Tech Links: August 10, 2012

The most appalling infographic you’ll see today compares the cost of the Olympics vs. the cost of landing Curiosity on Mars. And yet, the future of space exploration is more precarious than ever.

Entertainment

If Hemingway wrote JavaScript

The surprising, stealth rebirth of the American arcade

Twitter has leaked into the “real world” so much these days that someone took it upon themselves to “invent” the equivalent of finger air-quotes, this time to indicate you’re speaking in hashtags.

Gadgets

David Pogue, the tech columnist for The New York Times, lost his iPhone. Thanks to his 1.4 million Twitter followers, and the Prince George's County police department, it has been found

The portable 3D printer that fits in a briefcase: Two MIT students created an ultra-compact machine with a detachable head.

A Surprisingly Long List of Everything Smartphones Replaced

Internet

Infographic: Design Evolution On The Web Explained

Google Fiber: Here’s what you need to know

Rather than reading the terms of service for your favorite social media or other sign-up service online, you can see how they fare with easy-to-read iconic summaries on this handy “ToS; Didn’t Read” website.

Vilnius, Lithuania-based creative agency New! took it upon themselves to make a better Wikipedia. New! improved the site visually, made it more user-friendly and above all made a beautiful design. 

A viral video about the phenomenon of viral videos.

Reading & Discussion

Does Cybercrime Really Cost $1 Trillion?

Women and tech: Why don't girls want to be geeks?

Science

Curiosity rover landing on Mars: This is how we should explore the solar system.

Software

Chameleon Clock is an iPhone and iPad clock app that uses the device’s camera to match the screen background to whatever is behind the device for a see-through effect. The app is by Belgian developer NetwalkApps.

Software Runs the World: How Scared Should We Be That So Much of It Is So Bad?

Technology

A Day Job Waiting for a Kill Shot a World Away

Tutorials

Toasted Leg Syndrome, or erythema ab igne, is / are a pronounced skin burn, usually on the thighs, that can lead to permanent discoloration and even melanoma. And you can get it from using a laptop - on your lap. One solution: Make your own cooling pad (1, 2). But that won't help you if you toast the undersides on the warmed seat of your fancy car.

Tech Links: May 2, 2012

Source: Graphjam via Reddit

Entertainment

The 20 Best Biographies for Tech-Minded Students

E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone.

Some mad genius went and created a perfect working 12-inch tall Star Wars coin-op arcade game cabinet. Just click the video embed in that forum thread to see and marvel.

News

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a controversial surveillance bill that proposes broad legal exemptions for the U.S. government and private companies to share "cyber threat intelligence" that go well beyond the FISA Amendments Act which legalized the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program.

The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules

Reading & Discussion

Bit rot: The world is losing its ability to reconstruct history. Better regulation could fix that

How a console firmware update could make a small dent in our energy problem

The origin of the Blink tag

Shakespeare: All the web is a stage

Science

Digital Aeronautical Charts

Scientists have claimed they’ve created a small crystal that works like a quantum computer. Said computer is so powerful (by whatever measure they’re using) that you’d need a contemporary silicon computer the size of the universe to match it. It’s just as well we have the crystal one. Crystals are cool and I barely have enough room to keep my stuff out of the rain as it is.

"We measure, in a single experiment, both the radiation pressure and the torque due to a wide variety of propagating acoustic vortex beams. The results validate, for the first time directly, the theoretically predicted ratio of the orbital angular momentum to linear momentum in a propagating beam. We experimentally determine this ratio using simultaneous measurements of both the levitation force and the torque on an acoustic absorber exerted by a broad range of helical ultrasonic beams produced by a 1000-element matrix transducer array." In other words, science has created the sonic screwdriver, and it could mean new advances in non-invasive surgery. The official release from the University of Dundee, plus a couple of videos. Still doesn't work on wood.

Writing in the New York Review of Books, Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg discusses his reason for suspecting that advances in particle physics and astronomy will not just slow down in the coming years, but cease entirely.

Technology

It is well known that the US military and their allies use unmanned aerial drones overseas in wars and other operations. But there are also hundreds in operation here in the U.S., according to records the Federal Aviation Administration has recently released. Local police departments already have used them in SWAT situations, and the Department of Homeland Security has given the green light for them to deploy a drone helicopter that can supposedly taze suspects from above as well as carrying 12-gauge shotguns and grenade launchersas well as providing surveillance. Congress has paved the way for as many as 30,000 drones in the skies over the US by 2020, which has privacy advocates alarmed. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has created a map with all of the organizations that have permits to use drones within the confines of the US.

Tutorials

100 Serious Twitter Tips for Academics

Daily Links: April 7, 2011

A difference in perspective -what we see and what kids see.

The Eleven Most Terrible Kid's Toys Ever.

How Many Years - How many more years will these resources last?

The History of Science Fiction, laid out on a large timeline. This artwork by Ward Shelley enlarges to a size that might take you all day to follow.

A New Company Promises to Give You a Pretend Facebook Girlfriend. If you want people to think you have a relationship, Cloud Girlfriend can set you up, which, of course, will attract the kind of women who want what some other woman has.