Monthly Archive for July, 2008

Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.

From the New York Times:

After a closer examination of a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology known as the Antikythera Mechanism, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games.

Apple’s Culture of Secrecy

From the New York Times:

“No one wants to die,” said Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs. “And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.”

It was a little over three years ago that Mr. Jobs spoke those existential words, in a commencement address at Stanford. His thoughts about death came during a portion of his speech in which he publicly discussed — for the one and only time, so far as I can tell — his brush with pancreatic cancer.

Fibbing easier through e-mail

From the Globe and Mail (Report on Business):

Have you ever lied in an e-mail?

Honestly, you’re not alone. A U.S. study released Thursday shows e-mail is much more conducive to telling falsehoods than using old-fashioned pen and paper. Moreover, people feel more justified in doing it.

The findings challenge the notion that e-mails are just the same as other written communication, the study’s authors said.

The results “illustrate that traditional pen-and-paper communication is indeed different from e-mail in the way it influences people’s behaviours, even though both [are] text only,” said Charles Naquin of DePaul University, Terri Kurtzberg of Rutgers University, and Liuba Belkin of Lehigh University.

Previous research has found e-mails are associated with unseemly behaviour such as lower levels of trust, negative attitudes and “flaming” – sending rude messages. This study suggests a greater propensity to lie can be added to that list.

Birth of a Standard: The Intel 8086 Microprocessor

From PCWorld.ca:

The release of Intel’s 8086 microprocessor in 1978 was a watershed moment for personal computing. The DNA of that chip is likely at the center of whatever computer–Windows, Mac, or Linux–you’re using to read this, and it helped transform Intel from merely one of many chip companies to the world’s largest.

Waterford Game & Activities

The Waterford Press has a lot of activities you can print out for the kids to do. The site isn’t very fancy, but there are probably over 100 PDFs that you can print that have word searches, name scrambles, quizzes, and more.

A Book With 90,000 Authors

From the New York Times:

Among the unlikelier announcements made at Wikipedia’s conference in Alexandria, Egypt, was the bold claim on Friday that the online encyclopedia was about to make history in print publishing: creating the book with the most credited individual authors ever — approximately 90,000.

The book with so many authors is the product of an unusual alliance – a single-volume encyclopedia produced by the German publisher Bertelsmann from the 25,000 most popular articles on German Wikipedia. The volume will have very short articles, no more than a few paragraphs at most, and include photos and illustrations.

Google’s Services Converge in the New iGoogle

Google Operating System has a great post about a new layout to iGoogle, the customizable Google portal:

The new version of iGoogle, currently available for a small number of randomly-selected users and for developers, will bring together all the Google services in a single fluid interface. At some point, iGoogle was a part of an initiative called Fusion that allowed users to combine content from across the web. The next major iteration of iGoogle goes further and it lets you actually access the full content, monitor the updates and share them with your friends.

I followed the instructions at the end of that post to use the new interface, and I love the new look!

Japan’s 10 funniest tech-related ads

From ITBusiness.ca:

Even the most culturally sensitive among us has to acknowledge that Japanese commercials are… well, strange. First of all, most Japanese commercial actors hail from the Randy “Macho Man” Savage school of advertising whereby they look directly into the camera and shout the product name as loudly and excitedly as they can.

100 Best Products of 2008

From PC World:

After a good deal of–ahem–lively discussion, the editors at PCWorld have completed this year’s list of the 100 best technology products available today. How did we do it? After nominating hundreds of devices, apps, sites, and services we knew to be good, we rated each one on its design, functionality, performance, and impact; the ones garnering the highest total scores made our list. Note that we chose not to rate products specifically on their price or value, focusing instead on their overall quality. After the scoring was over and the dust had cleared, we had a list that served, among other things, to remind us of what an exciting time in tech this truly is, with game-changing product development happening on many fronts.

Microsoft Seeks Path Beyond Gates’s Legacy

From the New York Times:

Bill Gates is retiring, sort of. He is still only 52, and he is going off to spend more time guiding the world’s richest philanthropy, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He will still be Microsoft’s chairman and largest shareholder, but Friday is his last day as a full-time worker at the software giant, marking the unofficial end of his career as a business leader.