Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say they can turn virtually anything into a computer touchpad by using a conductive spray paint. The technology is simply a more ambitious implementation of how touchscreens already work. While older ‘resistive’ screens worked by the user physically pressing down a screen until it contacted a second layer beneath, modern capacitive […]
Most American homes don’t have a landline telephone according to newly published figures. Young adults and renters are the most likely to be cell-phone only. The figures come from the National Center for Health Statistics. Twice a year it carries out a wide-ranging survey of around 20,000 households on health issues and asks for a […]
NASA is offering a prize to coders who can help speed up the supercomputer software used to improve aircraft performance. You’ll need to be a US citizen and able to work with Modern Fortran. While many people think of NASA as being a space organization, it also works on aeronautics closer to home. This includes […]
Elon Musk wants a network of subterranean city tunnels carrying cars around at 130 miles per hour. But the project is moving ahead about as quickly as a pet snail he cited. Late last year he tweeted “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…” For […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4izQnNE2S2o The robot might not be as complex as Bishop from Alien, but fortunately for the man lending his hand for the experiment, he’s just as agile. Five finger fillet with Staubli TX40 robot speeding up for the second pass. A demonstration of confidence in Staubli speed and precision (and my programming!) by my next […]
Verizon is to offer a Gigabit internet service for the first time, albeit in a limited range of places and not quite at the implied speed. The service is an upgrade to the existing Verizon Fios ‘Instant Internet’ offering of 750 Mbps for both uploads and downloads. The new deal will be available to the […]
A man who played a key role in the development of the Internet has died. Robert Taylor, who arguably conceived ARPANET, was 85. Taylor brought together two sets of existing work and ideas at ARPANET, a network at the US Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. The idea of a computer network joining together multiple […]
A Finnish museum plans to display an animated GIF for the next thousand years. Its title, As Long As Possible, acknowledges that may be a stretch. The GIF at Kiasma’s Museum of Contemporary Art is the work of artist Juha van Ingen and is designed to celebrate both the 100th anniversary of Finnish independence and […]