20 Years Later April 18, 2013
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Humor, Lifestyle, Music, Photography, Technology, Video.Tags: Cell Phones, Humor, Technology
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Helicopter Cat April 17, 2013
Posted by tkcollier in Art, cool stuff, Technology.Tags: flight, pets, Technology, Toy
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Dutch artist Bart Jansen (R) has found an unusual way paying his last respects to his pet cat Orville, who died after being hit by a car — he turned him into a helicopter, or a quadrocopter to be precise, with four rotors, each fitted to one outstretched paw. Jansen got help from a model airplane pilot, Arjen Beltmann (L), to mount the rotor blades in a way that ensures maximum flight stability.
via Photo Gallery of Cat Helicopter Constructed by Artist Bart Jansen – SPIEGEL ONLINE – International.
What Happens in an Internet Minute? March 26, 2013
Posted by tkcollier in Business, Technology.Tags: Internet, networked devices, Technology
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Do you know what happens in one minute on the Internet? In just one minute, more than 204 million emails are sent. Amazon rings up about $83,000 in sales. Around 20 million photos are viewed and 3,000 uploaded on Flickr. At least 6 million Facebook pages are viewed around the world. And more than 61,000 hours of music are played on Pandora while more than 1.3 million video clips are watched on YouTube.
Today, the number of networked devices equals the world’s population. By 2015, the number of networked devices is expected to be double the world’s population. And by the time we reach 2015, it would take five years to view all the video content crossing IP networks each second. Click Infrograph to expand.
So Now Its Up To You To Land The 737… March 17, 2013
Posted by tkcollier in Technology.Tags: aircraft cockpit, flight, Survival, transportation
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The good news is the plane will probably have a sophisticated autopilot that can take care of most of the flying for you. The bad news is you will still probably have to land it, and every aircraft cockpit is going to be different, so it’s not like you’d know exactly where to look to find the things you need.
So, let’s take an example aircraft — (you guessed it) the 737. The first thing you’re going to want to do is put on the pilot’s headset, and find the pilot’s audio controls. Click on the link for the step-by-step instructions.
Hackers Are Winning The CyberWar – So Far February 10, 2013
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, In The News, Lifestyle, Technology.Tags: computer, Hackers, Malware, Software, Technology
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Virus writers are having a field day. A new industry has blossomed called Exploit Kits. Talented programmers sell their exploit kits for $3000 a pop to help their brethren malware writers deliver their payloads more effectively.
Late 2012, the NY Times published a controversial piece questioning the effectiveness of modern antivirus software. The shocking conclusion was that after an exhaustive analysis of over 40 antivirus products, there was only a 5% chance of detecting and defeating a new threat. That is, if a computer had 40+ antivirus products running simultaneously, there is a scant 5% chance that the computer would be safe from new threats.
The US Department of Homeland Security advised last week that users disable Java. This is unprecedented. The government felt this is a computing problem so severe that it must intervene. Java is a real and present threat to not only our national security but our computers, privacy and wallets. The DHS has no motivation to sow misinformation or fear, and they should be heeded. (more…)
Personal Flying Car February 5, 2013
Posted by tkcollier in cool stuff, Technology.Tags: Aircraft, aviation, Cool Stuff, Flying Car, transportation
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The PAL-V ONE is a two seat hybrid car and gyroplane: a personal air and land vehicle. What makes the PAL-V ONE attractive is the convenience of fully integrated door-to-door transportation.
On the ground this slim, aerodynamic, 3-wheeled vehicle has the comfort of a car with the agility of a motorcycle thanks to its patented, cutting-edge, ‘tilting’ system. It can be driven to the nearest airfield and take off just like any other airplane. The single rotor and propeller are unfolded to make the PAL-V ONE ready to fly.
When airborne, the PAL-V usually flies below 4,000 feet (1,200 m), the airspace available for uncontrolled Visual Flight Rules (VFR) traffic; so there will be no interference from commercial air traffic. Furthermore, the PAL-V is powered by a very robust, flight certified aircraft engine. It runs on gasoline. It can reach speeds of up to 180 km/h (112 mph) both on land and in the air.
The PAL-V ONE has a very short take off and landing capability, making it possible to land practically anywhere. When not using controlled airspace, you can take off without filing a flight plan. Flying a PAL-V is like a standard gyrocopter. It is quieter than helicopters due to the slower rotation of the main rotor. It takes off and lands with low speed, cannot stall, and is very easy to control. The gyroplane technology means that it can be steered and landed safely even if the engine fails, because the rotor keeps auto rotating. Thanks to Randy Marks
The End of Courtship? January 14, 2013
Posted by tkcollier in Lifestyle, Technology.Tags: Dating, Millennials, Relationships, Romance
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Instead of dinner-and-a-movie, which seems as obsolete as a rotary phone, they rendezvous over phone texts, Facebook posts, instant messages and other “non-dates” that are leaving a generation confused about how to land a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Traditional courtship — picking up the telephone and asking someone on a date — required courage, strategic planning and a considerable investment of ego (by telephone, rejection stings). Not so with texting, e-mail, Twitter or other forms of “asynchronous communication,” as techies call it. In the context of dating, it removes much of the need for charm; it’s more like dropping a line in the water and hoping for a nibble.
Blame the much-documented rise of the “hookup culture” among young people, characterized by spontaneous, commitment-free (and often, alcohol-fueled) romantic flings. Hookups may be fine for college students, but what about after, when they start to build an adult life? The problem is that “young people today don’t know how to get out of hookup culture,” Ms. Freitas said. In interviews with students, many graduating seniors did not know the first thing about the basic mechanics of a traditional date.
Online dating services, which have gained mainstream acceptance, reinforce the hyper-casual approach by greatly expanding the number of potential dates. Faced with a never-ending stream of singles to choose from, many feel a sense of “FOMO” (fear of missing out), so they opt for a speed-dating approach — cycle through lots of suitors quickly.
Ouracing Enemy Missles in the World’s Fastest Plane October 12, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Geopolitics, Technology.Tags: Cold War, Spy Plane, SR-71
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Excerpts from Sled Driver, the amazing book by one of the SR-71 pilots, Major Brian Shul:
Plane Porn – Click to Enlarge
In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi’s terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111′s had inflicted. Qaddafi had established a ‘line of death,’ a territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra , swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph.
I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world’s fastest jet, accompanied by Maj Walter Watson, the aircraft’s reconnaissance systems officer (RSO). We had crossed into Libya and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert landscape when Walter informed me that he was receiving missile launch signals. I quickly increased our speed, calculating the time it would take for the weapons-most likely SA-2 and SA-4 surface-to-air missiles capable of Mach 5 – to reach our altitude. I estimated that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles to the turn and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane’s performance
Motorcycle Powered By Poop August 26, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, Lifestyle, Technology.Tags: Environment, Motorcycle, Toilet
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Imagine speeding on a bike in the middle of nowhere, when the urge hits and you just have to go! Well, there’s a solution for that!
Japanese toilet maker TOTO rolled out a “Toilet Bike Neo” to raise awareness about bathroom emissions and water savings. The eco-friendly three-wheel 250cc motorcycle with a specially customized toilet-shaped seat runs on bio-fuel from the discharge of livestock or waste water.
TOTO has taken the bike on the road in Japan to promote its message. But wait, there’s more to it than meets the eye — this toilet on wheels talks to the rider, keeping him up to date on the latest stock prices or weather reports
via ‘Toilet Bike Neo’ goes where no john has gone before | Photos | National Post.
XP Hasn’t Aged Well August 8, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Humor, Technology.Tags: Humor, Microsoft
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I
nstantly recognizable to most as the default wallpaper in Windows XP. May be the most viewed photograph in history.
Shot by Charles O’Rear on a medium format camera in 1996 and not digitally enhanced or manipulated in any way. The approximate location is 3101 Fremont Dr. in Sonoma, coordinates 38.250124,-122.410817.
In November 2006, Goldin+Senneby took the same picture, titling the piece After Microsoft:
via Photographs: What are the most viewed photos of all time? – Quora.
Car Converted into Motorcycle in Desert Survival July 7, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in In The News, Technology.Tags: Motorcycle, Survival
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A Frenchman named Emile who reportedly found himself stranded in the deserts of Northwest Africa after breaking a frame rail and a suspension swingarm underneath his Citroën 2CV.
What to do? Why, disassemble the broken hulk and build yourself a motorcycle from its pile of parts, of course!
The link Google Translate will take you to a translation from the French article. Click on the arrows at the bottom of the page to advance.
California Doesn’t Learn From China’s Train Wreck July 7, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Enviroment, News and politics, Technology.Tags: California, China, High-Speed Rail
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In California’s Legislature just authorized to spend, with Federal assistance, an under-estimated $100 billion to build a route between San Francisco and Los Angeles that will consist of a government monopoly riding on tracks near one of the largest earthquake faults in the world for most of its length, all to deliver passengers slower and at greater overall cost between two fixed points. Airlines give consumers a choice of carriers and airports on either end of that route, will deliver passengers more quickly, and probably with a much wider choice of departure and arrival times.
In China the problem — beyond the idea of spending untold billions on the antiquated technology of static choo-choo trains — is that the three people making all these wonderful decisions now have a high-speed rail system plagued by failure, corruption, out-of-control costs and legitimate safety concerns
The fact is that China’s train wreck was eminently foreseeable. High-speed rail is a capital-intensive undertaking that requires huge borrowing upfront to finance tracks, locomotives and cars, followed by years in which ticket revenue covers debt service — if all goes well. “Any . . . shortfall in ridership or yield, can quickly create financial stress,” warns a 2010 World Bank staff report.
Such “shortfalls” are all too common. Japan’s bullet trains needed a bailout in 1987. Taiwan’s line opened in 2007 and needed a government rescue in 2009. In France, only the Paris-Lyon high-speed line is in the black.
Facebook Attacks 2011 January 12, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Technology.Tags: Cybercrime, Facebook, Malware, Technology
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Video -The 28-cylinder radial engine of a Korean War era Corsair August 23, 2011
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Hydrocarbon combustion at it’s finest. Perhaps the pinnacle of gasoline fueled piston aircraft engine technology. 28 pistons going up and down with 7 magneto’s and 56 spark plugs. Notice how the smoke begins to drop off as the piston rings bed in (Wear) with the resulting improved oil control, less smoke . Appears to have been be a very good initial test run.
Big Rare Earth Discovery in Nebraska August 5, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in Business, Enviroment, Geopolitics, Technology.Tags: China, Environment, Rare Earth, Technology
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China has emerged as the world’s predominant supplier, controlling 97 percent of the global market for rare earths. In recent years, lawmakers have expressed concerns about China’s “rare earth” dominance, and these concerns were heightened when Beijing temporarily halted exports to Japan last year during a territorial dispute. Despite having such obscure names as praseodymium, promethium and samarium – no copper or zinc here – they are necessary for such routine contemporary technologies as magnets, laser pointers and miniature electronics, such as iPods.
Quantum acquired a circular piece of land – a bit more than 4 miles in diameter – near Elk Creek late last year. The land, which the U.S. Geological Survey projects may have one of the world’s largest deposits of niobium and rare earths, has since been poked, prodded and drilled to determine whether it held any niobium, which has never been mined in the U.S., or rare earths, which the U.S. has not mined in almost 10 years
via Neb. mine find to challenge China’s dominance of vital rare minerals – Washington Times.
The Invention of Ctrl+Alt+Delete June 20, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in Humor, Technology.Tags: Computers, History, Humor, PC, Technology
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At this rate, even with 12 of the country’s best engineers working round-the-clock, IBM was never going to deliver its first computer prototype to Microsoft in a matter of four months. The parts were all new. The software. The hardware. Even the names “software” and “hardware.” They were treading new ground. There had never been a “PC,” a personal computer, until this group of programmers built the first one in that lab.
So, as you can imagine, there was a lot of frustrating rebooting going on as Dave Bradley tried to get the CPU – the central processing unit, which they named – to talk to a printer or a monitor for the first time, code he had spent months writing.
He needed a quicker way to restart, to refresh, to escape from a computer quagmire than just switching the computer off and waiting for it to reboot. So he wrote nine lines of code, a “10-minute job,” Bradley remembers. He wanted to make sure it wasn’t something you could just press by accident and wipe out your work. He wrote it so that with his left hand, he held down the keys Ctrl+Alt. With his right hand, he pressed Del.
The screen went black, came back to life and voilà: A cultural icon was created and some great one-liners from the creator, such as “I got to meet Bill Gates when he was only worth millions” .
Actually, about that meeting – At a panel discussion with Gates for the 20-year anniversary of the PC, Bradley was asked about how he created the keystroke. Google Dave Bradley and Bill Gates to see video of Bradley quipping, “I may have invented it, but I think Bill made it famous.” The crowd rolls with laughter. Bill Gates, frozen in a smile-shaped grimace, is not amused. 
Read more at Palm Beach Post : In flash of keystrokes, Dave Bradley changed computer history..
Click more to see the video (more…)
Boy regrets selling his kidney to buy iPad June 3, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in In The News, Lifestyle, Technology.Tags: China, iPad, medical
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17-year-old student in Anhui Province sold one of his kidneys for 20,000 yuan only to buy an iPad 2. Now, with his health getting worse, the boy is feeling regret but it is too late, the Global Times reported today.
“I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it,” said the boy surnamed Zheng in Huaishan City. “A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan.” (more…)
The US$465,000 Lexus LFA Nurburgring – the most expensive Japanese car ever May 27, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in cool stuff, Sports, Technology.Tags: Car Racing, Cars, Lexus, Supercar
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The decade long development campaign could not possibly be amortized effectively across just 500 cars – the LFA Nurburgring is a bargain, even at this price. To which my wife, who loves a bargain, reminded me that her Birthday was coming up soon… 
via The US$465,000 Lexus LFA Nurburgring – the most expensive Japanese car ever.
The Auto Plant of the Future that Ford Built in Brazil January 30, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Technology, Video.add a comment
Unless the Unions in the “Rust Belt” will allow efficient factories, like this one, be built, they will never be able to globally compete.
Happy Birthday Windows 1.0 November 16, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Humor, Technology, Video.Tags: Humor, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer
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Windows version 1.0, which did not set the world on fire, is now 25 years old this month, and I’d like to share a few remembrances of the OS.First of all, it was useless. Like, seriously useless. But it was strangely interesting at the same time. You had to have a special graphics card to run the thing, and when compared to DOS, it did look better although it was not as attractive as the Mac OS or anything done today including Linux GUI’s. I wonder if there is a machine in existence that still runs it.Steve Ballmer made a hilarious video promoting Windows 1.0 like a used car salesman.
At first, Microsoft called it “Interface Manager.” Later, a marketing guy in the company came up with the name “Windows.” The thing wasn’t originally designed as an OS but as a shell program with a zippy GUI that could manage all of the device drivers through a common API. People forget that by the mid 1980′s device drivers for peripherals were a nightmare. Interface Manager, now Windows, would take care of this problem.
A Cell Phone For Seniors November 7, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Humor, Technology.Tags: Cell Phones, Humor, iPhone, Technology
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Thanks to the senior Jeff Ullian
iPhone Band on NYC Subway Video October 16, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Music, Technology, Video.Tags: iPhone, Music, Technology
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All of the instruments used are iPhones plugged into a sound system. The performance was on Friday October 8, 2010 aboard the New York City B Train, over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn and edited from 3 iPhone cameras.
3-D PrintingThe Factory of the Future? September 25, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Economy & Business, Technology.Tags: 3d Printing, Manufacturing, Technology
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A 3-D printer, which has nothing to do with paper printers, creates an object by stacking one layer of material — typically plastic or metal — on top of another, much the same way a pastry chef makes baklava with sheets of phyllo dough.
A California start-up is even working on building houses. Its printer, which would fit on a tractor-trailer, would use patterns delivered by computer, squirt out layers of special concrete and build entire walls that could be connected to form the basis of a house.
It is manufacturing with a mouse click instead of hammers, nails and, well, workers. Advocates of the technology say that by doing away with manual labor, 3-D printing could revamp the economics of manufacturing and revive American industry as creativity and ingenuity replace labor costs as the main concern around a variety of goods.
3-D Printing Is Spurring a Manufacturing Revolution – NYTimes.com.
New Super Worm Attacks Infrastructure September 25, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Technology.Tags: Cybercrime, Hackers, Industrial Espionage, Iran, Virus
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Stuxnet works by exploiting previously unknown security holes in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. It then seeks out a component called Simatic WinCC, manufactured by Siemens, which controls critical factory operations. The malware even uses a stolen cryptographic key belonging to the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer RealTek to validate itself in high-security factory systems.
The worm then takes over the computer running the factory process – which for WinCC would be “mission-critical” systems which have to keep functioning under any circumstance – and “blocks” it for up to a tenth of a second. For high-speed systems, such as the centrifuges used for nuclear fuel processing being done by Iran, that could be disastrous, experts suggested.
“This is a very sophisticated attack – the first of its kind – and has clearly been developed by a highly skilled group of people intent on gaining access to SCADA [supervisory control and data acquisition] systems – industrial control systems for monitoring and managing industrial infrastructure or facility-based processes. In contrast to the bulk of indiscriminate cybercrime threats on the internet, this has been aimed at very specific targets. It’s different also because there’s no obvious financial motivation behind the attack – rather the aim seems to be to sabotage systems.”
via Stuxnet worm is the ‘work of a national government agency’ | Technology | guardian.co.uk.
The Face Behind Facebook September 15, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Business, Lifestyle, Technology.Tags: Business, Facebook, Technology
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Mark Zuckerberg, The C.E.O. of Facebook, wants to create, and dominate, a new kind of Internet. The link below to a rare interview, before an unflattering movie gets released.
via Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg opens up : The New Yorker.
