Author: coutinho

By Noemi Twigg, ForeverGeek – October 06, 2010 at 03:01PM

We’ve all heard about “men are from Mars, and women are from Venus.” No matter how smart a guy or girl is, no matter how many different languages one can speak (yes, Klingon does count), it seems that at the end of the day, men and women just have different ways of communicating. How they manage to get together and spend their lives together remains a mystery even to the wisest of sages.

However, technology just might have the answer to this age old problem. Enter the Manslater. (Although I really think that should be spelled Manslator.) This nifty gadget promises to solve all communication problems between men and women at the click of a button. Don’t believe me? Check out the demo below.

Oh, and if you think the manufacturers of the Manslater are being sexist, think again. If you watched that video till the end, you’ll see that it works on both sexes. Now there is no need to wrack your brains trying to figure out what your partner might really be saying. Just grab one of these and you’re good to go.

By samzenpus, Slashdot – October 04, 2010 at 01:22PM

The Seventh Circuit Court has ruled that Beverly Stayart can’t sue Yahoo! because she did not like what she saw on the results page after searching for her name. Stayart claimed that her “internet presence” was damaged by Yahoo! because results for a search of her name showed listings which included pharmaceuticals and adult oriented websites. The court disagreed. From the article: “Stayart had sued under Section 43(a) of the federal Lanham Act, which prohibits false advertising, false implications of endorsement, and so on. Her problem was that a Lanham Act claim requires a showing that the plaintiff has a ‘commercial interest’ to protect, and Stayart did not have a commercial interest in her own name.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By Noemi Twigg, ForeverGeek – October 04, 2010 at 09:14AM

By Adam Flaherty, MAKE – October 04, 2010 at 08:00AM

The latest high altitude weather balloon video making the rounds is from the father and son team of Luke and Max Geissbühler of Brooklyn, NY. Their setup included a 19-inch helium balloon with a payload consisting of a camcorder, GPS enabled phone, and a couple of hand warmers inside a polystyrene container. What sets this project aside from similar attempts is the quality of the images obtained and the ease with which the payload was retrieved using GPS coordinates sent from the the device. [Thanks, Gabe!]

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By Rosa Golijan, Gizmodo – October 03, 2010 at 08:00PM

Mail on Sunday photographer Mark Pain probably didn’t know whether to cheer or cry after taking this photo. On one hand, he snapped a great picture. On the other hand, he might be about to face an angry Tiger Woods. More »

By (author unknown), Cool Tools – October 01, 2010 at 09:00AM

I found the Stormtec Stormbags at my local hardware store last fall. Basically, they’re burlap sacks with water absorbing polymer crystals inside. You soak them in fresh water and the polymer crystals expand to create an alternative to a sandbag. They’re lightweight (a pound when dry), easy to transport to the disaster site, and simple to soak and set in place. I’ve never used them for flood control, but they look like they’d work quite well. When exposed to water they increase 33 pounds in weight in about 5 minutes.

I have used them to soak up an intermittent leak in my husband’s garage. We laid it down where the puddle usually forms, and it slurped up all the water, keeping it in one place. They will eventually dry out if set aside in a dry, well-ventilated area, so they can be reused. I put ours up on our plant shelf outside, where it got air on all sides. I expect there’s a limit to their reuseability; mostly because they’d get really disgusting after a while.

The Stormbags cost $7.00 each at the Stormtec website, or $340 for a box of 50 bags. They also sell door protection kits that will fit various sizes of doors. They’re expensive, compared to regular sandbags, until you consider how easy they are to store and transport and their alternative uses. If you have a small leak having a couple of these on hand is a real time and money saver.

— Amy Thomson

[Note: Updated price. — OH]

Stormtec Stormbags
$7 per bag or $340 for 50

Available from and manufactured by StormTec

Alternatively, they are available in cases of 50 from Costco for $280 with shipping included.

By Adam Dachis, Gizmodo – September 30, 2010 at 05:59PM

Previously relegated to the Google Toolbar and Feedburner, Google URL Shortener finally has a web site of its own. More »

By Adam Dachis, Lifehacker – September 30, 2010 at 02:00PM

ManyEyes is a neat tool that produces compelling visualizations based on user-defined data sets, with data types ranging from statistics tables to any old block of text.

Making your own visualization is pretty simple. You can use data already on ManyEyes to play around with it, but it is, of course, more useful when you create your own data set.

(Click to enlarge.)

Creating a data set is pretty simple. You can paste in all kinds of data—even the contents of a spreadsheet without worrying about formatting.

(Click to enlarge.)

After pasting in your data it’ll be interpreted in real time. Take a look at it to make sure it’s what you expect.

(Click to enlarge.)

When you’ve approved the data set, you’ll then be able to click the Visualize button to create your data visualization. You’ll have lots of options and you can try as many as you want.

(Click to enlarge.)

You’re not stuck with just numerical data visualizations, however. One of the more interesting visualizations comes from blocks of text. I put Jason’s article on IP Webcam in ManyEyes and created a Word Cloud. The largest words are the most commonly used and they give a pretty good idea of what the article’s about.

ManyEyes is a free tool and can create compelling visuals that you can use in presentations, reports, or just for fun.

By CmdrTaco, Slashdot – September 30, 2010 at 10:41AM

bazzalunatic writes “Digitally remastered footage of the moon landing, including high-quality and brighter images of Neil Armstrong stepping off the ladder will be shown for the first time ever to the general public at an awards ceremony in Sydney, Australia. The magnetic data tapes seem to have all been lost — erased — by NASA, so all that’s left are VHS recordings, which have been restored, giving the best-ever film of the whole moon landing. The publicity over this seems to be pushing NASA into releasing the whole 3-hour recording.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

By Jason Chen, Gizmodo – September 29, 2010 at 07:20PM

Services like Gazelle and ecoNew are great, because you can sell them your old, unwanted gadgets for a decent price, and they’ll be recycled, which is better than just throwing them in the trash. Ecosquid makes this process easy. More »