MIT's Huggable Robot Teddy Enhances Human Relationships

"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab have created Huggable, a robotic Teddy bear they say could be used in healthcare, education and social communications applications. Huggable was designed to improve human relationships by serving as a tool for long-distance communication. "

Hi-Def TV Myths

Also, the difference between old and new TV:

Digital Tv Transition: A Very Simple Flowchart Explaining The Digital TV Transition

I only wish it had been presented this succinctly by everyone else. The "still way-too expensive flat-panel TV manufacturers" must be swimming in the money spent unnecessarily on the transition. And TV shows continue to get worse and worse. "Look! I can watch this horrible TV show in high-def now!" And my big pet peeve: people who either don't know how to adjust aspect ratios, or maybe they're people who will use every bit of screen real estate on their hyper-expensive new TV, even if everyone is all squished out and looks like Hey Arnold.

Review of the Sans Digital TR4U-B (TR4U SATA to USB drive enclosure)

This review is lifted almost entirely from my newegg.com product review. The only thing I couldn't put in there was info about what it replaced: a Datarobotics Drobo, with which I had quite a bit of trouble. Initially the Drobo was okay, but it began throwing errors, and when I got tech support involved things went downhill quickly: *after*getting a diagnostic report they asked me to upgrade to the firmware level I was already at; then a replacement they shipped took a week to arrive even though I paid out-of-pocket for overnight shipping, etc. The Drobo now sits unused in an equipment closet because I couldn't trust it.

But, on to the TR4U:

Positives:
Good-looking and quiet. Drives seat well and stay in without mounting screws. JBOD or spanned mode works well. Drives stay cooler than other solutions I've tried (case is well ventilated on front and sides, and the big fan pulls the air out the back). Front LED changes color when a drive is being used. Front power button is handy, and must be held for 3 seconds to turn unit off. No power brick -- transformer is built into the case. Thumbscrews make it easy to remove cover if you need to do so; I just insert the drives and run then without mounting screws, so I don't remove the cover, I just get to everything via the front door. No software required for JBOD or spanning, it all just works. I haven't had to use tech support since I bought it, but they answered pre-sales questions admirably quickly. The unit itself is just a simple box, but is glossy black, and the vent perforations in the front door and side panels are very small.

Negatives:
2 TB limit on spanned drives (limitation of the on-board controller, as it's mentioned in the manual), and you can only make 1 volume per drive set, so leftover drive real estate must go wasted. Drives go in and seat fine, but are difficult to remove, because the drives are close enough together that a hand can't get a good hold -- I've tried using pliers, which scratched up my drive fronts, and am now using a screwdriver that I bent to a 90-degree L on the end that fits nicely in an hole in the bottom front of my Seagate drives… removing the cover and using the provided drive mount thumbscrews would obviate this problem. Manual suffers from translation difficulties, but everything is easy to do. DIP switches that control spanning and power modes are inset and thus well-protected, but hard to get at unless you turn the unit around (as with all such switches; but I'd prefer to have these on the front). Fan has blue light that might be annoying in a darkened room.

I'm using this enclosure and Backup Exec's Backup-To-Disk option to back up several of my department's servers, and it works very well. I use three sets of 3 750 GB drives, and rotate drive sets once per week -- full backups on Friday, incremental backups Monday through Thursday; and I have the drives in JBOD mode, and configure the drive sets as members of the device pool, and allow two jobs to occur simultaneously (but only one job per drive), and the USB seems to handle that just fine -- I'm getting throughputs (as calculated by Backup Exec) of anywhere from 300-600 MB per minute per drive with two drives in use at the same time. Swapping spanned drive sets with the power off results in no problems, all data is retained (although I do label my drives and make sure I put them in the same position top to bottom, I'm not sure if this is important). I would buy this again, or might go with the 8-drive version that allows the use of drive trays for easier drive changes (although the trays, at $20 each, might be too expensive).

Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster

'Privacy Will End in 2013'

"By 2013, technology will be widely used to monitor people's lives, but Fuss believes if this information is made available to everyone the Big Brother element would be negated."

Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition: powerful, free disk and partition management

"Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition is a free disk partitioning utility that offers a powerful range of functions such as resizing drive partitions, formatting partitions, copying partitions/drives, creating new partitions, deleting partitions, hiding partitions, changing drive letters, setting active partitions, and a handful other functions."

Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy

How To Turn Any Video File Into A DVD Player Playable Disc

Videos from your camera, YouTube, etc. Works very well.

How to open and forward ports on your router

Down for everyone or just me?

You can't reach a website. Do you wonder if it's just you, or can no one reach it? This site can help: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ And even better, you can be notified by email when the site is back up via this site: http://notifymewhenitsup.com/

Every Video Format You Need to Know

Codecs and Containers, oh my.

How to Clean Up Your Messy Windows Context Menu

"One of the most irritating things about Windows is the context menu clutter that you have to deal with once you install a bunch of applications. It seems like every application is fighting for a piece of your context menu, and it's not like you even use half of them."

A Memory Cleaner That Actually Works

"... doesn’t force memory to cache on the hard disk, but rather uses a windows API function to request memory back from processes that are claiming more than they actually need."

Comfort Through Innovation - Moshi Lifestyle

A speaking, voice-responding clock. For $50. How sweet is that?

Yasni - Find information about people on the web

"Yasni is another people search engine that does a fairly good job of getting useful information about a person. Note that ZabaSearch is much better if you want to know more real world details, like phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, etc. Yasni is good if you want to search the Internet and get a picture of how a person shows up in the virtual world. Kind of like a track of their online activities rather than their physical location."

Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User

Computer First Aid Using Knoppix

"Windows just crashed. The computer won't boot back up. Those 'System Recovery Disks' that came with your computer will erase all of your data. In most cases, when Windows breaks and will not start up again, none of your data has been lost, you just don't have a way to get to it. These instructions are a way of getting to your data when Windows won't work."

Fab's Autobackup to the rescue!

"Fab's Autobackup is a slick, free utility that I wish I'd come across a long, long time ago. It's available as a PE Builder plugin or as portable application. The portable version is a nice alternative to FST [files and settings transfer wizard], and it's intelligent enough to gray out options that you don't need to back up - either because the program in question isn't installed or the user's profile doesn't contain any pertinent application data."

24 Great Open Source Apps for Admins & Technicians

Ammyy Admin is a free TeamViewer alternative for remote support

"Both the host and remote user download the same file - a tiny (128kb), portable executable. Launch it, and Ammyy displays one tab for the client and a second for the host (operator). Just like TeamViewer, your host connects to an echo server and receives an ID. Enter it into your client id window and click connect. Like TeamViewer, all communications are fully encrypted."

Sound Machines: Ecotones Adapts to Outside Sounds to Lull You to Sleep

"Audio backgrounds react to cues in the listening space and combine them with hundreds of “natural” sounds to make a soundscape that's supposedly a lot more relaxing."

UNetbootin

"UNetbootin allows for the installation of various Linux/BSD distributions to a partition or USB drive, so it's no different from a standard install, only it doesn't need a CD. It can create a dual-boot install, or replace the existing OS entirely." The option to install to a bootable USB flash drive is interesting.

Designate

Enter a list (such as people in the house) and let Designate randomly choose who will do something (such as the dishes).

Donate Your Old Hardware to Those Who Can Use It

StripMail Cleans Email Formatting

Backup and Restore Hardware Drivers the Easy Way with Double Driver

HAL robotic suit rental is ready for Tony Stark wannabes, the elderly

"Sankai hopes it will prove useful to the elderly and folks with disabilities by providing super-strength mechanical assistance when they send brain signals to move their limbs."

You’re Sick. Now What? Knowledge Is Power

"Often patients begin a medical search hoping to discover a breakthrough medical study or a cure buried on the Internet. But even the best medical searches don’t always give you the answers. Instead, they lead you to doctors who can provide you with even more information."

"The Mojave Experiment:” Bad Science, Bad Marketing

"So I have to admit I’m not predisposed to like The Mojave Experiment, where Microsoft took a bunch of “regular folks” XP users who were afraid of Vista, and told them Microsoft was going to show them a secret new operating system — which was actually Vista."

Stopforwarding.Us Asks Your Friends To Stop Spamming

Simply entering their name and email address and clicking send will fire off an anonymous message asking them to give it a rest.

Feature: Hot Image Your PC's Hard Drive with DriveImage XML

Discusses what happens, and options, and restore strategies. Includes an instructional video.

Quote of the Day

"The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures -- is this line: 'If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?' ...

"Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance. "We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need."

- Bruce Schneier, "The Eternal Value of Privacy".

Citibank Had A Program To Take Money From Customers

Citibank, you should be so ashamed of yourselves.

Create a Bootable Ubuntu USB Flash Drive the Easy Way

Snag a pretentious street address for your snail mail

... and get the mail sent there scanned and sent to you by email.

Take one guess what RoundMyCorners does

It rounds the corners of images. And it does reflections. Do I win?

Ultrasound to give feel to games

"The power of ultrasonic waves has been harnessed to produce "virtual" objects in mid-air. "

5 Apps For Painless Windows Reformats

Copy a Single File to Avoid Re-Activating Windows XP

Debunking The Myth of Multitasking

"In a fast-paced business culture of "get everything done yesterday," it's easy to admire and reward those busybusy people who always seem to be juggling 14 things at once. But business coach Dave Crenshaw argues that the most common kind of multitasking doesn't boost productivity—it slows you down. "

Zapproved Helps Groups Come to a Consensus

"Users create proposals and then send requests to their coworkers, family, and friends. The requests appear as emails to the recipients who can approve or deny the proposal with or without commenting on it. Users don't have to sign up with Zapproved to participate in the voting process. Zapproved tracks who has approved, denied, or not responded to proposals to foster accountability among team members. "

FixYourOwnPrinter.com Offers Hacks and Fixes from Fellow Printer Owners

RIAA May Get Its Wish: Pandora Leaning Towards Shutting Down Over Webcasting Royalties

Video tech uses photos to enhance, alter shots: it's the Photoshop of video, and no one is safe

Robot with Rat Brains Learns to Avoid Obstacles; Holy Crap, a Robot with a Rat's Brain

"A group of mad scientists from Reading University in the UK have hooked up a bunch of rat brain neurons to a circuit board and gotten it to control a robot."

Big cable takes advantage of DTV confusion

The Loudness War: Why Your CD’s Sound Quality Sucks

Make Word 2007 Default to .DOC Filetype

"If you're sick of co-workers with older versions of Word not being able to open your .DOCX files, weblog Technix Update explains how to change the default file format to .DOC when you save files in Word 2007."

Protect Your Kids Online Using Open DNS

Mythbusting: Debunking Common Windows Performance Tweaking Myths

NowDoThis Assigns You One Task at a Time [To Do List]

How to Make Money From Home Using Your Tech Skills with CrossLoop Marketplace

Boston Dynamics Big Dog

This robot invokes the "uncanny valley" reaction in me. See Wikipedia on the subject.

Hi-tech is turning us all into time-wasters

"Time-wasting is not just an irritating habit. It is an affliction that ruins millions of lives and often requires therapy and other treatment for sufferers, psychologists have warned."

Website Template Generator

"Pick a template, customize it, and download it for free. You can customize colors, fonts, apply effects like drop shadow, round corner, and gradient. Templates are CSS compliant."

HDTV Info - Top 10 Hi-Def Television Myths

Use Ubuntu Live CD to Backup Files from Your Dead Windows Computer

Post Apocalypse

"But the reality is that commenting either attracts loathsome people or somehow causes ordinary people to express themselves in a way that is loathsome."

Cobian 9 Offers Better Free Backups

I've been using Cobian for on-disk backups* for years, and it' a great piece of software. * I also do complete disk copies to off-site storage every few weeks

Inbox Victory

"Have you ever been in the situation where you spend days trying answer all of your email only to accomplish your goal and have no one to share in your victory? All you want is a high five, a pat on the back, and a “job well done soldier!”, and yet most likely all you are left with is an empty room and a cold cup of coffee. Inbox Victory is an initiative that says, “you deserve that high five!” And here is how you get it:"

Quiz: What Should You Really Fear?

"Fatally bad decision-making occurs when the gut — the subconscious mechanism of self-preservation that got us through the pre-CNN epochs — identifies a media-amplified image, story, or statistic as a clear and present danger. "

use Gmail or Yahoo mail as your system’s default mail client

Wirewize Explains How to Connect Your Entertainment Gear

"Free A/V website Wirewize takes most of the guesswork out of hooking together your television, DVD player, stereo speakers, and other gear. After a free sign-up, enter in the model and make of each component, and Wirewize will offer up which cables are needed, and diagram how they should run."

PlanningWiz Maps Your Floor Plan

"Plan out your next redecoration or plot the layout of your next furniture rearrangement with online room mapping tool PlanningWiz."

US-CERT Cyber Security Tip ST05-013 -- Guidelines for Publishing Information Online

"What guidelines can you follow when publishing information on the internet?What guidelines can you follow when publishing information on the internet?"

Security Matters: I've Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch

"'Digital Manners Policies' is a marketing term. Let's call this what it really is: Selective Device Jamming. It's not polite, it's dangerous. It won't make anyone more secure -- or more polite. "

Heavyweight physics prof weighs into climate/energy scrap

"A topflight science brainbox at Cambridge University has weighed into the ever-louder and more unruly climate/energy debate with several things that so far have been mostly lacking: hard numbers, willingness to upset all sides, and an attempt to see whether the various agendas put forward would actually stack up."

Our Congress Has Failed Us: Gives In On Telecom Immunity

Reboot the government!

Patient Web sites used for news and support in crisis : Corpus Christi Healthy Living

Web sites offer an interesting way to keep family and friends apprised of medical conditions.

How to Make Windows Vista Less Annoying

Don't Let a Mechanic Take You For a Ride

"A California start-up has launched a Web site that will give you an idea of what it ought to cost so you know if your mechanic is on the level."

4 Ways to Make UAC Less Annoying on Windows Vista

Ways to Make UAC Less Annoying on Windows Vista

Is There a Cure for the 'Distraction Virus'?

"The Internet is an incredible productivity tool that offers unprecedented access to information and communication with others. But it's also distracting. Really distracting. More alarmingly, it's getting increasingly distracting every day."

"Some PDF to Word Converter" Does What It Sounds Like [Featured Windows Download]

My Virtual Summer Job

"With summer jobs in short supply, more young people are pursuing money-making opportunities in Web fantasy worlds."

Revenge of the gamers: World of Warcraft is honing tomorrow's leaders

"Smart companies should be playing too"

The Megapixel Myth

"Forget the silly debate over pixel counts among digital cameras. There is little visible difference between cameras with seemingly different ratings."

Buzzword of The Day

"PowerPoint singalong: A presentation read verbatim from the slides without observations, notes, comments or asides of any kind. Monotone optional."

Hundreds of animated gifs

Two cool programs for kids of any age

My kids and I have been using some cool programs lately. Both are free, and Windows, Mac, and Linux versions are available.

Phun: physics simulator -- build and wreck stuff to your heart's content with this 2D physics sandbox. There's lots of videos on YouTube and other Phun-user sites that show just how complex you can get with this; but even very young kids can get the hang of it easily. My favorite part: create a shape, then liquefy it and watch gravity do its thing. The clouds that roll by occasionally are a nice touch.

Audacity: simple sound editor that lets you do multi-track recording… record a song, then add some sound effects and a beatbox track; or see what's it like singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" with a few clones of yourself. Some hints:

• change a few settings to make things easier: have existing tracks played while recording new tracks (so you can hear to match things up); and set recording to mono mode so you can fit more tracks on the screen and not have to look at empty ones (mic recording is mono anyway)
• start with a "click track": make a track of "one… two… three… four… one… two… three… four" to help keep the beat, then just delete that track as the final step; and start your other tracks after the first set of counts (like bands do when the drummer counts it down)
• to record multiple tracks, just record something and hit Stop, then hit Record again: a new track will be created and recording will start.

Enjoy.

Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn?

"SuperMemo is based on the insight that there is an ideal moment to practice what you've learned. Practice too soon and you waste your time. Practice too late and you've forgotten the material and have to relearn it. "

Cell phone headsets

"Anyway, as I was dining, I couldn’t help but notice that a woman sitting at the table directly behind Colette was wearing one of those wireless cell-phone earpiece thingies."

What's Wrong With Parents Teaching Their Kids That Not All Internet Content Is Good?

"The simple fact of the matter, however, is that it is not reasonable nor practical to monitor your kids' every action online. "

The Internet Is Not Especially Dangerous For Kids -- Which, Tragically, Isn't Newsworthy To Some

Shrink Pic - automatic image resizing

"Shrink Pic can automatically resize images that you are sending by email, instant message or upload via your browser to your blog account. "

Quote of The Day

"My biologist brain says, 'There's not a lot you can conclude from the [environmental] evidence.' "But I've got a 9-year-old girl. And as a mother, I say, 'They've introduced all these chemicals into the environment, and they have no idea what it's doing. What are they, nuts?' I want data demonstrating safety, not data demonstrating ignorance." - Sandra Streingraber, biologist and visiting scholar at Ithaca College. [http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-puberty21jan21,0,4368261,full.story?coll=la-home-middleright]

Declutter Your Desk

Does your desk seem too busy, and surrounded by robot spaghetti (wires and cables)?

IBM Patents Real-Time Auto Insurance Surcharges

... and it's not a good thing.

Self-Propelled Drum Machine

Web creator rejects net tracking

"The creator of the web has said consumers need to be protected against systems which can track their activity on the internet."

Run Windows Apps Seamlessly Inside Linux

And it's free as well!

The Myth of the "Transparent Society"

"If I disclose information to you, your power with respect to me increases. One way to address this power imbalance is for you to similarly disclose information to me. We both have less privacy, but the balance of power is maintained. But this mechanism fails utterly if you and I have different power levels to begin with."

The Great Apathetic Revolution

"The marketing people babble on about how Digital Rights Management "enhances" your "enjoyment" of a product. But what copy control really does is make ripped-off stuff better than the legal version."

Government and corporate employees engage in an "epidemic" of snooping into databases

"Experts say some companies do little to stop such abuses even though they could lead to identity theft, stalking and other privacy invasions. And companies that uncover violations can keep them quiet because in many cases it is not illegal to snoop, only to use the data for crimes... "

How to Fix a Scratched CD

... and leave it smelling minty fresh!

Extreme Notebook Makeover - Protecting your notebook from random searches

"If your machine is searched, expect no justification or details on what they were looking for or what they downloaded. Rummaging through a computer's hard drive, the government says, is no different than looking through a suitcase."

1 Hour Software by Skrommel

More cool freeware.

Outside The Box Software

Good freeware site, lots of good stuff for batch file coders.

Is Virtual Destruction an Art Form?

"The cars reared upward, groaning, like two fighting antelopes; my hood crumpled into an origami flower, the metal bending like tin foil. The windshield became a fistful of glittering ice, hurled into the air."

Unknown Device Identifier

"Unknown Device Identifier enables you to identify the yellow question mark labeled Unknown Devices in Device Manager."

The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives

The End of the Battery?

"[T]he so-called ultracapacitors on which the XH-150 is based may supplant rather than merely supplement a car's batteries. And if that happens, a lot of other batteries may be for the chop, too. "

Web toolkit: find out a site's web host with WhoIsHostingThis

What Our Top Spy Doesn't Get: Security and Privacy Aren't Opposites

"We've been told we have to trade off security and privacy so often -- in debates on security versus privacy, writing contests, polls, reasoned essays and political rhetoric -- that most of us don't even question the fundamental dichotomy. But it's a false one. "

Toyota Cars to Monitor Driver's Eyes for Safety

"If things progress and a crash becomes probable then it also tries to gain attention of the driver by quickly applying and releasing the brakes. At this point the car's pre-crash brake assist system is also readied. When a crash is judged to be unavoidable the safety system engages the brakes and seatbelts for the collision."

Home thermostats: Big Brother's next target?

"... a proposal set to be considered at month's end could allow the state of California to 'require that residents install remotely monitored temperature controls in their homes next year'."

SnuzNLuz - Wifi Donation Alarm Clock

"The ingenious sages at ThinkGeek Labs have finally created the Ultimate weapon against snoozing - the SnuzNLuz. Everytime you hit the snooze button, the SnuzNLuz will donate a specified amount of your real money to a non-profit you hate."

Toddler Keys download and review - lock keyboard and CD drives

"Toddler Keys is a useful tool for parents that allows you to lock your computer keyboard, CD drive doors and power-off button. When the keyboard is used it will display images and play sounds every time a key is pressed, thereby preventing access to the desktop and applications, while adding some entertainment value for the kid. You can select the images and sounds to be used by copying them to the Toddler Keys folder."