Technology

Maybe It’s A Chance To Start Over

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

Ezra Klein has an interesting take on Google+: Social networking has grown up alongside Facebook. In its early years, it was a quirky online activity mainly enjoyed by horny college students, and so profiles mainly featured pictures of people holding red party cups. Then, somewhat unexpectedly, Facebook opened itself to the world, and, somewhat more unexpectedly, the world joined. Friend requests started coming in from parents, bosses and colleagues. This caused problems for people who’d created their profiles in the party-cup days. Then the requests started coming in from people you hardly knew. How many of your pictures do you really want them to see? At this point, most of us have Facebook friends dating back to three or four distinct

Google+

Posted on June 30, 2011June 30, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Cartoons, Technology

I’m giving it a shot, if for no other reason then to see what Google is up to. I can’t say I woke up yesterday wishing I had access to a new social networking site. In line with that sentiment, via xkcd, this is timely:

Facebook + Twitter =

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

Google+. This is far from an original observation, but here it is nonetheless: + = Judging by my Facebook newsfeed, I get the sense that making Google+ invite only – for some undisclosed amount of time – was a very good idea. After all, it worked for gmail. Everyone seems to want in, even though there really isn’t much going on yet. At least in my “circles.” Oh man, that will get old.

Here’s a Real ‘Computer’ Game

Posted on June 23, 2011June 23, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in History, Technology

Via Ezra Klein, the first version of ‘The Oregon Trail’ game: “With no monitor, the original version of Oregon Trail was played by answering prompts that printed out on a roll of paper. At 10 characters per second, the teletype spat out, ‘How much do you want to spend on your oxen team?’ or, ‘Do you want to eat (1) poorly (2) moderately or (3) well?’ Students typed in the numerical responses, then the program chugged through a few basic formulas and spat out the next prompt along with a status update. ‘Bad illness — medicine used,’ it might say. ‘Do you want to (1) hunt or (2) continue?’ Hunting required the greatest stretch of the user’s imagination. Instead of

Charging with Fire

Posted on June 21, 2011June 21, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology

Outdoorsy Japanese Cooking Pot Charges Phones Over a Campfire:

“Hey Man, Can I Borrow Your Computer?”

Posted on April 1, 2011April 1, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Current Events, Technology

My New Favorite Website

Posted on March 27, 2011October 19, 2013 by James Marshall Spector in General, Links, Technology, Uncategorized

I sincerely apologize for the lengthy interval between this and my last post. I blame law school, too many beers or a combination of the two. Similar to Charlie Sheen’s negotiations to return to Two and a Half Men, I’m back with a vengeance. Have you checked out http://www.qwiki.com/ ? You haven’t? I’m shocked. Seriously. Step up your game people. Essentially it offers an interactive wikipedia-esque experience, using audio-visuals to convey an overview of the most important details of your query. According to the website, Qwiki’s goal is to forever improve the way people experience information. Whether you’re planning a vacation on the web, evaluating restaurants on your phone, or helping with homework in front of the family Google TV,

Something’s Brewing

Posted on March 21, 2011March 21, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology, Travel

I’ve been having problems accessing my Gmail from China. I thought it might have been my internet connection. Or me. But I was wrong.

Civilized Shenzhen Warm Homestead

Posted on March 19, 2011March 19, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology, Travel

I spent yesterday afternoon in the city of Shenzhen, a manufacturing hub in China where among many other things, iPhones and iPad are made. I was fairly surprised to find no factories at all in the city proper. Instead there were wide newly paved boulevards, endless rows of some of the largest skyscrapers I have ever seen, modern subway stations, offices, shopping malls, city parks, restaurants, and western hotels. It turns out that by some measures, Shenzhen is the 12th largest city in the world. I was there to attend a buyer-manufacturer conference for a research project I’m working on. It was an event held at a Westin hotel, where buyers representing international brands from all over the world come to find

Trans-Atlantic MagLev

Posted on March 4, 2011March 4, 2011 by Sam Kornstein in Technology

Not quite a flying car, but almost as cool: A 4,000-mph magnetically levitated train could allow you to have lunch in Manhattan and still get to London in time for the theater, despite the 5-hour time difference. It’s not impossible: Norway has studied neutrally buoyant tunnels (concluding that they’re feasible, though expensive), and Shanghai is running maglev trains to its airport. But supersonic speeds require another critical step: eliminating the air—and therefore air friction—from the train’s path. A vacuum would also save the tunnel from the destructive effects of a sonic boom, which, unchecked, could potentially rip the tunnel apart. It’s a bit on the pricey side though, at “$25 million to $50 million per mile.”