Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

The DTVPal Plus

Monday, September 29th, 2008

I’ve written before about the DISH Network DTVPal, a $59.99 digital converter box with some of the best features of any converter box available. DISH Network later released another converter box, the EchoStar TR-40 CRA, with a price $20 lower than the DTVPal. This was somewhat confusing because the TR-40 CRA was exactly the same [...]

DIY Nuclear Fusion

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal with a startling title: Nuclear Ambitions: Amateur Scientists Get a Reaction From Fusion. It focuses on amateur researchers who have built their own fusion reactors.
Their fusion reactors, or fusors, aren’t used for power generation. That’s because a fusor consumes more energy than it produces. Fusors have been [...]

A $12 Computer?

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

The Boston Herald published an interesting article recently: Designers on quest to build $12 computer. The idea seems to be to develop educational software for inexpensive 8-bit computers that are commonly available in China and India. What caught my attention was the mention that those 8-bit computer are based on the Apple II.
That didn’t make [...]

Rechargeable Batteries

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

I’ve used rechargeable batteries for many years, mostly nickel-cadmium batteries, also known as nicads, which are ideal for infrequently used items such as radios or flashlights. They can be stored safely and they don’t lose their charge over time. Even though nickel-cadmium batteries can last far longer than most people think, they do eventually wear [...]

Why Weblogs Should Be Different

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Robert Scoble wrote an thought-provoking article titled Has/How/Why tech blogging has failed you. It addressed an idea I have been considering for a while: are technology weblogs just not as interesting and relevant as they used to be? Have they become too focused on the business of ideas and not the ideas themselves?
There are so [...]

Atomic Wristwatches

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

I always wear a wristwatch. But I notice that wristwatches are far less common today, now that cell phones have become ubiquitous.
Wired ran an article reviewing four atomic watches. The “atomic” part of the name means that the watches set their time using the atomic clock at the WWVB time station in Colorado. Some of [...]