The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[MrTerrorist]

Never throw your Goldfish into a lake or this might happen.

Giant goldfish are breeding in Lake Tahoe

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by RRW

YouTube

https://youtu.be/v1uyQZNg2vE

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Well... never heard of Google Glass... until today.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57570779-1/confirmed-google-glass-arrives-in-2013-and-under-$1500/

So, this device gives everyone the opportunity to see things from different people's perspectives. Though, this thing is gonna be a bit too expensive for now.

[Ithekro]

So it might eventually be common to see people walking around moving their hands around in weird patterns and it will be normal.

Though I wonder if this well be considered safe for driving and work for perscription lenses.

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

So it might eventually be common to see people walking around moving their hands around in weird patterns and it will be normal.

Tomorrow it will be as common as it is today to see people talking by themselves on the cellphone ... "el psy congro"

Though I wonder if this well be considered safe for driving and work for perscription lenses.

As safe as texting (or answering forums posts) with the cellphone

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

So it might eventually be common to see people walking around moving their hands around in weird patterns and it will be normal.

Though I wonder if this well be considered safe for driving and work for perscription lenses.

if you have one of googles driveless car...

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

So it might eventually be common to see people walking around moving their hands around in weird patterns and it will be normal.

Though I wonder if this well be considered safe for driving and work for perscription lenses.

They're pushing voice action pretty hard with this. I think the user is meant to say what he wants done instead of using mid air gestures.

I for one would kill to try one at least. I'm not sold yet since I have no idea how they plan to solve all the problems inherent with voice activated interfaces (mostly some random person speaking close to you activating the thing) but I'm dying to give it a shot.

[Ithekro]

The voice activation seems to be Star Trek bases. Just instead of "Computer" it is "Glass".

[Kyuu]

Voice activation had been around for a while. I remember one of my second IBM PC (literally by IBM), with Windows 95 having some kind of voice activation thing. Of course, it did not work very well; and I did not use it at all. But, I knew it was there. Here we are in 2013... now, it'll be more readily available. Soon enough, such devices will be comparable to Smartphones (currently) in price.

[Vexx]

Russians analyze meteor fragments, fun science facts emerge:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...russian-meteor

That means that before it shattered windows in the city of Chelyabinsk and turned people around the world into gawkers fascinated by a calamity — and by the amazing video footage of it — the meteor spent billions of years traveling through space.
When it detonated over Russia, the explosion was powerful enough to be "detected by 17 nuclear monitoring stations around the globe," as The Christian Science Monitor reports.
The meteor, which may have weighed as much as 10,000 tons and measured about 55 feet across, was traveling at an estimated 11 miles per second when it reached Earth, according to a report at io9.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

The voice activation seems to be Star Trek bases. Just instead of "Computer" it is "Glass".

I liked it in Old Man's War. It was customizable. Most people choose names like "Asshole" or "Jerkwad" to address their BrainPals.

[RRW]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/V6Tsrg_EQMw

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The frosted-glass doors on the 11th floor of Google’s NYC headquarters part and a woman steps forward to greet me. This is an otherwise normal specimen of humanity. Normal height, slender build; her eyes are bright, inquisitive. She leans in to shake my hand and at that moment I become acutely aware of the device she’s wearing in the place you would expect eyeglasses: a thin strip of aluminum and plastic with a strange, prismatic lens just below her brow. Google Glass.

What was a total oddity a year ago, and little more than an experiment just 18 months ago is now starting to look like a real product. One that could be in the hands (or on the heads, rather) of consumers by the end of this year. A completely new kind of computing device; wearable, designed to reduce distraction, created to allow you to capture and communicate in a way that is supposed to feel completely natural to the wearer. It’s the anti-smartphone, explicitly fashioned to blow apart our notions of how we interact with technology.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/22/40...onthly-updates

[Ithekro]

Yes, but will they be able to hax your mind?

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Never throw your Goldfish into a lake or this might happen.

Giant goldfish are breeding in Lake Tahoe

Magikarp! I choose you!

[Xellos-_^]

that French magikarp looks almost at lvl20.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Prolly still can't do anything more than Splash though.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

Voice activation had been around for a while. I remember one of my second IBM PC (literally by IBM), with Windows 95 having some kind of voice activation thing. Of course, it did not work very well; and I did not use it at all. But, I knew it was there. Here we are in 2013... now, it'll be more readily available. Soon enough, such devices will be comparable to Smartphones (currently) in price.

Part of the problem with voice activation was that you had to buy your own microphone. These days, it seems like every device have a microphone built-in (with the exception of desktop computers - but some monitors have them). The microphones are quite decent compared to the cheap ones we could buy back in the days of Windows 95, too. With more microphones in consumers' hands, there's a greater incentive to create things that use it. I just saw on some tech news that Google Chrome has been updated to provide support for some voice-based API on webpages. Neat stuff.

I like the idea of Google Glass. Beyond consumer applications, I can think of a lot of uses for it in science research and clinical medicine. It'll probably be a while before it receives adoption in those areas, though.

[AnimeFan188]

Details emerge about Lockheed’s Cuda missile:

"More details are emerging about Lockheed Martin's prospective Cuda hit-to-kill
missile system.

According to a company product card being distributed at the Air Force
Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida, the weapon is a medium
range air-to-air missile with a multi-mode seeker.

"Cuda is a highly lethal interceptor that defeats targets by direct body-to-body
impact," Lockheed says. "At impact, Cuda sweeps its mass directly through the
target at a selected point of vulnerability."

The company claims the Cuda will be a low cost weapon that will support "360°
coverage", expand beyond visual range engagement zones and improve within
visual range no-escape zones. It will also have extremely high-g maneuverability,
Lockheed claims.

The company says the weapon will be effective against enemy warplanes,
unmanned aircraft and other air threats. The Lockheed product card seems to
indicate that the weapon might have some air-to-surface and anti-ship
applications in addition to its air combat role."

See:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...issile-382670/

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/th...ckheeds-c.html

[RRW]

LONG BEACH, California – The history of computer revolutions will show a logical progression from the Mac to the iPad to something like this SpaceTop 3-D desktop, if computer genius Jinha Lee has anything to say about it.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology grad student earned some notice last year for the ZeroN, a levitating 3-D ball that can record and replay how it is moved around by a user. Now, following an internship at Microsoft Applied Science and some time off from MIT, Lee is unveiling his latest digital 3-D environment, a three-dimensional computer interface that allows a user to “reach inside” a computer screen and grab web pages, documents, and videos like real-world objects. More advanced tasks can be triggered with hand gestures. The system is powered by a transparent LED display and a system of two cameras, one tracking the users’ gestures and the other watching her eyes to assess gaze and adjust the perspective on the projection.

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/0...ng-3d-desktop/

[MrTerrorist]

US private sector hopes to send older couple to Mars

[Ryusiangel]

wonder if anybody read about this http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...ized-downloads

I am wondering what are p2p programs i like to stay away from those.