Posts tagged nearby
Picture Blocking Beer Cooler Keeps Your Face Out of Embarrassing Photos
Dec 16th
cylonlover writes “It may sound like something dreamed up by a cheesy men’s magazine as a joke, but apparently this is a real thing that actually exists. Ostensibly, the Norte Photoblocker is a functional beer cooler surrounded by four sensors that can detect the flashes from cameras or cell phones. If a flash goes off in the direction of the Photoblocker, it fires its own flash to flood the resulting photos with bright white and obscure anyone nearby. Now you can go about your usual business of cheating on your spouse, being an idiot around your boss, or drunkenly harassing fellow party-goers without worrying that some wildly irresponsible person will tag you in a photo and posts it online.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
View original post here: Picture Blocking Beer Cooler Keeps Your Face Out of Embarrassing Photos
A beautiful Fall day on Whitefish Lake in NW Montana
Oct 11th
As summer turns to fall very fast in NW Montana, visitors get to experience a landscape that leaves you breathless time and time again. The serenity of NW Montana and nearby Glacier National Park will change your perception of a cold and snowy Montana, to “The Last Best Place”.
-Stephan Ferry
CNN iReport
View post: A beautiful Fall day on Whitefish Lake in NW Montana
Chain Reactions Reignited At Fukushima
May 9th
mdsolar writes “Radioactive byproducts indicate that nuclear chain reactions must have been burning at the damaged nuclear reactors long after the disaster unfolded. Tetsuo Matsui at the University of Tokyo, says the limited data from Fukushima indicates that nuclear chain reactions must have reignited at Fuksuhima up to 12 days after the accident. Matsui says the evidence comes from measurements of the ratio of cesium-137 and iodine-131 at several points around the facility and in the seawater nearby.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read the original: Chain Reactions Reignited At Fukushima
NVIDIA sends GeForce GTX 550 Ti into the $150 graphics card wars
Mar 16th
It wasn’t that long ago that we were commending ATI on the stellar regularity of its product launches while NVIDIA was floundering, yet now the roles are reversed and we’re seeing NVIDIA flesh out its second generation of Fermi products with the midrange GeForce GTX 550 Ti presented today. Its biggest attraction is a $150 price tag, but it makes a major concession in order to reach that pricing plateau — there are only 192 CUDA cores inside it, equal to the previous-gen GTS 450, but less than the celebrated GTX 460. NVIDIA tries to ameliorate that shortage of parallel processing units by running the ones it has at an aggressive 1800MHz allied to a 900MHz graphics clock speed, and it also throws in a gigabyte of RAM running at an effective rate of 4GHz. That too is constrained somewhat, however, by a 192-bit interface, rather than the wider 256-bit affair on its bigger brother GTX 560 Ti. What all these specs boil down is some decent performance, but few recommendations from reviewers — mostly due to the abundance of compelling alternatives at nearby price points. Hit up the links below for more.
Read – AnandTech
Read – Tech Report
Read – Guru3D
Read – PC Perspective
Read – techPowerUp!
Read – Hexus
NVIDIA sends GeForce GTX 550 Ti into the $150 graphics card wars originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 09:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
How a tsunami can strike within minutes
Mar 11th
The world is much better prepared today for dealing with the far-away effects of a tsunami, but the severe underwater earthquake Friday would have given residents of nearby northeastern Japan only minutes to respond to a destructive wave of water, according to civil engineering expert Philip Liu.
Continued here: How a tsunami can strike within minutes
Sony to release smaller, sleeker official PS3 Bluetooth headset
Nov 8th
So, you haven’t invested in a voice chat solution for your PS3, but you want to have some amount of efficacy while playing Black Ops or MAG or one of the other multiplayer-centric titles on the platform? It sounds like you may want to check out the new, Sony-approved Bluetooth Headset, which will arrive at the appropriate retailers later this month.
The device, which will run you $49.99, has all the same features of its predecessor (charging dock/desktop mic, automatic syncing, a big shiny mute button) — but it’s now 30 percent smaller, and features stronger noise cancellation technology. Which is great, because we really hate hearing about your nearby best friend’s hard day at work when we’re, you know, at war.
Gallery: New PS3 Bluetooth Headset
Sony to release smaller, sleeker official PS3 Bluetooth headset originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Medtronic debuts tiny lead-less pacemaker at TEDMED 2010
Oct 28th
There are two pacemakers in the picture above. There’s the typical clunky, stone shaped device with wires on the right — and on the left, a device dwarfed even by a one-cent coin. This is the Medtronic wireless pacemaker, just revealed at TEDMED 2010, which can be implanted directly into your heart via catheter and permanently latch itself into flesh with tiny claws. Then, doctors can wirelessly monitor and even control the device from a nearby smartphone. Medtronic’s working to make it even smaller still, and we’re hoping to get more information soon. Welcome to the future, folks.
Medtronic debuts tiny lead-less pacemaker at TEDMED 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Loopt Gets Involved With Facebook Places, Plus A Couple More Improvements
Oct 20th
Loopt, Inc. has decided to help make both Facebook Places and Loopt a combined location-based social-networking companion. Loopt v3.2 adds Facebook Places support, a simplified registration system, and the ability to adjust the distance of nearby friend alerts.
The Loopt iDevice app has been around just as long as the Facebook iOS app. While both services focus on social-networking, Loopt has concentrated more on the where, rather than the what. With Loopt, you can show your friends where you’ve been, and provide something of a motivation for others to easily join in on your adventurous night out.
While Facebook Places is somewhat of a late-comer to the location-based social-networking party, Facebook does have one of the largest online communities ever. The team over at Loopt have made it even easier for you to keep up with both services, and take advantages of the unique features provided by each. Loopt v3.2 allows you to easily and quickly view both your Facebook and Loopt friend’s check-ins on a single map.
Loopt v3.2 features:
Beijing smothered in smog during UN climate talks in China (AFP)
Oct 7th
AFP – China’s capital Beijing on Thursday shared the title of most polluted city in the country, as delegates from around the world worked in nearby Tianjin towards a deal to combat global warming.
View original post here: Beijing smothered in smog during UN climate talks in China
(AFP)
Mayorama could be the ultimate Foursquare companion, but it’s not quite there yet
Aug 27th
Filed under: Web services, Social Software, iPhone
If you’re a mayorship-obsessed, Foursquare-loving, check-in fiend with an iPhone, Mayorama could be the best 99 cents you spend this week. It promises to show you the status of your mayorships — how many check-ins you have at each venue, and how many to go until you become mayor — and give you a list of targets (nearby vulnerable venues you can check into). Even if you’re just wondering how many more morning Starbucks visits will make you mayor, 99 cents isn’t a lot to pay for the info.
The thing is, Mayorama’s not quite there yet. It has trouble grabbing your info from Foursquare (it works, it just displays a message saying that it didn’t), and it can only show nearby venues. I get that being nearby means valid check-ins, but what if you just want to see whether driving across town could make you mayor? You can’t, because your check-in history is the one part of the app that doesn’t load.
I’m sure these problems will be cleared up with an update, but there are also some essential features for mayorship-hunters that ought to be included. A venue search would be nice, for one thing, and that has to be available in the Foursquare API. Also, the ability to check in off the grid would be really nice. It sucks to spam your friends with your repetitive mayor-seeking check-ins, and Mayorama doesn’t give you the option not to broadcast. I find myself checking Mayorama and then switching to the Foursquare app to check in siliently.
This could be the app I’ve been looking for to put the fun back into the whole mayorship thing, but it just doesn’t quite work as advertised yet. Still, for a buck, it’s well worth trying.
Mayorama could be the ultimate Foursquare companion, but it’s not quite there yet originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Fire and Explosion At Hydrogen Station Near Rochester Airport
Aug 26th
RossR writes “There was a hydrogen fire and explosion at a renewable fuel station used by government vehicles near Rochester’s airport. The nearby freeway and airport were closed resulting in diverted flights. This may the first major incident at a hydrogen vehicle refueling station. GM has their major fuel cell development center nearby, in the town of Honeoye Falls. The fire occurred when the 18-wheeler tractor truck was transferring hydrogen to the station. The airport press conference reported that airport firefighters responded first and initially waited on the scene deciding how to respond. No news yet if the hard to see flames of hydrogen combustion contributed to this delay. The fueling station is also adjacent to a NY State Trooper station, and a firefighting training facility is a few blocks away.” RossR also provides a Police/FD Radio transcript. Luckily, no one was killed, and only two injured, including the driver.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Apple patent application details iPod / iPhone bike integration system
Aug 7th
Apple patent applications can be a little out there sometimes, but this one makes so much sense we have to wonder why it’s not a product already. Described as “Systems and Methods for Integrating a Portable Electronic Device with a Bicycle,” the application details what basically amounts to Nike+ for bikes. That includes the ability to relay data from bike sensors to your iPhone or iPod, which you’d be able to view on the device itself or on an external display of some sort — the application even goes so far as to mention the possibility of a heads-up display, although we wouldn’t get our hopes up for that. What’s more, the application also suggests that the system could communicate and share information with other nearby cyclists, and it would apparently include some fairly extensive GPS capabilities (on the iPhone, at least), including turn-by-turn directions to help you find a specific bike route, and maps complete with reviews from other cyclists.
Apple patent application details iPod / iPhone bike integration system originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Tennessee Town Releases Red Light Camera Stats
Jul 29th
SonicSpike links to what he calls “a transparent look at some statistics released by a small town’s red-light camera program,” writing
“Specifically, in the last fiscal quarter, 7,213 incidents were recorded, 2,673 incidents were rejected by the reviewing officer, and 662 incidents were not processed due to technical issues or lack of information. All in all 3,878 citations were issued between April I — June 30 in a town of 17,000 residents. Interestingly enough there are two nearby cities claiming that individuals ‘have no presumption of innocence’ when accused by the red light cameras.” Fines for no-harm-no-foul rolling stops bug me, and remind me of Gary Lauder’s suggestion to merge stop signs and yield signs.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read the original post: Tennessee Town Releases Red Light Camera Stats
Play Metal Gear Arcade for three days … in Japan
Jul 28th
Surely there are those within the Joystiq Biomass with the ability, locality or sheer resourcefulness to be in Japan from July 30 through August 1 to play test Metal Gear Arcade. This post is for you. Konami is staging location tests of the 3D, head-tracking, coin-operated Metal Gear Online adaptation at two gaming centers for those days only: Adores Shibuya (in, you guessed it, Shibuya) and Round One in Kahoku, Ishikawa Prefecture, about four hours west of Tokyo by train.
Those who make the trek (or are lucky enough to live nearby) will not only be rewarded with the opportunity to play the game and a newly implemented Mission Mode, but will receive 2,000 Reward Points that can be used towards unlocks in Metal Gear Online. All that and the chance to say you traveled 8,000-odd miles to play an arcade game. Yeah … best to keep that accomplishment to yourself.
Play Metal Gear Arcade for three days … in Japan originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Burger King uses ‘musical shower’ as latest trick to entice Japanese clientele
Jul 8th
A new Burger King eatery opening up in Japan isn’t usually something we concern ourselves too much with, but this one comes with an interesting new twist. Those umbrella-aping translucent cones hanging over the tables are known as “musical showers,” and their function is to deliver music in an isolated fashion to you and your significant — but not too significant, it’s still BK, after all — other. All you’ll need to do is plug your portable media player into the provided receptacle and the tunes you know and love will literally shower down upon you. To be honest, if the audio chanelling is sufficiently precise not to disturb nearby punters, we’re loving this idea. Now just give it a name that won’t make teenagers giggle and bring it westwards.
Burger King uses ‘musical shower’ as latest trick to entice Japanese clientele originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.