I can’t believe in 2006 I was excited about the new possibilities of an nVidia card with 128 MB of RAM. Today we’re talking about 4GB+ of DDR5!

Librarian of Congress: Don’t be a bigot! Renew the rights of the blind to read!

Adobe is doing some pretty despicable stuff - logging EVERY book (whether or not you are using Adobe Digital Editions) and sending it back to a server. ( Here’s the guy who first discovered it).

Why is this an issue? Because the books you read can be used to discriminate against you or, in some countries, land you in jail. In the USA it could put you on the no-fly list. As soon as I get home I’m uninstalling ADE - I’d installed it for the possibility of checking out digital books from the library. Forget it! I’m sticking to the no-DRM books and physical books at the library.

I think it’s pretty awesome how Google has taken the same tactic as Wordpress and broken out key features into plugins. For Wordpress it leads to better and faster development without breaking the main program. For Google it allows them to do an end run around the stupid carriers who won’t upgrade Android in a timely manner.

http://youtu.be/OINa46HeWg8

But as you reduce the speed that the drive shaft is rotating, you lower the frequency of the sound it’s making. There comes a lower limit where the engine is making what Gordon calls “groan-y and moan-y” noises which people find unpleasant. The car sounds broken. So cars had to keep the engine’s RPM above a certain level, hurting their fuel efficiency, or risk alienating customers.

GM’s solution was to implement active noise cancellation, the same technique used in some headphones to quiet ambient noise. Microphones in the body listen to the ambient sounds the car and engine are making, and the car plays the opposite of that over the vehicle’s speakers. The sound waves from the engine are cancelled out by the sound from the entertainment system, netting a quieter ride that can be more fuel efficient without being so bothersome.

It’s pretty neat how much technology has changed in the past 8 years. Eight years ago Rich West and I coded up a web server on a microcontroller ( code here) and part of my justification was that, for only $50, someone would be able to have a web server on a microcontroller. Wouldn’t that be so awesome for people without a lot of money for technology? Yet, less than a decade later, the Raspberry Pi can be had for around $50 (give or take depending on the features) and implements an entire computer, not just a web server. You can install a full Linux distro on it and do everything that a Linux disto can do (including serve web pages). I hope we can continue to grow technology like this for years to come.

A month or so ago I had a disagreement with my sister-in-law. I’d read about how many traffic crossing buttons and elevator buttons to close the doors were not wired up to anything. She claimed I was wrong and I couldn’t remember where I’d read it. Luckily, I recently came across an article on Placebo Buttons at Your Are Not So Smart.

One of the people who developed the pacemaker is now 86. And he has a pacemaker.

-Boing Boing