Mapping a revolution with 'mashups'
By Elinor Mills
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 17, 2005 4:00 AM PT
Even before Google gave its blessing, Paul Rademacher was hacking away at the code behind its mapping application so he could mix it with outside real estate data and see exactly where homes listed for sale were located in the San Francisco area.
Little did the computer graphics expert know that his HousingMaps.com, which combines a Google map with house listings from the popular Craigslist community, would be the start of an Internet phenomenon. Although Rademacher created his site about two months before Google publicly released its application programming interface--the secret sauce that allows developers to create their own recipes with its maps--the company wasn't angry.
In fact, Google hired him shortly thereafter.
"Now we see that all along there has been a huge amount of interesting information tied around location," Rademacher said. "Before, they had no way of expressing that and doing anything useful with it."
I WANT ONE!
The Pen Gets a Whole Lot Mightier
THE holiday season may be a time for love, hope and all that jazz. But let's face it: for millions of Americans, a big part of it is getting new toys.
Sometimes, "toys" means playthings for grownups, like iPods and flat-screen TV sets. But for the younger crowd, "toys" still means toys. And one toy in particular, though it's been available for only a month, already appears high on the "hottest toys" lists prepared by eBay, Toys "R" Us and others: a $100 educational gadget called the Fly Pentop Computer.
There's something a little odd about the term "pentop computer." Terms like laptop, palmtop and desktop tell you where you use the computer - but you don't use the Fly on top of a pen.
Instead, the Fly is a pen - a fat ballpoint pen. (The company says that its focus groups found the term "pentop computer" infinitely sexier than "pen computer." Nobody ever said consumers are logical.)
The Fly is so fat because it contains an AAA battery, a computer chip, a speaker and, mounted half an inch from the ballpoint tip, a tiny camera. For all of its educational, interactive tricks, the Fly pen requires special paper whose surface is imprinted with nearly invisible micro-dots. As you write, the pen always knows where it is on the page, thanks to those dot patterns and the camera that watches them go by.
Logitech and other companies sell exactly the same technology to adults, but it's never caught on. Those pens simply store what you write - not as text, but just as a frozen graphic - and later transfer it to a Windows computer.
But Fly's maker, LeapFrog (maker of LeapPad, the popular interactive book reader), has much greater ambitions. In its incarnation, which is aimed at "tweens" (8 to 14 years old), no PC is required or desired; instead, you get crisp, instantaneous audio feedback from the pen's speaker.
(course I wrote about this before)
Speaking of cheap computing power:
By Jo Twist BBC News technology reporter in Tunis |
Tip to counterfeiters: don’t send printer jammed with fake money out for repair
Related entries: Peripherals
We’re totally not trying to tell you how to run your business, but when the printer you’re using to pump out counterfeit hundies and fiddies breaks, it’s probably a good idea to remove all the fake money jammed inside of it before you send it out for repair. Otherwise you’ll end up like that gang of geniuses in Arizona which just got busted this week for pumping out $160,000 in counterfeit cash.
- Date: Nov 17, 2005, 9:00 AM ET
- Author: Victor Agreda, Jr.
- Permalink
- 14:31 17 November 2005
- NewScientist.com news service
- Maggie McKee
A private company wants to sell NASA trips into orbit on a shuttle-like spaceship that the agency itself designed two decades ago.
SpaceDev, an aerospace company based in California, US, has announced plans to build a spacecraft that will carry both tourists and astronauts into orbit.
Called Dream Chaser, it is based on a small, plane-like craft called the HL-20 that NASA designed in the 1980s as an alternative to the space shuttle. It cost the space agency $2 billion to develop the design, along with a full scale prototype, but a working HL-20 was never built.
NASA has since made details of the HL-20 design publicly available. SpaceDev also has ties with the space agency, helping NASA’s Ames Research Center explore different spacecraft concepts.
The company says it could begin flying four-person suborbital flights in 2008 if it receives about $20 million in funding. It could then launch six-person missions to the International Space Station by around 2010 for an additional $100 million, it claims.
"We think we have a winner because it's NASA-designed," says Jim Benson, founder and CEO of SpaceDev. "They're familiar with it and the astronauts will like it."
- 17 November 2005
- NewScientist.com news service
- Alison Motluk
IT SOUNDS like science fiction: simply swallowing a pill, or eating a specific food supplement, could permanently change your behaviour for the better, or reverse diseases such as schizophrenia, Huntington's or cancer.
Yet such treatments are looking increasingly plausible. In the latest development, normal rats have been made to behave differently just by injecting them with a specific amino acid. The change to their behaviour was permanent. The amino acid altered the way the rat's genes were expressed, raising the idea that drugs or dietary supplements might permanently halt the genetic effects that predispose people to mental or physical illness.
It is not yet clear whether such interventions could work in humans. But there is good reason to believe they could, as evidence mounts that a range of simple nutrients might have such effects.
Packing tips for wrinkle-free travel
As a frequent traveler, I want to share some packing tips that have helped me stay free of wrinkles. I have tried many methods including an classic method detailed on the Men’s Wearhouse site; steaming my clothes in the bathroom on arrival, voodoo, etc. None of these methods quite did the trick, even with wrinkle-resistant clothing (see my note at the end of this article).
My wrinkle-free status improved significantly recently, when I discovered Eagle Creek’s Pack-It Folders. These are phenomenal for keeping dress shirts, pants, and jackets wrinkle-free in your luggage (they also work with skirts, but I haven’t tried that).
Eagle Creek also offers Pack-It Cubes, which I use for general organization (you’ll see how it all works together to tidy up my suitcase, below).
Karen Rudolph Durrie | |
For Neighbours |
When she was 70, Calgarian Avril Johnstone commemorated the milestone by taking a three-and-a-half hour climb with her sister, involving a series of catwalks, ladders and 1,439 stairs up the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia.
It was one of the highlights of her life, but may have been the last time she'll really celebrate a birthday -- she's given up counting the years.
"That was something else. It was a great way to celebrate my birthday. But I think I'm going to forget birthdays now," Johnstone laughs in her Aussie accent.
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