.11
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Steve Jobs’ Biological Father: Some Contact (Maybe), But No Facetime
Steve Jobs’ birth father, Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, learned the identity of his son only very late in life. Then it took years for Jandali to gently reach out to the grown man to whom he bears an unmistakable likeness and whom he gave up for adoption as an infant a half-century earlier. In an impossibly sad [...]
10.10.11 -
Pentagon’s Secret Space Plane Could Be Astronauts’ Next Ride
The Air Force’s mysterious X-37B “space plane” is only on its second, eight-month-plus orbital mission, ostensibly conducting science experiments. But manufacturer Boeing has already drawn up plans for a major upgrade to the nimble, 29-foot-long robot — one that could more than double the vehicle’s size and make room for up to six astronauts. The enlarged [...]
10.10.11 -
The Giant, Prehistoric Squid That Ate Common Sense
A giant, prehistoric squid with tentacles so formidable has entered the news cycle that it has sucked the brains right out of writers' heads. Laelaps blogger Brian Switek explains why the self-portrait crafting "kraken" is high on speculation and low on scientific merit.
10.10.11 -
Pricey Pumps the Price for Lawyer’s Advice to ID Scammers
More than 100 people, including a New York attorney, have been indicted in what is being termed the largest identity theft case ever prosecuted in the United States. The ring allegedly involved corrupt insiders at banks, stores and restaurants stealing customer data, as well as a lawyer who received shoes in payment for her advice to the criminals.
10.10.11 -
Exclusive: Marvel’s Kinetic X-Men Anime Comes to America at Last
Animation worthy of Marvel's fantastic hero roster finally arrives stateside in the anime series, X-Men. Previously available only in Japan, the show debuts on G4 later this month. But you can watch an exclusive clip now on Wired.com.
10.10.11 -
Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking For Love Again, In HD
The latest classic adventure game to receive a high-def update is none other than lovable loser, barfly and strike-out artist Leisure Suit Larry.
10.10.11 -
The Steve Jobs Approach To Teamwork
In case you aren’t totally exhausted by the surfeit of Steve Jobs coverage, I’ve got a short essay over at the New Yorker on Jobs’ ability to bridge our intellectual divide, getting people from the humanities and the sciences to work together. In this sense, Jobs was an auteur who knew the limitations of auteurs, [...]
10.10.11 -
Iron Sky Comic Explains How Nazis Got to the Moon
As indie sci-fi filmmakers put the final touches on their crowd-funded black comedy, they've published a prequel comic book explaining how Third Reich refugees found their way to the moon.
10.10.11 -
Psychologists Decipher Brain’s Clever Autofocus Software
The eyes of humans and many animals can autofocus almost instantaneously and with stunning accuracy. Researchers say they are now one step closer to understanding how the brain accomplishes this feat.
10.10.11 -
Toure: The Beatles … Run DMC … the iPod? You Bet
Don't get me wrong -- I love my iPod. But it has utterly changed the relationship people have with music, and this may (or may not) be an insanely great thing.
10.10.11
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Awesome Cat Video, Made From Awesome Cat Memes
What's better than a great I Can Has Cheezburger? moment? A collection of them animated with an adorable lost kitteh that's looking for fame for all the right reasons.
10.10.11 -
Hubble Reveals Chaotic Heart of Milky Way in Infrared
Peer into the mysterious heart of our galaxy???s center. Typically obscured by gas and dust, the central Milky Way is revealed in this new image taken by the Hubble space telescope.
10.10.11 -
Game|Life Audio Podcast Returns: Episode 1
Listen to Wired magazine and Wired.com editors discuss the world of gaming in this new weekly podcast.
10.10.11 -
Tessa Farmer’s Fairies Feast on the Flesh of Birds
Consisting of insect parts and taxidermied animals, Tessa Farmer's painstakingly crafted fairy tableaus prove undeniably creepy. It's the kind of myth-based art that would make Guillermo Del Toro proud.
10.10.11 -
Google Throws New ‘Dart’ Programming Language at the Web
It’s not every day that someone tries to add a new programming language to the web. There’s a good reason for that. The great trinity of web development — HTML, CSS and JavaScript — while not perfect, has proved itself highly flexible and capable of adapting as it evolves, which, in the end, might be [...]
10.10.11 -
Explore Horrifying School Grounds in Corpse Party
Bloody bodies and nasty ghosts haunt Corpse Party, an upcoming horror adventure game that publisher Xseed Games will release for PlayStation Portable this fall.
10.10.11 -
DoJ’s WikiLeaks Probe Widens to Include Gmail, ISP
The U.S. government's investigation against WikiLeaks and its supporters went beyond its efforts to obtain data from Twitter. A new report reveals that the government also used secret orders to obtain information from Google and internet service provider Sonic.net pertaining to the accounts of former U.S.-based WikiLeaks spokesman Jacob Appelbaum.
10.10.11 -
Calif. Governor Veto Allows Warrantless Cellphone Searches
California Gov. Jerry Brown is vetoing legislation requiring police to obtain a court warrant to search the mobile phones of suspects at the time of any arrest -- exposing e-mail, call records, text messages, photos, banking activity, cloud-storage services, and even where the phone has traveled. Hundreds of thousands of people are arrested each year in California.
10.10.11 -
A Not-So-Clean Slate: Blackboards in Porn Is Chalk Full of Fun
It's possible to want many things out of porn, many of which are not suitable for discussion here. But I think all readers of Decode would agree that what we most want is that it be educationally accurate. To our defense comes the Blogspot website Blackboards in Porn.
10.10.11 -
Qwikster Deleted From the Queue: Netflix Cancels Spinoff
Sometimes, no matter how good it looks on paper, a recommendation for movies generated by a formula just doesn’t work. Even if you’ve liked everything else the director and studio have done, it’s ultimately in the execution. And with plenty of options just a click away, there’s no reason to keep watching a bad movie. Reed [...]
10.10.11
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Rating the Reboots: Best and Worst of DC Comics’ ‘New 52′
10.12.11 -
You Should Hope the Crazy Iranian Bomb Plot Is True
10.12.11 -
T-Mobile’s SpringBoard Tablet Aims to Snuff Amazon’s Fire
10.12.11 -
FBI Arrests Man Who Allegedly Hacked Celebrities to Steal Nude Photos
10.12.11 -
Cadillac’s Connected Car System Arrives in Style
10.12.11 -
Psychologists Decipher Brain’s Clever Autofocus Software
10.10.11 -
Courtroom Science Drama: The Saga of Amanda Knox’s DNA
10.12.11 -
Evolutionary Comparison Finds Shocking History for Vertebrates
10.12.11 -
BlackBerry Outage Continues as iCloud Launches
10.12.11 -
Nintendo Bundles Redesigned Wii With Mario
10.12.11 -
iPad’s Big Screen Makes Brilliant Scribblenauts Shine
10.12.11 -
Clever Test Shows Meerkat Voices Are Personal
10.12.11 -
Like Wonder Woman, Commandos Want Transparent Plane Armor
10.12.11 -
Check Out the Wired Offices Circa 1929
10.12.11 -
Get Hacked, Don’t Tell: Drone Base Didn’t Report Virus
10.11.11 -
Ultraportable ASUS ZenBook Challenges MacBook Air
10.12.11 -
Strapped to iOS 5, Foursquare Pushes New ‘Radar’ Feature
10.12.11 -
Touchscreen Braille Writer Lets the Blind Type on a Tablet
10.12.11 -
More Than 93,000 Sony Customers Affected in New Breach
10.12.11 -
Seedbank Vaults Hedge Against Apocalypse
10.10.11
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