Internet Browsers

It is finally official, Mozilla Firefox has more users than Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Firefox climbed to 46.4% in February, while the various versions of IE dropped by 1.2% to 43.6%. As of March 23, IE8's market share stood at 2%, an increase of 0.7 of a percentage point since the final code was released. IE7, meanwhile, accounted for 36.9%. Apple's Safari came in at 3.2%.

Wow, in just a few short years, the free Firefox has outdone Microsoft, which used to claim 97% of the market. I have been using Firefox for a few years, since it was beta and love the simplicity, and that it can be spiffed up with as many add-ons as you want (all free). I also use Mozilla Thunderbird as my email. It handles my eight email addresses all in one place.

Library of Congress

The U.S. Library of Congress has begun uploading its audio archives to iTunes, and it will soon begin to post videos on YouTube, in an effort to make its materials easier for the public to access.

The decision to post audio and video on iTunes and YouTube follows a successful launch early last year of a library photo archive on Flickr. Since January 2008, the library's photos on Flickr have been viewed about 15.7 million times, and more than 20,000 Flickr users have added the Library of Congress as a contact.

Some items - 100-year-old films from Thomas Edison's studio, book talks with contemporary authors, early industrial films from Westinghouse factories, first-person audio accounts, a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence and the contents of President Abraham Lincoln's pockets on the night of his assassination.

Brain control

March 31, 2009 - The research wing of Honda Motor Co. has co-developed a brain-machine interface system that allows a person to control a robot through thought alone. The system, builds on previous work announced three years ago toward a future in which devices might be controlled by thought.

In 2006, Honda and ATR researchers managed to get a robotic hand to move by analyzing brain activity using a large MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner like that found in hospitals.

The latest work is a step more advanced and measures the electrical activity in a person's brain using EEG and blood flow within the brain using near-infrared spectroscopy to produce data that is then interpreted into control information. It requires no physical movement.

Both the EEG and NIRS techniques are established, but the analyzing process for the data is new. Honda said the system uses statistical processing of the complex information to distinguish brain activities with high precision without any physical motion. A person visualizes moving a hand yet physically remains completely still, then Honda's Asimo robot, to which the system is hooked-up, raises its right hand. Honda claims a 90% success rate using this method.

Hey, Asimo, get me a beer!

Asimo

Here is Asimo conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

For those who have not seen this thing, it really is a robot. Although, this time not using brain waves for input. Honda is besting Detroit in Detroit, and with the 'Impossible Dream'. How's that for a sharp stick in the eye. Wonder how many caught the irony?

Google Voice

This new service is about to be launched. It has been in test for some time. Call it the "one number to rule them all" service. Users will be able to register, sign up for a phone number in a local area code, and add multiple land line and cell-phone numbers to an account. When someone calls a Google Voice phone number, all the registered phones ring at the same time.

The service takes several telephony technologies and connects them to the Web. It's the voice equivalent of an e-mail address. Once you register a number you never have to worry about which phone you are using, even if you switch offices, homes, or cell phones. You can even press 4 to record a current call.

No matter which phone you use, there is one portal for all voice-mail messages. You can play them on the Web, save them as MP3 files, and even post a voice-mail message on a website. Conference calls are also easy. Answer an incoming call to add it to the current one. Very cool technology, but that record feature is a bit too scary for me. I like to keep my rants current, and not have someone save them for posterity.

I have my beta invite, because I was signed up with GrandCentral, which is the foundation technology for Google Voice.

Speaking of Robots

What’s silver and brown and lies in the grass ? R2 Doo Doo…

In twenty years robots will be doing most of the work humans don’t want to do,
especially illegal robots from Mexico.

Scientific Myths Debunked

You heard it here.
It takes 7 years to digest gum. Not true, it digests as fast as any other food.

Hair and fingernails keep growing after death. Not true, the body dehydrates so fast that this is just an optical illusion.

Chickens can live with their heads cut off. True, because part of the brain stem is left intact when the head is chopped off.

There is no gravity in outer space. Not true, the effect of gravity diminishes with distance, but it never truly goes away. BTW space is not a vacuum, either.

Eating a poppyseed bun mimics opiates on blood tests. True, eating two of them can mimic opiates on a blood screen test.

Toilet Seat scale

Check this out. I think it is a bit odd, but some think it is a very neat idea.

More Bathroom Goodies

Here is a 2.4 GHZ wireless toothbrush camera. You can now inspect your teeth anywhere, just hook it to your computer and get a dentist's eye view of what is going on in your mouth. Might be good to help you find that nagging popcorn kernel. There is also a USB model with wires, but it is messy to use.