Technology

The MIT Mood Meter

Posted on November 13, 2011November 11, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology

It was just written up in Popular Science: The Mood Meter came about when a team of researchers at the place from whence all awesome things come, MIT’s Media Lab, hooked up a camera and screen (or projector) to some nifty facial recognition algorithms that can spot faces and smiles in real time. And, after assuring campus security that they wouldn’t be recording any images, they placed the installations in four different locations across MIT’s campus. Faces deemed to be smiling are augmented on the screen with a big, cartoon smiley face. Frowning and neutral countenances get an emotionless overlay, instead. The software also estimates how big each person’s smile is, on a scale of 0 to 100, and averages

Homemade Spacecraft

Posted on November 11, 2011November 10, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Technology

This is just cool:

Homemade Rocket (Almost) Goes to Space

Posted on October 13, 2011October 13, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Technology

It only reached an altitude of 23 miles, but it definitely looks like space. For a prize of $10k, an amateur rocket builder launched a rocket 121,000 feet into the sky and has footage of the entire event. The video’s pretty amazing: Here’s the initiative website with lots of pictures and tech details, and here’s a much longer video of the launch — worth a watch if you have time.

Building Space Ships

Posted on August 24, 2011August 19, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Science, Technology

That was quick. SpaceX, a private space ship company, will begin sending shipments to the international space station this fall: A little less than six months after the final space shuttle launch, a private space company will launch a rocket carrying a cargo capsule bound for the International Space Station. SpaceX said this week that it plans a Nov. 30 launch date for its first rendezvous with the ISS — an encounter that will mark a major milestone in private space exploration. We heard last month that NASA agreed to speed up SpaceX’s flight demo schedule, as SpaceX, eager to start making deliveries under its $1.6 billion NASA contract, asked NASA for permission to combine two planned missions into one. That mission is now

Personal Brewing Machine

Posted on August 10, 2011August 10, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Beer, Technology

I’m not sure how I feel about this contraption: It’s a home brewing machine that produces a batch of beer in seven days. Here’s a description of how it works: The machine saves time by combining home brewing’s longest steps—fermentation, which usually takes a week, and carbonation, which can take at least two. The fermentation tank is also a pressure vessel, which traps carbon dioxide released by yeast, force-carbonating the beer. The system also does away with two common foes of freshness: the sealed vessel keeps out oxygen, a culprit behind flat-tasting pints; and a valve at the bottom of the tank isolates the yeast from the beer as soon as fermenting is done, which prevents meaty, off flavors. It’s certainly

The New Standard?

Posted on July 25, 2011July 25, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Technology

Could Twitter become irrelevant? Ezra wouldn’t lose any sleep: Farhad Manjoo thinks that Twitter should allow 280-character tweets rather than 140-character tweets. I think everyone should just move to Google+. The 140-character limit is Twitter’s most obvious feature, and so it’s understandably assumed to be a major part of its success. And maybe it has been. But I think it’s at least as likely that Twitter improved on Facebook by realizing that the circle of people you want to follow and the circle of people who want to follow you are not necessarily the same but has been hindered by the 140-character limit, which makes most tweets uninteresting and renders it impossible to have real conversations. I was optimistic about Google+ from the

James Fallows on Google+

Posted on July 12, 2011July 12, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Technology

I’ve been a bit caught up with Google+ lately. Mostly because I know a number of people working at Google at the moment, and I’m curious to see where this goes. James Fallows has some thoughts: One of the immediate appeals is how quick, ergonomically easy, and aesthetically nice it is to set up “circles” that match the natural patterns of your real life. One for immediate family, one for “friends you actually know,” another for “professional acquaintances who are sort of friends,” etc. Or by interest. In my case: airplane people, beer people, China people, tech people, Atlantic people, NPR people, etc. This is technically possible with Facebook “lists” but more of a chore. And, just like in life,

TripAdvisor Going Public

Posted on July 4, 2011July 4, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Technology

I recently learned that Expedia is planning to spin-off TripAdvisor, with hopes of an IPO later this year. My initial reaction: this is a win-win-win. Expedia gets to cash out, and use the proceeds however they wish. TripAdvisor (employees) will likely have more flexibility to be more aggressive and daring without having to worry about what the parent company says, or whether there are conflicts of interest.* And most importantly, if the company gains the capacity to be more innovative, we’ll all have an even better travel site. I briefly worked at TripAdvisor in the summer of 2005. From my limited experience, I got the impression that it’s a well-run company, with dedicated, serious, and smart employees. In fact I once overheard

That Alloy Converted Heat Into What?

Posted on July 2, 2011June 30, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology

Via Popular Science, a new alloy can convert heat directly into electricity. I always had a hunch that turbines were overrated. Here’s the gist of it: “The new alloy — Ni45Co5Mn40Sn10 — undergoes a reversible phase transformation, in which one type of solid turns into another type of solid when the temperature changes, according to a news release from the University of Minnesota. Specifically, the alloy goes from being non-magnetic to highly magnetized. The temperature only needs to be raised a small amount for this to happen. When the warmed alloy is placed near a permanent magnet, like a rare-earth magnet, the alloy’s magnetic force increases suddenly and dramatically. This produces a current in a surrounding coil…” Oh, Ni45Co5Mn40Sn10. Of course.

Google Bicycles

Posted on July 1, 2011July 1, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology

I picked a friend up at Google today. This is how employees get around the campus: