News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
The linked article is a glowing review of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. If the plane lives up to all the praise being heaped on it, we’ll have the fighter jet equivalent of a grand slam home run. It’s something of a technological marvel.
Link: http://dailycaller.com/…
The linked article discusses whether you should type one or two spaces after a period, before starting the next sentence. The correct method is to use one space. The author covers why two spaces were once used (because of typewriters with fixed-width characters), and why this is no longer necessary for documents written on today’s computers.
Link: http://www.slate.com/…
(via Neatorama)
Researchers in California have developed sheets of piezoelectric viruses that, when pressure is applied, generate an electrical current. In one experiment, the viruses power a small LCD.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
Phone companies tend to throw the term “4G” around pretty loosely. What does it mean? And how is 4G LTE different from regular 4G (or is it the same)? The linked article answers these questions and more.
This gold ring includes a band made from a meteorite, with embedded gems representing the nine planets (yeah, yeah, I know). Way cool! And it can be yours for only $4200.
Link: http://www.jewelrydesignsformen.com/…
(via Neatorama)
Professor Kosuke Heki of Hokkaido University in Japan may have found a way to predict earthquakes. The upper atmosphere is disrupted by the long-wave sounds associated with an earthquake, and this disruption can be measured by changes in GPS signals. Professor Heki noticed, however, that the disruption begins about an hour before many earthquakes, thus providing the ability to predict them.
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/…
(via Kim Komando)
Cancer researchers used the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud to create a virtual, 50,000-core supercomputer that ran a complicated simulation for the low, low price of $14,486. The neat thing is that they were able to perform a more detailed and realistic simulation on the cloud-based system than they would have on the supercomputer they actually own.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
Ever wonder what the all-time bestselling video game is, not counting the ones that were bundled with gaming systems? Turns out it’s Tetris. I purchased a copy back in the late ’80s, and the linked article prompted me to buy the Tetris app for my Kindle Fire.
Brenda Hewlett made a 114 foot hockey shot, into an opening that couldn’t have been more than an inch wider than the puck. For her efforts, she won a new Ford F-150.
Link: http://vimeo.com/…
(via Kim Komando)
Adobe PDF documents have security settings which can, among other things, prevent anyone from modifying the document. This is helpful, for example, when sending electronic copies of contracts for review. But it can also be a pain when the document needs to be changed but the password has been forgotten or the person who knows the password is no longer working for the company. The linked article has a solution that works in Windows systems: print the PDF to an XPS file (the XPS “printer” is automatically supplied by Microsoft), then open the XPS file and print it to a PDF file. This will give you an identical copy of the original document, but without any security restrictions.
Back in April, Google updated its Cloud Print service, which allows you to print documents over the Internet from mobile devices. Now you can choose to print a document to FedEx Office locations—after choosing FedEx Office as the print destination, you simply go to any FedEx Office store, enter a code, and the document is printed right then and there. The second new feature is that you can print to compatible Android devices running the Chrome browser (the “printout” will be a PDF document that you view with Chrome).
Link: http://chrome.blogspot.com/…
(via Ars Technica)
The Denver metro area may be getting a diverging diamond interchange, where traffic temporarily switches to the left side of the road to cross a bridge. It will be where McCaslin Blvd crosses Highway 36, between the towns of Superior and Louisville. My first reaction is, “How can this possibly work without causing accidents?” But apparently it not only works but works better than more common interchange types.
Thanks to Josh for this link.
