Totally Doodgical
A look at business, law and life from a technophile.
Video – Blasting Mosquitoes crossing an Invisible Fence with Lasers
0Just found this video of the laser identification in action across a room. The kill laser appears to be off, but the ID part is on. Looks cool lighting up the bugs with a green glow.
No warning needed for the video below, the bugs seem to be OK.
–Ben
Sources: Intellectual Ventures, Youtube
Blasting Mosquitoes crossing an Invisible Fence with Lasers
014 years
You know, there’s just something really cool about having an invisible fence that blasts approaching mosquitoes with lasers. There’s even a “light-em up mode” that uses visible low power lasers to determine wing beat frequency to identify the blood sucking ones. All the bugs that pass the fence can get lit up for a fraction of a second with a green glow. The bad ones end up in a puff of smoke, while the others roam free.
Where was that job when I graduated from engineering in 2003? I thought I had it good in Lego robotics, but this may be one step better.
WARNING: If you don’t like watching bugs end up in smoke, please don’t watch the video.
–Ben
Sources: IEEE Spectrum
Disclosure: I am a member of IEEE.
Fix – Internet Explorer 8 (IE) not rendering sites correctly
0As is not uncommon in the web development world, I was so mad at IE I was ready to delete my bootcamp partition off my Mac and microwave my windows 7 disc. I was working on a website and it would render fine in any browser but IE. As it turns out, IE thought it should be in compatibility mode. Here’s the fix – a meta declaration:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" />
You tell IE to render in its version 8 rendering engine. For those daring enough, you can replace 8 with edge. However, you can never tell what bugs will be in future versions of IE.
A List Apart has a good and thorough article on doctypes and rendering in IE 8.
–Ben
Sources: A List Apart
GUI Automation – Auto It makes automating Abacus Easy
0Wow. I went looking for GUI automation such that I could automatically dump our deadlines to PDF and email them offsite. I found:
- Automation Anywhere for $700 to $7,000
- Ranorex for $300 to $1500
- a bunch of test suites
- Auto It for FREE
I went and looked Auto It up and I couldn’t believe the power. The scripting was easy to understand and I loved that I could emulate keyboard shortcuts. It took me about two hours from install to finishing automating Starting Abacus (our docketing program), logging in, running a report, selecting cutePDF as a printer, saving the PDF with the date in the filename, exiting Abacus and using blat to email the PDF to two people.
Check Auto It out. Its awesome.
–Ben
References: Auto It, Automation Anywhere, Ranorex
New iPhone found lost in Bar
0Apparently a Gizmodo reader found a prototype next generation iPhone lost in a bar. What gives the story credence is that it was remotely wiped and they say that Apple is looking for it. It appears to be recognized correctly as an iPhone, but since the new firmware is not public, the phone cannot be re-enabled.
Here’s a small estimated feature breakdown:
- iPhone OS 4.0
- 2 Volume buttons
- Camera Button
- Forward Facing Camera
- Enhanced Backwards camera with flash
- micro-sim
See a preview video below:
Hit up the links if you want the full scoop.
–Ben
Sources: Gizmodo
Bull and Bear-Spend vs Free Market-Invisible Hand – Hayek vs. Keynes
0Ever wondered what the two opposing factions are throwing at each other when discussing economic theory? Here’s the bull and bear (economic stimulus) theory vs. the Free Market (little regulation or interference) theory in hip-hop. Yeah, its Hayek vs. Keynes in rhyme. Awesome.
–Ben
Source: EconStories
Droid likely getting Andriod 2.1 soon
0Just saw an article that said there was a leaked ROM of android 2.1 for Droid. Now, most people probably shouldn’t download it because of the risks, but it does appear to be a final version.
Here’s a video:
–Ben
Source: Softsailor
Android Doomed? I think not – but PCWorld does
0On a side note, PCWorld claimed Android was doomed. Galen Gruman has a hypothesis that basically states that manufacturers can choose what features to implement and whether to allow an upgrade to the next OS.
Wow. Personally, I think manufacturer choice was a good thing. I also think that while consumers may want to run the latest OS, that we recognize that many of our devices are underpowered for some tasks. Plus, it should count as an advantage, not a detriment that there is even possible an upgrade path.
When we look at the actual world, Linux is fractured – but its still very successful and often tailored to the desired device. Ruby on Rails (the language and framework) has strange compatibility problems between versions, but its still on fire in the the development community. Both are open source. Android is open source.
In sum, I think Galen is reading tea leaves in an alarmist fashion (ie I don’t think the facts he sees add up to the death of Android – but the contrary). Microsoft has been predicting the death of Linux for years. Despite their best efforts, it hasn’t happened. I think Android is here to stay as well.
–Ben
Source: PCWorld
Verizon Speeds Lacking compared with AT&T in PC World Test
1PCWorld has a report that shows that Verizon’s uptick in phones isn’t all its cracked up to be. In fact, the report states that Verizon has had problems keeping up with the demand (see the reliability numbers). Verizon apparently has also been hampered by an uninterrupted signal – only 76% of the time was it uninterrupted.
Personally, I’ve seen in on my train ride into work. I keep dropping into 1x instead of 3G. So, let’s hope Verizon gets back on top. We bought into the network because it was the best, right?
Verizon’s come back is that their map is bigger. Bigger isn’t necessarily better if it drops speed. 1 in 4, it appears.
–Ben
Source: PCWorld
Utah Makes the List of Top Jobs Created and Top Job Growth
0Wow. Just saw an infographic on mint.com about where the jobs are predicted to be. Salt Lake, Provo and St. George cities in Utah made the list. Did yours?
Budgeting – Mint.com
–Ben
Source: Mint.com
Disclaimer – I use Mint for my personal finance. Its free. I like it. However, I did not receive any special compensation for this post.