Gear Bits

Is That a Cthulhu on Your Face?

Is That a Cthulhu on Your Face?

This knit hat bears the uncanny likeness to one who should need no introduction, to H. P. Lovecraft fans, at least: Cthulhu. His very existence may be outside our realm of understanding, but this scary cross of octopus, dragon and human caricature is sure to bring second looks wherever he is seen. Has Cthulhu awoken and decided that it’s time to rule the Earth again? If so, then we mere mortals had better be very, very afraid … “la, ia, Cthulhu fhtagn!” A comfortable, soft beanie with loads of curly tentacles! Perfect as a ski hat, keeps the whole face warm! Made in soft wool-acrylic…

The iPad Camera in Action (Literally)!

The iPad Camera in Action (Literally)!

The new iPad has a fantastic camera, but it has led to the question “Why?” Why would anyone choose to hold up a 10″ tablet to snap a picture instead of the camera on their mobile phone or a regular point & shoot? It is a stumper, because unless you want a huge viewfinder, there are much more ergonomic and lighter choices in cameras. However, at least two or three people HAVE been snapping shots with their iPads. While running the ‘Rock N Roll DC’ half-marathon today, I passed a clump of spectators where everyone was holding up iPads to…

For St. Patrick's Day, the Muppets Sing 'Oh Danny Boy'

For St. Patrick’s Day, the Muppets Sing ‘Oh Danny Boy’

In between your corned beef and cabbage and green beer, enjoy a good laugh. Have a great day! Source: GeekDad

Apple's Achilles Heel Revealed

Apple’s Achilles Heel Revealed

If you have wondered if Apple has an Achilles’ heel you might want to check out a new post over on Gizmodo. It makes clear that there is one and if goes by the name “expectations”. People have come to expect SO much from Apple each and every time they release a new device that there is Simply No Way, Apple can keep pace. That seems to be the case with the Gizmodo crew’s initial reaction to the new iPad. There doesn’t seem to be anything that is making them go “wow”. It is also interesting to see Gizmodo’s behind…

Off-Broadway Becomes iBroadway in 'Rated P, for Parenthood'

Off-Broadway Becomes iBroadway in ‘Rated P, for Parenthood’

Elana and I spent this evening in Manhattan. We had a bite to eat and then got to see the new Off-Broadway show Rated P for Parenthood. Rated P, was written by Sandy Rustin, made its initial debut at the South Orange Performing Arts Center just down the street from my synagogue. (Disclosure: I know Sandy and she is a fantastic writer and comedian.) It has now moved to its new home at the WestSide Theater and is getting rave reviews. The reason for the rave reviews is quite simply the fact that it… is… awesome! The hour and a…

New Report Says Mammals Rise Began Before Dinosaurs Demise

New Report Says Mammals Rise Began Before Dinosaurs Demise

Image courtesy of MSNBC.com One commonly held belief is that dinosaurs became extinct before mammals began to flourish – that the events leading to the mass death of dinosaurs allowed mammals to develop fully. Now a report in the journal Nature – and an accompanying one in Science Magazine – seek to prove otherwise. From Nature: Here we show that in arguably the most evolutionarily successful clade of Mesozoic mammals, the Multituberculata, an adaptive radiation began at least 20 million years before the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and continued across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. Disparity in dental complexity, which relates to…

Hope You Bought the 64GB iPad ... New Apps are 2.5 - 3x Larger!

Hope You Bought the 64GB iPad … New Apps are 2.5 – 3x Larger!

I was checking out some screenshots and photos from the new iPad over at Macrumors, which all hailed from the much-reported early delivery 3rd generation iPad from Vietnam that is getting loads of press … and I noted a quote from Vietnamese site Tinhte.vn regarding the size of the original apps: The sizes of these Retina-enabled apps appear to be about 2.5-3x the size of their original counterparts. These applications are developed by Apple has been upgraded to support the Retina screen, for example with Keynote (iWork software sets), this application previously only 115MB capacity but its latest version is…

Outta This World: GM/NASA Develop Robotic Glove

Outta This World: GM/NASA Develop Robotic Glove

Five years ago, researchers and scientists from General Motors and NASA began collaborating on a project called Robonaut 2 (R2 for short) that led to launching the first human-like robot into space in 2011 that is now a permanent resident in the International Space Station. Now the two are jointly developing a robotic glove inspired by the unprecedented level of hand dexterity on R2 and they call it the Human Grasp Assist, a.k.a. K-glove, a.k.a. Robo-Glove. The first prototype of the glove was completed in March, 2011 with a second-gen model arriving just three months after that. The current Robo-Glove…

What Do You Do When the Internet Is Down?

What Do You Do When the Internet Is Down?

I’m not going to lie — this looks more like the way I behave than I’d care to admit; okay, minus the crying in the mirror part. My family can tell you that when I am trying to edit or write and the internet goes down, I am an absolute pain in the butt to be around; grumpy and moody and prone to random curse word outbursts. It’s not pretty. I’m almost as bad when our WiMax internet service is hiccuping and slower than usual. Anymore, I try to leave and go on a long hike when this happens, but sometimes ……

Android Developers Can Now Develop on the go with AIDE

Android Developers Can Now Develop on the go with AIDE

In yesterday’s post about Post-PC or Plus-PC, I mentioned that you could generally not write programs on mobile devices. This is not true as of today. As I was reading through my feeds at lunch, I noticed a story on the Register about AIDE. AIDE is short for Android IDE or Integrated Development Environment. An IDE is an editor that is specifically for writing programs. In this case, you write programs for Android. AIDE is not necessarily targeted for developers to use their phone to write programs. It’s targeted at developers using devices like the Asus Transformer and Transformer Prime….

Is it really the Post-PC Era, or Is the Plus-PC Era Simply Continuing?

Is it really the Post-PC Era, or Is the Plus-PC Era Simply Continuing?

Ten years ago I bought one of the first devices I ever had that could be classified as a post-pc device or as I like to call it, a plus pc device. That was a Toshiba e740 Pocket PC. This was the first device I had outside of a laptop that included wi-fi. I remember taking the e740, a flexible USB keyboard, the keyboard adapter and a compact flash modem on a trip with me and chatting with my wife and other family members every night on a SLOW modem. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. I also remember my…

Chilling New Home Video of the Challenger Disaster

Chilling New Home Video of the Challenger Disaster

I still remember sitting in the formal living room of my fraternity house watching the Challenger launch back in 1986 (hard to believe it has been 26 years now). If I had the chance to go to watch it live, I would have done it in a heartbeat – my family was vacationing in Florida a few years back, and the schedule was supposed to have us there for a launch, but it was pushed back. We still got to see the shuttle being moved towards the launch site, and that was thrilling to behold. But of course Challenger ended…

"Would You Believe…" It Is That Close?

“Would You Believe…” It Is That Close?

The very first time Maxwell smart’s “Would You Believe…??” made an appearance on the Classic TV show Get Smart, it was in reference to Smart being tortured after being captured by the enemy. He says, “The most fiendish torture ever devices by man- the water torture. A drop of water on the forehead every minute for 300 gallons… Would you believe it?” (Reply, “That’s pretty hard to believe.”) “Would you believe a quart?… What if they came by once a day with a glass of water and an eye-dropper?” Well, Apple has its own form of torture and this is…

Cool Mashup of The Smiths and Super Mario Bros

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Cool Mashup of The Smiths and Super Mario Bros

I am a sucker for cool and creative mashups, so here is another one that I saw at Neatorama. This is a remake of the classic Smiths song ‘This Charming Man’ – from the original ‘The Smiths‘ or the wonderful ‘Complete‘ from last year … but done in the style of Super Mario Bros!

The Best of Fake Science Celebrates Two Years of Being Not Even Remotely Correct!

The Best of Fake Science Celebrates Two Years of Being Not Even Remotely Correct!

I hae always had a natural curiosity for everything scientific … which likely makes sense given my day job! But as I have grown up and see my kids learning science, there are many things that were thought to be true back then that have changed since: things like our view of how dinosaurs lived and moved – and even what they were based on has shifted from lizards to birds! As we learned more and more arcane and esoteric topics, it became fun to fashion some incorrect but plausible explanation to amuse ourselves – or really outlandish ideas just…

Angry Birds in Space, As Explained by NASA!

Angry Birds in Space, As Explained by NASA!

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut in the worst way. I had astronaut ice cream, an astronaut Barbie, and to this day I still say Epcot is the coolest amusement park in the world because of “Spaceship Earth”. I eventually outgrew my desire to fly far away from this planet, but I still love all things space-y.

Real Men Don't Wear Pink; They Can't, Because It Doesn't Exist!

Real Men Don’t Wear Pink; They Can’t, Because It Doesn’t Exist!

The color pink, technically called Magenta, is in theory a blend of Red and Violet. That is wonderful for mixing paints … but in terms of the electromagnetic spectrum it makes no sense. Why is that? Because colors are based on a continuum, that means that in order for a color to exist it needs to follow some progression of wavelength shortening from red to violet. Color is visible to us based on the wavelength of light, and aside from the so-called ‘primary colors’ ROYGBIV’ (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet), all other colors are merely combinations of…

Stuff Companies Were Foolish Enough to Introduce on 'Apple Event Day'

Stuff Companies Were Foolish Enough to Introduce on ‘Apple Event Day’

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape You don’t spit into the wind You don’t pull off the mask of the old Lone Ranger … And you don’t do an announcement on the day Apple holds a major press event. Any person who is interested in technology in any way – even if they HATE Apple and would never buy their products – was glued to find out details. My family all knew it was happening, it was on our local news and in the local paper as well as being a major hallway conversation topic. There is a saying that…

Check Out This Awesome Adele / Daft Punk Mashup!

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Check Out This Awesome Adele / Daft Punk Mashup!

It is amazing what a skilled DJ can do in terms of remixing two songs and coming out with something that is truly transformative. That is what happens when DJ Carlos Serrano mixed Daft Punk’s “Something About Us” with Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.” Check it out below, and hit up his web page for more great tracks!

Buh-Bye Android Market, Hello Google Play

Buh-Bye Android Market, Hello Google Play

The Android Market has been around for a while now, but Google has begun using it for more than just Android apps; they have added Music, Movies and Books over the last year. So, in an effort to unify things a bit and get a less ambiguous name that describes the service, Google is re-branding the Android Market as Google Play. The website is active now, and the Android Market app on your devices will be replaced with the Google Play Store app. You can also expect to see updates today for the Books, Music and Movies applications. For more, check out…

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