Archive: Tech

August 12, 2005

From other places...

Top 10 Web fads - "Internet phenomena. Memes. Grist for the e-mail forwarding mill. Whatever you call them, Web fads are entertaining, unintended consequences of life on the World Wide Web. Once the masses could put anything online easily, they turned up weird fetishes, hilarious parody, jaw-dropping narcissism, and moments of brilliance…”

Furniture Causes FedEx Fits

- “Most of us have been there. You can just barely afford to pay the rent. But forget about buying furniture -- not if you want to eat, anyway. Jose Avila recently found himself in just that predicament…”

Website's appearance matters - “It's no secret that men and women tend to spend their time on the Internet quite differently. But British researchers suggest it's not just a Web site's subject or function that determines whether it will draw more men or women. The appearance of the site also might play a subtle role…”

Web Design entry on Wikipedia – not only does it have a really interesting history on web development and design, but there’s a great set of resource links at the bottom too.

August 5, 2005

Save some money…and the environment
Jamie Chang and Katie Marshall

As the nights get colder, student energy bills rise. And, unless you have hydroelectric, solar, or wind power, chances are the power you use is generated from non-renewable sources. Also, many small repairs like fixing leaky faucets are usually covered by your landlord--so you don't have even spend money to save. Use the following tips from Nova Scotia Power to save energy and your wallet.

Washing your clothes in the warm/cold cycle instead of the hot/warm cycle can save $4 dollars a month. Also, by making sure you only do laundry when you have full loads, you can save.

Keeping the thermostat on your water heater between 42 and 49 degrees Celsius can save $3 dollars a month.

Installing a low flow showerhead for a household of 4 can save up to $100 a year.

A typical house in Nova Scotia spends around $200 a year on lights. Switching to Compact Fluorescent Lights will reduce this bill from 50-80%, and the bulbs last 10 times longer than regular light bulbs (average of about 7 years).

A hot water leak of one drop per second adds up to 700 litres a month. Fixing leaks can save you $36 a year.

Put a blanket over your hot water heater, and you'll reduce heat standby loss and save yourself about $30 a year.

Also check out Nova Scotia's Online Energy Calculator to see exactly how much you can save by using less power.

From other places...

The Blogs of War - "In the middle of it all, a lone reservist sergeant stationed on the Iraqi border posed a simple question: “I cannot help but wonder upon reflection of the circumstances, how much longer we will be able to carry with us our digital cameras, or take photographs and document the experiences we have had…”

Astronauts see wide environmental damage -

"Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater care was needed to protect natural resources..."

B.C. firm scores big in Beijing Olympics - "Mention the Olympics in British Columbia and you would think that the only Games planned for this century occur in 2010. New buildings, roads and even a rapid transit system are destined for the province as it prepares to host the Winter Games..."

July 29, 2005

Master of Illusion - "Along with Willis O'Brien (who made the original King Kong in 1933), Ray Harryhausen has long been regarded as the granddaddy of contemporary cinematic special effects..."

Clean up your grungy PC - "At this very moment, dust bunnies may have your PC in a death grip. Germs are certainly gathering atop your mouse and keyboard, ready to assault your immune system. And your screen...well, chances are it has become smudge central..."

Hollywood to E.A.: Bring It On - "Marlon Brando has cotton balls stuffed in his cheeks. In five months the legendary actor will die of lung failure, but now he's deep in character, summoning the spirit of the capo di tutti capi one last time in his home on Mulholland Drive..." (Editor's note: Contains some explicit language quoted on the second and third pages, but a very worthwhile look at the videogame industry.)

July 15, 2005

Technological Investigation

Investigators in London are asking people who were close to the locations that were bombed to send in their amateur pictures and videos from cell phone cameras. Any one of these pictures or videos could hold crutial information concerning the bombers.
Click here to learn more.

Defining the Problem

The Anti-Spyware Coalition has announced that it has come up with a mutually agreeable definition of Spyware. With a formal definition created, it is hoped that anti-spyware legislation can now be brought in to regulate these programs.
Click here to learn more.

July 8, 2005

Stealing is Stealing

A man in St. Petersburg, Florida, has been charged for stealing someone else's Wi-Fi signal, giving him unauthorized access to a computer network. This is a third-degree crime that is so new that there are no police statistics for it.
Click here to learn more.

Ultra Modern to Classic

Joshua Driggs pulls off the near impossible: carve an iPod casing out of wood.
"I am also applying a wood finish to just about everything on my desk to have a matching set. And the iPod was not excluded."
Click here to learn more.

Man and the Machine

A year ago, robots were still seen as being a part of the distant future. Now, with iRobot's sweeper robot Roomba, and the coming of Scooba the floor moper, and PackBot the military reconnaissance vehicle, robots are making their presence known today. Click here to learn more.

June 30, 2005

From other places...

Cruisin' For an Alien Bruisin'
– “If carnage is an art form, then War of the Worlds is a masterpiece. Steven Spielberg's adaptation of H.G. Wells' groundbreaking 1908 novel is stuffed full of glorious wreckage. A church is split in half. Cars spin through the air...”

The zen of technology design - More than 25 years ago, when I studied at the University of Kansas, a common exercise required students to design an appliance for consumers in different countries.

The finer points about peer-to-peer file-sharing – “There's still a lot of air to be cleared about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the MGM vs. Grokster and StreamCat case. The bottom line is that nobody really won or lost the case…”

June 24, 2005

Amazing Ants!

It’s that time of year again. You know, the time when the ants come marching two by two (or more) into homes here in the Annapolis Valley. This summer seems especially bad—I’ve seen ants in the BAC, in the Health Clinic, and of course, all over my apartment. You can, of course, use all those different ant sprays and baits available, but there are also preventative ways to keep down the number of ants that find your abode enticing. The following is a list of helpful suggestions and ant information from the Raid website.

In North America, there are approximately 700 different ant species. Twenty-five of these species are considered to be household pests. Ants are particularly troublesome when they come indoors and get into foods. Once a few ants come indoors, hundreds more can quickly follow.

Ants do serve an important role in the ecosystem. But, as their colonies grow and multiply, treatment may be necessary.

Rid Your Home of Ants
For virtually every indoor ant problem, eliminating food, water, and other things that attract ants is key. The following tips will help you rid your home of ants:

1. Clean up food crumbs and beverage spills. A tiny crumb is enough to attract dozens of ants into your home.

2. Keep packaged foods in tightly closed containers.

3. Store vegetable oils and shortenings in the refrigerator.

4. Store food carefully. Ants can travel down the threads of a screw-top jar. They can easily enter the jar that does not have a rubber gasket or liner.

5. Dry out bathtubs and sinks after use.

6. Rinse glass, metal, plastic, and paper food containers before throwing them in the garbage or recycling bins.

7. Clean all kitchen surfaces, and sweep and vacuum often.

8. If you have pets, make sure to clean up any pet food that may have spilled from your pet's food dish.

Property maintenance is another important step in controlling an ant problem—especially with severe ant infestations. For example, caulking windows, making sure your windows are fitting tight, and repairing foundation cracks can help. Tackling environments that make the home and property more inviting to ants is a difficult chore. One can never make a property completely ant-proof—nor would you want to try!

Why are they a problem?
Although different ants have different behaviour patterns, they are all annoying to people for the same reasons: once they take up residence in your home or garden, they quickly reproduce, eat all the available food sources, and can be very difficult to remove. It only takes a few to access the home before thousands more quickly follow, thanks to a chemical trail they lay, leading others from the colony to the food. Some look for sweet foods, while others go for pet food, crumbs and garbage. In general, ants themselves are not considered a health threat to people or pets, but they can contaminate food and destroy vegetation in the house and in the garden.

Ant Biology
Ants are social insects that live in colonies. Usually a colony has three distinct types of ants: queens, workers (females) and males. Each type looks different and has a different job. The queen lays eggs and depending upon the species, a colony may have only one queen or they may have several.

The colony protects the queen and she rarely leaves the nest. The larger major workers look for food and guard the nest. The smaller minor workers expand the nest and tend to the eggs and larvae.

Queens are usually the largest ants in the colony (about two or three times larger than workers). They lay fertile eggs for their lifetime, which can be five years or more.

Workers perform many different tasks within the colony; young workers take care of eggs and larvae, while older workers look for food and protect the colony. Males are larger than these workers. Their function is to mate with the Queen.
Most outdoor ants build their colonies underground, and will only enter the home in search of food or moisture. If a large food source is found, these ants can become a nuisance. Interior nesting ants have adapted to living with humans and will create colonies in between walls or floors of homes and buildings, a habit, which makes these kinds of ants difficult to eliminate. Once a colony has been established, the only way to eliminate it is to kill the queen.

June 17, 2005

CSS and Web Design presentations by ScottyO available for your edification.

From other places…

Video game on solving world hunger is a hit – “Charity now begins at your home computer. A new on-line video game that shows players how helping starving people can be exciting has attracted more than one million downloads from China to Canada…”

Death by Tech Support – “Ready to end it all? Believe us, nothing will suck the life out of you like spending an hour on hold listening to endless repetitions of Barry Manilow's ‘Mandy’…” (Editor’s Note – there’s a really good section on doing some small Windows fixes by yourself at the end of this article.)

June 10, 2005

From other places...

'43 Things': The world's to-do list - "We all go through life with our own personal 'to do' lists. Not just the ephemeral goals like picking up the dry cleaning or alphabetizing the garbage, but the larger ambitions, like buying a home."

The Webby Awards - "The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence in Web design, creativity, usability and functionality."

Boards Get Brains, Chalk Vanishes - "Third graders at Columbia University's elementary school may never know the painful sound of fingernails scratching on a chalkboard. That's because the dust-covered board that normally would be the focus of their classroom has been replaced by a giant, touch-sensitive computer screen."

Portal combat - "In just a few minutes last month, Google went from being a technology leader to being a trailer, well behind rivals such as Yahoo and MSN, the Microsoft Network.."

June 3, 2005

Getting high at work

Katie Marshall

It isn’t a usual day at work when you get to go up 14 stories to the top of the highest building in Wolfville. But today, Tim Crowell got the chance to spend the day on top of (ironically enough) Crowell Tower.

He’s a Geology major working with Dr. Spooner this summer on a website about macrotidal areas—areas like Wolfville that experience exceptionally high tides. So Crowell is spending the day on top of Tower taking a picture every 15 minutes to generate a time-lapse image of the Wolfville tides going out, and then coming back in.

“It’s a good chance to get outside on a good day and practice geology stuff I like,” says Crowell. “I’m looking forward to doing it, and seeing the finished product.”

The tide in Wolfville takes approximately 3 hours to empty the Minas basin, and another 3 hours to fill it back up again.

There are other pictures from the roof posted on Plato at p:\aitt\temporary\tower pics

In other places...

Concept-mapping idea goes global as educational tool - "A research institute here is taking software designed in part to preserve scientists' knowledge and giving it to schools around the world as a tool to help children learn…”

Students Imagine Design's Future – “Art student Randy Sarafan knows his thesis project, a game called Taser Tag, isn't for everyone. ‘It gets, like, really painful’…”

Royal Blogger Takes on the World - “'I thank you for insulting me.’ Thus blogged former King Norodom Sihanouk to a critic of his support of gay marriage…”

May 27, 2005

Everything’s Bad Not Bad - “Steven Johnson's extended essay, Everything Bad Is Good for You is nicely researched, elegantly argued and written -- and is often personal. It persuasively rebuts the notion that popular culture is turning our brains into so much gray mush…”

WordCount - “An artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonness…”

May 20, 2005

Time well-spent

Judy Noel-Walsh

“Today’s improvements are the results of yesterday’s efforts, and tomorrow’s improvements must follow from the efforts of today.” - Anonymous

Spend the last 20 minutes of each day preparing for the next!

4 Step Planning Process

Step 1: Schedule Time for Appointments and Meetings
Step 2: Schedule Time for Sleep and Routine Activities
Step 3: Assign Priority levels to your task list:

Meetings
Appointments
Top priority tasks (+ prep time)

Step 4: Schedule “if I have time” Activities

In other places...

Tech owes a debt to Star Wars creator - "After filming the first Star Wars movie with special effects far from special, George Lucas spent millions to develop a complete digital editing system..."

No Wrong Answer: Click It - "Professor Ross Cheit put it to the students in his Ethics and Public Policy class at Brown University: Are you morally obliged to report cheating if you know about it? The room began to hum, but no one so much as raised a hand..."

Ten Must-Read Tech Stories - "The color-coded terror alerts haven't worked out all that well, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has more promising technology designed to sift through the electronic universe and ferret out patterns of terrorist activity..."

May 13, 2005

From other places...

Bell offers scholarships - "Bell Canada has announced a significant Graduate Scholarship Plan, in which the company will offer $125,000 in 10 one-time graduate scholarships to full-time Canadian students pursuing post-graduate degrees at universities across Canada..."

Computers grade students' writing - "Student essays always seem to be riddled with the same sorts of flaws. So sociology professor Ed Brent decided to hand the work off — to a computer..."

Email near and far - "Managing an agency's e-mail system is challenging. But when you've got remote workers and people in the field who need to access their office e-mail accounts, the management and security challenges multiply..."