Friday, January 24, 2014

Absurd News | Pipe bomber allowed to fly, broken porn filters, and the Jamaican bobsled team!

No comments:
A few months back I would regularly share some of the most absurd news stories that I had seen the week previous. Well I figured I'd do another one, so without further ado...


Passenger allowed onto flight after security confiscates his bomb
UK Porn Filters are blocking sex education websites
Man shares post seeking his arrest on Facebook, is arrested within the hour
Future graduate is selling ad space on his graduation cap to pay off loans
Police cover car with parking tickets before noticing man's dead body inside
Anti-fracking protesters who glued themselves to pumps were at wrong petrol station
Somalia gets a tourist, local officials are baffled
Police: Man used a toy light saber to fend off stun gun
Cyclist: Driver didn't see me stuck in windshield
Jamaican bobsled team qualifies for Olympics for the first time since 2002, but can't afford it. Fans turn to Bitcoin and meme-based currency "Dogecoin", donating over $25,000 to help them make it to the Olympics.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/20/jamaican-bobsled-team-raises-dogecoin-winter-olympics
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Monday, August 19, 2013

Elon Musk's Tesla Model S has achieved the best safety rating of any car ever tested

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5 star safety ratings across the board

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has given the Tesla (TSLA) Model S the best safety rating of any car ever tested. Although the NHTSA doesn't publish a star rating above 5, safety ratings better than 5 are reflected in the Vehicle Safety Scores. The Model S received a combined record of 5.4 stars.

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Talkback Notification Issue with Galaxy S3

No comments:
Whenever I run into an issue with some form of technology I do my best to solve it. Most of that solving comes from lots of Google searches, but this time I wasn't able to find anything helpful. I was able to resolve the issue, which is why I'm sharing this now, in case someone else comes across the issue and finds this page. Hopefully it can help.

Read More

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Marketing: Recycling Bins in London now Stalk You

No comments:

A company called Renew installed "smart" recycling bins in London just prior to the 2012 Olympics. These bins recognize and track the MAC addresses for each person walking by. A MAC address [wiki] is a set of characters that is unique to each WiFi enabled device, including smartphones. As long as your device has the WiFi setting left on, it is sending a signal pinging other devices nearby. These bins simply pic that up and track your MAC address.

Read More

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

IKEA to launch augmented reality app allowing you to see products in your house prior to purchase

No comments:
Cost: Free
Release: Aug 25
Available for: iOS and Android

Now this is cool. I've tested augmented reality apps before but so far I haven't been super impressed. This article quickly summarizes most of the AR apps I've tried and enjoyed so far. Especially Goggles, Skymap, and Wikitude.

The use of this technology for such products is very smart. As per this article, measurements will not be necessary and the catalog app has access to over 90 different products. Apparently it will be a new app released August 25, however the functionality is already in the catalog app linked at the very bottom of this post.

Read More

Friday, January 24, 2014

Absurd News | Pipe bomber allowed to fly, broken porn filters, and the Jamaican bobsled team!

A few months back I would regularly share some of the most absurd news stories that I had seen the week previous. Well I figured I'd do another one, so without further ado...


Passenger allowed onto flight after security confiscates his bomb
UK Porn Filters are blocking sex education websites
Man shares post seeking his arrest on Facebook, is arrested within the hour
Future graduate is selling ad space on his graduation cap to pay off loans
Police cover car with parking tickets before noticing man's dead body inside
Anti-fracking protesters who glued themselves to pumps were at wrong petrol station
Somalia gets a tourist, local officials are baffled
Police: Man used a toy light saber to fend off stun gun
Cyclist: Driver didn't see me stuck in windshield
Jamaican bobsled team qualifies for Olympics for the first time since 2002, but can't afford it. Fans turn to Bitcoin and meme-based currency "Dogecoin", donating over $25,000 to help them make it to the Olympics.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/20/jamaican-bobsled-team-raises-dogecoin-winter-olympics

Monday, August 19, 2013

Elon Musk's Tesla Model S has achieved the best safety rating of any car ever tested

5 star safety ratings across the board

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has given the Tesla (TSLA) Model S the best safety rating of any car ever tested. Although the NHTSA doesn't publish a star rating above 5, safety ratings better than 5 are reflected in the Vehicle Safety Scores. The Model S received a combined record of 5.4 stars.

Talkback Notification Issue with Galaxy S3

Whenever I run into an issue with some form of technology I do my best to solve it. Most of that solving comes from lots of Google searches, but this time I wasn't able to find anything helpful. I was able to resolve the issue, which is why I'm sharing this now, in case someone else comes across the issue and finds this page. Hopefully it can help.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Marketing: Recycling Bins in London now Stalk You


A company called Renew installed "smart" recycling bins in London just prior to the 2012 Olympics. These bins recognize and track the MAC addresses for each person walking by. A MAC address [wiki] is a set of characters that is unique to each WiFi enabled device, including smartphones. As long as your device has the WiFi setting left on, it is sending a signal pinging other devices nearby. These bins simply pic that up and track your MAC address.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

IKEA to launch augmented reality app allowing you to see products in your house prior to purchase

Cost: Free
Release: Aug 25
Available for: iOS and Android

Now this is cool. I've tested augmented reality apps before but so far I haven't been super impressed. This article quickly summarizes most of the AR apps I've tried and enjoyed so far. Especially Goggles, Skymap, and Wikitude.

The use of this technology for such products is very smart. As per this article, measurements will not be necessary and the catalog app has access to over 90 different products. Apparently it will be a new app released August 25, however the functionality is already in the catalog app linked at the very bottom of this post.