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DiGMEH

Gadgets

Acoustic Research Makes Any Sound System Wireless

By Sean Captain Posted on 11.11.2008 3 Comments
We loved Acoustic Research's original crystal-clear wireless home theater system, the WHT-6024, enough to give it a Best of What's New award in 2007. (To see this year's winners, click here.) Sadly, the WHT-6024 was a short-lived product. But AR has a new kit called the ARW51 that includes the original system's best part -- a 2.4-Ghz transmitter-and-receiver system that takes the place of speaker wire.

11.12.2008 at 08:29am - Comment by DiGMEH

I assume too its built-in antennas, and the frequency fluctuation will help prevent any disruptions. The downside I foresee is, as Chipper said, is power. If it is battery operated, then I assume it will cost a bunch for people who enjoy their music often. If its power cord, then comes the inconvenience of looking for a plug and hiding the transformer. - DiGGY
Technology

Why Your Flight Got Canceled

By Melinda Wenner Posted on 9.17.2008 3 Comments
Last year, U.S. airlines canceled 21,000 flights. Or rather, a small cadre of guys canceled 21,000 flights. Every gate agent reports up the ladder at a given airline to a set of command-center managers. We spoke with a few of the people who make the big decisions to learn what factors influence whether they cancel a flight.

10.15.2008 at 09:34am - Comment by DiGMEH

Get this Last year I had to fly to London. So I bought a 2 way ticket way in advance. On my trip there, we had to stop and load some more passengers in Halifax. When we landed in HFX, they told us to wait 30min for something to clear (message wasn't the clearest). Then those 30min became 4 hours. They didn't let us leave the plane either..So after 4h30min of waiting, we took off for another 7h of staying confined to those small, uncomfortable economy class seats. On the way back, as I was getting ready to board the plane and return home, guess what happened.... plane got hit by a lightning on the runway... I was like: did I just hear that right? A LIGHTNING?! So another delay 8 hours waiting @ Gatwick... GREAT! - DiGGY
Science

Wriggling Away From Cancer

By Posted on 10.10.2008 19 Comments
“Cancer treatments have hit a wall,” says chemist Michael J. Sailor of the University of California at San Diego. Today’s chemotherapy drugs leave the body too quickly, and both chemo and radiation kill healthy cells indiscriminately, he explains. So he has developed “nanoworms,” strings of iron-oxide particles that could swim through your blood to kill nascent cancerous tumors—and nothing else.

10.15.2008 at 07:20am - Comment by DiGMEH

I am currently working in an Radiation Oncology clinic. I am happy that progress is made with cancer treatment research, but as far as I can understand, this works mostly for "young tumors". For non-advanced tumors, there are many treatment options available that preserve the person's normal way of life. What I would be interested in seeing is a treatment for both locally & distally advanced cancers (metastases). So far, chemo has been the only systemic therapy, with the concurrent help of radiation locally. As for tumor detection, I still think we are pretty good at it as it is. With the few exceptions of head and neck cancers (larynx/pharynx) which usually are undetectable at earlier stages. The problem still resides at screening. Today we know that ANYONE is prone to get some sort of cancer: from infants to the elderly. How do we screen everyone? - DiGGY
Gadgets

Now Seating Everyone

By Posted on 7.30.2009 6 Comments
To follow up on its famed Aeron office chair, Herman Miller gave its engineers a challenge: Create a seat that offers a custom fit for anyone, no matter how big or small, round-shouldered or straight-backed. The engineers’ solution was to construct the frame from dozens of small, flexible pieces that bend precisely to your contours.

10.15.2008 at 07:11am - Comment by DiGMEH

This is a great make. The idea and design are just genius. The problem here is with people's ways. If you are taught or actually aren't thought, how to sit properly, even a chair like that would not be able to help you. I use to work on a desk for hours, then they told me to change my chair with a more "ergonomic" one, and I did. But because I was used to sitting a certain way, I still didn't use the ergo chair's full potential. I am now starting to take advantage of it :) - DiGGY
Science

The Information Wrangler

By Gregory Mone Posted on 10.15.2008 5 Comments
Carlos Guestrin wants to stop the spread of waterborne disease, design chairs that adjust to your posture, and cure Internet-induced information overload. This might seem a bit overambitious, but Guestrin has developed a single algorithm that can tackle them all.

10.15.2008 at 07:07am - Comment by DiGMEH

Interesting. It's always nice to see people are still going for new grounds in ways most of you didn't even think possible :) - DiGGY
Gadgets

The Mouse That Runs Anywhere

By Posted on 7.29.2009 12 Comments
THE TECH To calculate their position, most mice use a red LED or a laser to light up a surface, take thousands of pictures per second of the shadows cast by the surface’s microscopic bumps, and then analyze the differences between shots. But that doesn’t work if there are no bumps, as on glossy tables, or if a jagged surface, like carpet, traps narrow light beams between fibers. So Microsoft’s Explorer moves the camera sensor forward to capture the light reflected by any surface.

10.15.2008 at 07:03am - Comment by DiGMEH

I like the technology but the more complicated it is, the more it costs and the easier it is to brake, at least in my opinion. - DiGGY
Science

Sorry, You're Just Not My (Testosterone's) Type

By Rachel Durfee Posted on 9.16.2008 1 Comments
Hormones are no longer responsible just for teenage angst and questionable food cravings; new research shows these temperamental chemicals also dictate the type of person to which you are attracted. In the first study of its kind, Drs. Ben Jones, Lisa DeBruine, and Lisa Weeling at the University of Aberdeen demonstrated that hormones play a key role in determining who you are attracted to at any given time.

9.17.2008 at 01:10pm - Comment by DiGMEH

Hmmm. Hormones do play key role but I find that even at first someone says that you are not their type, it comes a time where things can change. - DiGGY
Gadgets

3M Launches first Pocket Projector

By Posted on 9.15.2008 5 Comments
That’s projector, not protector. But geeks will rejoice nonetheless. The pocketsize projector has been the Holy Grail of gadgets for many years, and now we’ve got it. 3M sent us one of their first samples of their MPro110 mini projector a few weeks ago (but asked us to keep it on the down-low for a while). I immediately plugged it into a DVD player and watched Blackhawk Down on my desk—literally, on it, as I aimed it at my white Ikea desktop.

9.15.2008 at 02:27pm - Comment by DiGMEH

still not that bad for a gadjet that small. - DiGGY
Technology

NASA, Where’s My Jet Pack!?

By Tom Conlon Posted on 10.1.2008 6 Comments
I’m in awe of NASA as much as the next guy. But, as the venerable space agency toasts its golden anniversary next month, I just can’t escape the Grouse in me. Sure, the last 50 years of extra-terrestrial poking around have been filled with innovation and breakthrough. Unfortunately, there’s also been a lot of crap—specifically on the consumer side of things. Why does it seem like only the lamest, most cheeseball products on the market claim to be NASA-approved?

9.15.2008 at 08:08am - Comment by DiGMEH

I would never forget the fact that NASA spent millions of dollars on research, trying to developpe a pen that works in space, and yet the Russians got it in matter of hours after the rpoblem occured: use pencils or chemPens... Duh! - DiGGY
Gadgets

Grade-A Gadgets

By Posted on 9.12.2008 3 Comments
Tuitions may be rising, but the prices of digital tools and toys keep dropping. From ultralight laptops to Net-connected digicams, we pick innovative, feature-rich devices that won't impoverish you.

9.15.2008 at 08:05am - Comment by DiGMEH

Still think there are better gadjets than the ones showed. - DiGGY