Slightly Off KIlter

Normal is overrated

SciTech

  • License to Shoot

    Photos, that is… I have a new camera. It's about the size of a Zippo lighter (in fact, the case resembles said lighter). James Bond would love it (or so claims the description 🙂 I had been looking for an SD-card camera that would work with my Kyocera "smartphone" PDA. I think this is better,… Continue reading

  • Deep Impact

    I suppose by now you've heard about Deep Impact, NASA's successful mission to blast a hole in Comet Tempel 1. It's been in the newspapers; I read about it first in the NASA Science News email newsletter. Considering that this all happened 268,000 miles from home, I'm pretty impressed at the accuracy of the mission.… Continue reading

  • Uphill or Down?

    According to a study done by the Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular Investigation and Treatment (Austria), there's a difference in the effect of uphill vs downhill exercise. Hiking on a mountainside gives the heart a health-promoting challenge, but the nature of the benefit depends on whether one is climbing or descending. A study conducted on an… Continue reading

  • Nuisance Suit

    Good Grief! Has it come to this. Apple Computer has been slapped with a lawsuit by Tiger Direct Inc. for allegedly infringing its trademark with the new Mac OS X "Tiger'' operating system scheduled for release on Friday.   — Apple sued over "Tiger," injunction sought, Thursday, April 28, AppleInsider Give us a break here,… Continue reading

  • Skin Printer

    Scientists at Manchester University's School of Materials (in the UK) have developed a printerthat prints… skin! Using the same principle as an ink-jet printer, experts are able to take skin cells from a patient's body, multiply them, then print out a tailor-made strip of skin, ready to sew on to the body. The wound's dimensions… Continue reading

  • Fixed-width fonts

    I love fonts. I collect fonts. I especially love "handwritten" fonts. As a programmer, however, and constant email user, I need to use fixed-width fonts, preferably with easily distinguished characters. So how do I mix and match my love for handwritten fonts with fixed-width programmer's fonts? Take a look at some of the cool fixed-width… Continue reading

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  • Optomap

    I had an eye appointment today. They have a "new" gadget called Optomap (they've had it for about a year now). The patient looks into a 4" diameter hole in the front of a big white box (face turned sideways, nose smooshed into place). A green light flashes and the machine takes a picture of… Continue reading

  • On Intelligence

    Are you interested in how the mind works? So is Jeff Hawkins (of Palm OS fame) and he’s written a very interesting book about it. Continue reading

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  • Technology Moves Forward at the Grocery Store

    Thirty years and more ago, your local grocery store used cash registers. Prices were marked on all items; the checker punched that price into the cash register and the total was calculated much like a desktop calculator with a paper tape. Although the first patent for a bar code type product was issued in October,… Continue reading

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  • TV-B-Gone

    Several of the restaurants we patronize regularly have televisions going – our favorite diner, the burrito place, one of the Chinese places, the Japanese restaurant (that one’s at the far end of the sushi bar and more difficult to see)…. Improved conversation was the motivation behind TV-B-Gone, and it’s why Altman calls it the most… Continue reading

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