Almost Accurate

Infographic: Buying a Gun in America

Chris — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 21:24:28 +0000

Demandaction.org has teamed up with designer Kelli Anderson to produce three amazing infographics about three major issues involving gun laws in the U.S. Click the images to see the full product.

The first deals with how EASY it is to buy a gun.

The second with how many guns are sold in the U.S. without a background check. In fact, there are only 14 states/districts that mandate background checks on all sales.

The final graphic demonstrates how effective those background checks are in those states compared to the rest of the country. It demonstrates, quite effectively that background checks radically change the outcome of violence.

For more information, check out Kelli Anderson’s site or go to DemandAction.org

Creating Indestructible Self-Healing Circuits

Tim — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:55:52 +0000

Credit: Jeff Chang and Kaushik Dasgupta

California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researchers say they have developed self-healing integrated chips that can automatically repair themselves. During testing, the researchers destroyed various parts of the chips by zapping them with high-powered lasers, and then observed as they developed a work-around in less than a second. We “blasted half the amplifier and vaporized many of its components, such as transistors, and it was able to recover to nearly its ideal performance,” says Caltech professor Ali Hajimiri. The chips rely on sensors that monitor temperature, current, voltage, and power. The information from the sensors feeds into a custom application-specific integrated-circuit (ASIC) unit on the chip, a central processor that acts as the brain of the system. “We have designed the system in a general enough way that it finds the optimum state for all of the actuators in any situation without external intervention,” says Caltech’s Steven Bowers. By demonstrating that the self-healing capability works well in an advanced system, the researchers hope to show that the self-healing approach can be extended to other electronic systems. “Bringing this type of electronic immune system to integrated-circuit chips opens up a world of possibilities,” Hajimiri says.

Exerpt from: ACM TechNews
Source: Creating Indestructible Self-Healing Circuits

Roku Private Channel List Updated

Chris — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:41:34 +0000

In honor of the release of Roku 3, we decided that it was time to do a thorough update of our private channel list.

We have since added over 100 channels and removed those that are no longer working or have gone public.

The list is located on our ROKU page. Have fun!

Google Rings of Power

Tim — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:49:59 +0000

One ring to rule them all! You guessed it, I’m a Tolkien fan but that is not what this is about. In an effort to remove of the most insecure method of security, the password, Google engineers and working on rings that can be used to log into a computer or account. The idea is that by using personal hardware for security, you remove the dangers of people reusing passwords or writing them down. While still in early stages, Google is seeking more partners. Its too early to tell if this will finally put an end to the password but one thing is for sure, anything that will help this from happening is worth it.

Source: MIT Technology Review

AA Map: Accurate Reflection of County Voting Densities

Chris — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:43:47 +0000

I made this map in response to the choropleth maps that have been floating around that don’t quite reflect voting populations in the US. This map is rendered based on population density by county and labeled according to RED or BLUE.

Soon I will post another map that details just how “blue” or how “red” each county voted. Either way, both of these are better indications of realities within each county.

Feel free to reshare, but please do not remove, edit, or change any information on the map.

Nanotube Chip Breakthrough

Tim — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:13:10 +0000

IBM scientists report success in patterning an array of carbon nanotubes on a silicon wafer and their application in the construction of hybrid chips with more than 10,000 functioning transistors. The scientists say their breakthrough promises to guarantee the sustained shrinkage of basic digital switches for more than 10 years. Stanford professor Subhasish Mitra says the advance also would likely boost the speed at which transistors can be turned on and off. “These devices outperformed any other switches made from any other material,” notes IBM scientist Supratik Guha. “We had suspected this all along, and our device physicists … showed that we would see a factor of five or more performance improvement over conventional silicon devices.” IBM researchers think the refinement of carbon nanotube use will lead the way to sharp gains in both chip speed and transistor density. Guha says carbon nanotubes possess more promising performance traits than other materials engineers are investigating to help maintain Moore’s Law, such as graphene. He notes that perfecting the process calls for a much purer form of the carbon nanotube material, in order to eliminate metallic characteristics.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/i-b-m-reports-nanotube-chip-breakthrough/

And we’re back… (again)

Tim — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:48:16 +0000

Yes, that is correct. We are back online! I find it exceedingly strange that of all my websites that this is the only one that ever seems to be targeted… It must be the damn cable companies! CONSPIRACY! LOL.

Regardless of whomever keeps attacking this site (I’m guessing they don’t like free tv through roku?) I will keep putting it back up! So no need to fear, if we go offline again we will be back. Since the majority of you are here for the Roku list, I will make sure Chris gives it an update soon.

Roku + Plex = Effective Cable Cutting Bliss

Chris — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:37:17 +0000

If you don’t have a Roku yet, you should by now. It’s cheaper than an Apple TV, Boxee Box, and a WDTV and does more than most other media players that turn your TV into a “smart” TV.

Some of you have been waiting for an appropriate media player for the Roku that can play just about anything you throw at it. Well it’s finally arrived… in the form of Plex.

For those of you who own a Roku, you probably noticed a brand new channel posted in the Roku channel store recently – Plex. You probably didn’t give it much thought, or you noticed that you had to install something on your home computer/server before getting to use it – so you didn’t. That was a mistake. You should install Plex on your computer right away and get started. The Roku Plex Channel is updated frequently and has been improved greatly in recent months. Also, the Plex server was originally BEST on a Mac, HOWEVER this has changed and a lot of work has been put into the Windows version of the Plex Server (currently 0.9.6.2). Also, it’s FREE!

A list of content that Plex provides to the Roku:

HD Wifi Streaming available upto 1080p (personally only test 720p 4K/sec). Quality set on Roku Plex Channel
Local Video/Music/Photo manager for your Roku to stream from your server/computer.
PBS Content
CBS Content
ESPN3
HGTV
Food Network
MTV
Youtube
and many others…

Many of these content providers you add directly from the Plex channel on the Roku. Of course, this is after you followed the ridiculously simple Plex Server setup on your home computer and have updated your Silverlight and Flash plugins.

Plex is updated openly from public developers and, for now, is Free. Also, it allows public developers to develop their own channels, which contributes to its great libraries.

In the past, many Roku users were disillusioned by the too good to be true announcement by Playon that Playon had a channel on the Roku. After Roku “disallowed” the channel last year, the future of Playon for the Roku was in limbo. Also, Playon requires a paid subscription ($49.99/yr) service to use it’s media server for online content (such as CBS, youtube, hulu). Playon also does NOT stream in HD. Although m

ost content listed above is only in SD (HGTV, Food Network), local media could only be streamed at SD as well. As far as Playon goes for the Roku, it’s a miss by comparison to the Free HD streaming Plex Media Server.

Also, you can buy the Plex channel for iPad/iPhone for about $3 and use your wireless device to stream content. As for now, this is the only purchase necessary for Plex benefits outside of the Roku.

I should also note that, even though Hulu is a channel on Plex, it’s maintained by independent developers. Hulu has always been elusive for third parties (such as Boxee and others) to stream and manipulate Hulu videos. Plex is not different. You won’t see HD quality or too much stability in the Plex Hulu plugin, considering that Hulu actively works to prevent this sort of streaming. I still recommend using Roku’s Hulu+ service instead as it is way better and still cheap.

So if you’re wondering how to get other online content on the Roku, go with Plex.

NASA: Curiosity Experiences Intense Solar Storms

Tim — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:08:03 +0000

On January 27th, 2012, the Curiosity spacecraft was hit with an intense solar radiation storm. No need to worry, this was part of its mission. Using its Radiation Assessment Detector, Curiosity was able to count the multitude of particles, protons, cosmic rays, and neutrons that bombarded it. With this data, NASA scientists will be able to determine the type of radiation humans could be exposed during a trip to Mars.

More information is available on NASA Science News.

Google to Release Head-Up Display Glasses 2012

Tim — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:58:06 +0000

Ready for a terminator style HUD to “enhance” the real world? According to 9to5google.com, Google will be releasing these by the end of the year. The glasses will be Android-based, have a 3G or 4G data connection. They will also include motion and GPS sensors enabling a unique navigation system that uses “head tilting to scroll and click.” The project is being developed by Google X, a secretive laboratory that works on futuristic projects. The glasses will utilize several Google programs, including Google Latitude, Google Goggles, and Google Maps, according to a company employee. “You will be able to check into locations with your friends through the glasses,” according to a Google employee.

The glasses also will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor events in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings, and nearby friends.