GeekSugar

Future Tech: Mind Blowing Photosynth Demo

GeekSugar — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:00:14 PDT

If you are reading this right now you are no stranger to digital communities - be it Myspace, Facebook, TeamSugar or Flickr. Now consider a type of software that is capable of taking images from kindred communities, analyzing them for similarities, and grafting them together into an interactive three-dimensional space that puts the "networking" idea of some social sites to shame. Blaise Aguera y Arcas is an architect at Microsoft Live Labs, and the co-creator of Photosynth, a piece of software capable of assembling photos into a collection of zoomable, navigatable spaces. The idea got a standing ovation at a recent conference. Watch and you'll see why.

Thanks to TeamSugar's Amadeo and my top secret spy for sending me the video.

Lil Links: Does Spanking Cause Aggression in Tots?

Rebecca M Gruber — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:32:00 PST

New study links spanking to future aggressive behavior - Parenting
Five reasons not to regret your embarrassing tattoo - The Stir
Guess which celeb mom is the first to push the Origami? - Celebrity Baby Scoop
Nickelodeon to launch new Franklin and Friends program - Celebrity Baby Blog
Is a cake the right way to find out if it is a boy or a girl? - FitPregnancy
The best baby-making sex? - The Bump
The hidden costs of breastfeeding - Momformation
A guide to tech-savvy parenting – Tecca
Today's teens are better behaved than their parents - Yahoo! Shine
How to sell, swap, or donate clothes - Real Simple

8 Life Lessons Learned From CES 2012

Kristy Korcz — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:31:59 PST

This year's CES didn't just teach us about gadget trends and the future of the industry - it also taught us a few things that we'll remember in our everyday lives as well. Here, we offer up a few tips to take with you on your next journey to a big tech conference, or to keep in the back of your mind for life. Trust me: our pain is your gain!

Get plenty of sleep. Between long hours on the show floor and various industry parties (and afterparties), there's a good reason we'd love to see siesta lounges at CES. But if you can't nap during the day, be sure to get enough shut eye at night. This is true even for the real world, where you've got emails, shows, and news to catch up on. Put away the laptop at a decent hour and get your beauty rest. You'll wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day's to-do list.
Carry water. Downing coffee, cocktails, and Diet Cokes, coupled with the dry weather in the desert, and filtered air in the hotels and casinos can cause dehydration fast. Keep a bottle of water on you at all times. This not only keeps your skin fresh, lips hydrated, and head clear, but it'll keep you from overheating due to thirst.
Wear good shoes. Did I mention how much we walked at CES? Seriously, the biggest expo I've ever seen, it spans the Las Vegas Convention Center and surrounding hotels. It's not hard to walk six miles in a single day. Multiply that by three or four days, and you've got yourself a good workout. Dress your feet appropriately for CES, and everyday life, since it can save your back later down the road.
Get in the lunch line early. Hungry bloggers line up to get their lunches far before the 11:30 a.m. call time. Although we never saw a shortage of food, who wants to wait in another line when you're tired and hungry? This is another way to say "eat your lunch." Skipping meals can lead to headaches and crankiness, symptoms you don't want to experience when you're in a fast-paced and crowded space or in your office.

Check out the rest of the list when you read more.

CES Rewind: Tech Trends We Thought Were Hot in 2011

GeekSugar — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:15:26 PST

At last year's CES expo, we targeted five gadget and tech trends we thought would be hot in 2011. How right were we? Take a tour through our picks and see how well we can predict the future. Spoiler: we weren't 100 percent right!

6 Earth-Shattering Space Headlines From 2011

Kelly Schwarze — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:14:26 PST

There may not have been any human exploration of Mars this year, but there certainly were plenty of galactic milestones in the last 12 months from NASA and international space programs. From the end of the space shuttle program that once had kids dreaming of becoming astronauts to the launch of a space robot to a possible planet twin, which of these 2011 headlines was your highlight of the year's space exploration?

End of Shuttle Era - Over the Summer, NASA marked its 135th and final space shuttle mission. After a 30-year long program, the shuttle Atlantis was the last manned American spaceship of its kind to leave Earth. NASA is turning future missions to the exploration of other planets and deep space.
Curiosity Mars Rover Takes Off - In hopes of learning more about the Red Planet, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory, with a rover named Curiosity on board in November. It will take about nine months before the Rover descends on our neighbor planet, where its high-tech components will analyze the Martian terrain.
Earth-Like Planet Confirmed in the Habitable Zone - The team of NASA scientists working with the Kepler satellite confirmed the sighting of a planet in the habitable zone of a distant star. Kepler-22b, is 600 light years away from Earth, is larger in size than our planet, and orbits its sun-like star in just 290 days.
Voyager Enters Interstellar Space - After 30 years of travel, the Voyager 1 spacecraft passed the boundaries of our solar system, inching closer to interstellar space. Launched from the US in 1977, Voyager 1 is now about 11 billion miles away from the sun.

Reminisce back to two more 2011 space events after the break.

5 Fun Gifts For the Luddite

Kristy Korcz — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:18:42 PST

Surely you have a friend or family member (or two) that isn't as tech savvy as you are. Not to fear - these five gifts are great options for Luddites who run from technology, and will hopefully usher them into the future. Or at least the present.

Real Steel: Real Predictable

Rose Curiel — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 05:30:47 PDT

When you sign up to watch a movie about boxing robots, chances are you want to see mechanical carnage, and plenty of it. In Real Steel, Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie, a man who makes his living piecing robots together and sending them to the ring, so the potential for spectacular robotic clashes is high. But when Charlie's estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) shows up on his doorstep, what you get instead is a predictable father-son story that's a swing and a miss.

The film is set in the not-too-distant future, when machines have taken over the role of boxers because humans are hungry for more gore. The premise is a bit hard to believe - how do bolts win over blood, and why would sports fans be more invested in a machine than a human? On that note, the film barely lets the audience begin to connect with the beat-up, underdog robot Max uncovers in a junkyard, paying more attention to the relationship between the boy and his dad. When Max just so happens to share his father's passion for robot boxing, the film establishes a convenient means for the pair to bond. To find out why else you can pass on a ringside seat to this film, just keep reading

Daily Tech: Star Wars Photography Worthy of an Art Gallery

GeekSugar — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:37:22 PDT

Star Wars toy photography is a serious work of art - GeekTyrant
Five creepy, sci-fi-style advertisement techniques to expect in the future - Cracked
Behold the Samsung Galaxy Tab bike - Dvice
Street art keyboard adds high-tech edge to ancient cobblestone - Unplggd
NASA wants anyone with a math, science, or engineering degree to apply for the astronaut program - SlashGear
Geeky wedding photos to make you say "awww" - mental_floss

5 Practical Items to Add to Your Baby Registry (Even Though They Don't Sound Fun!)

Rebecca M Gruber — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 05:31:01 PDT

Walking the aisles of a baby store, it's easy to get wrapped up in the plush towels, adorable mobiles, and the high-tech strollers. While moms-to-be ohh and ahh over all of the options available to outfit their impending arrival, they tend to skip over some of the more practical items that line shelves, thinking they'll get to them in the future. Nail clippers, thermometers, and humidifiers may not be the cutest things on a baby registry, but they'll probably get used more than anything else! Check these and a few other practical items you may have overlooked when building your registry!

Are You Allergic to Wi-Fi? Strange New Illness With Even Stranger Cure

Yahoo Shine — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 05:56:46 PDT

We're happy to present this article from one of our favorite sites, Yahoo! Shine:

What is this now? An acute Wi-Fi allergy is plaguing five percent of Americans? EHS, or Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity, is a condition defined by headaches, muscle spasms, burning skin and chronic pain.

The cause: over-exposure to mobile phones, wireless internet and the satellites and cell phone towers that keep them pumping.

One sufferer, Diane Schou, described her symptoms to the BBC this way: "My face turns red, I get a headache, my vision changes, and it hurts to think. Last time [I was exposed] I started getting chest pains - and to me that's becoming life-threatening."

To alleviate her discomfort, her husband built her "radio-wave resistant" wooden cage lined in wire mesh to sleep in. When that didn't work, she moved from her Iowa farmhouse to Green Bank, West Virginia. Population 143.

For 13,000 square miles around the town wireless networks are obsolete. The Radio Quiet Zone was originally designed for scientific research, but it's becoming a haven for EHS refugees.

Come on, is this really about radio waves and electromagnetic frequencies?