Fears that DVDs could spell the end of the movie theater may have proved premature. For the first time since 2002, US citizens spent more money at the box office last year than on DVDs. According to Adams Media Research, the total spent on tickets at US movie theaters was $9.87 billion in 2009, up […]
It appears as if the field of science and technology is the next great battleground for the games console war. Following creative uses for the Xbox 360 and PS3, two scientists have developed new ways to use the Wii’s controller. Hydrologist Willem Luxemburg and physicist Rolf Hut, both from the Dutch university Delft, showed off […]
The Federal Communications Commission has unveiled some of its ideas for strengthening the US broadband network to help the economy. The changes could include subsidies to improve provision in rural areas, measures to improve accessibility for people with disabilities, and a one-box solution to rival cable and video-on-demand services. The report issued this week (PDF […]
Christmas falls on December 25th every year. That might seem obvious to you, but it appears the planners for some major corporations have been getting surprised by this. As you may remember, Barnes & Noble recently conceded that even orders for its “nook” e-reader placed before the Christmas delivery deadline November 20th might not make […]
The robot courses across the battlefield, swiveling on sleek steel legs, turning its bullet-shaped head toward its prey. Its eyes flash red, then blue: signal received. Before the ensuing sound boom and the inevitable end of hundreds of lives, it pauses a moment to reflect. Death is never easy, even with a heart of circuits. […]
If you bring a lawsuit that appears ambitious, obscure or downright insane, you may find yourself accused of trying to create a circus atmosphere. One tip for people facing such accusations: don’t demand that Depeche Mode’s songwriter makes a live appearance with Winona Ryder as the support act. That’s what’s happening in a case brought […]
Minnesota linguist d’Armond Speers has a doctorate in computational linguistics. He says he isn’t much of a Star Trek fan. But he spent the first three years of his son’s life speaking to him only in Klingon! “I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would […]
You’ve heard it before: parents groups and educators worldwide are growing more and more concerned regarding children and teens using social networking sites. But while online social networking shows a great deal of promise in respect to reaching out to teenagers, some critics worry that too much focus on the superficiality of sites, especially Facebook, […]
Today, a new release of the popular free & open source operating system Ubuntu becomes available. This is release 9.10, code-named Karmic Koala. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I could be a little biased, as I had a hand in the planning and development of the release. First, if you […]
Well, the honeymoon couldn’t last forever. I have to admit, Hulu did seem too good to be true from the get-go. For this little family of three, living our days without cable were made a bit easier with the freedom of Hulu, especially during the first season of Legend of the Seeker. Um, wait. Did […]