Inventing to Survive in Cuba
September 8, 2010
In 1991, Cuba’s economy began to implode. “The Special Period in the Time of Peace” was the government’s euphemism for what was a culmination of 30 years worth of isolation. It began in the 60s, with engineers leaving Cuba for the Unites States, and continues in part today, under the longest trade embargo in modern history.
When Ernesto Oroza, a Cuban-American designer and artist, began studying the technological innovations that have been made during this period, he uncovered a trove of homespun, Frankenstein-like machines that ordinary citizens made for their survival, out of day to day objects.
Google enters music war vs. Apple
September 8, 2010
The music industry is rejoicing about the Google vs. Apple music war. Both companies are competing for control of the mobile phone market and in the digital music realm. According to Reuters, Google is currently talking to music labels regarding plans of an online music store and the ability for mobile [...]
Google’s September 8th Announcement Is About Search
September 7, 2010
Google has announced a press event for tomorrow, September 8th, to discuss searching. It seems obvious, except recently Google has been about almost everything except search, so it’s worth stating out in the open.
Google Scribe
September 7, 2010
Google launched a very interesting tool that offers suggestions as you type: Google Scribe. It's not exactly the service I anticipated 3 years ago, but Google Scribe works surprisingly well. For example, I started to type "This works sur" and Google suggested "This works surprisingly well", which is exactly what I wanted to type. Instead of typing 14 characters, I could only type "1" or press Enter to select the first suggestion. "Google Scribe provides text completion service. Using information from what you have already typed in a document, Google Scribe provides related word or phrase completion suggestions. In addition to saving keystrokes, Google Scribe's suggestions indicate correct or popular phrases to use," explains Google.The nice thing about this service is that you don't need to use Google's editor. You can add a bookmarklet to your browser and use Google Scribe in Gmail, Blogger, Google Docs or on any web page that includes text fields.Google Scribe only works for English right now, but I'm sure that Google will add many other languages in the future. If you don't like to see suggestions for all the words you type, enable the on-demand mode (Ctrl+Shift+J) and you'll only see suggestions when you press Tab.
Google Scribe
September 7, 2010
Google launched a very interesting tool that offers suggestions as you type: Google Scribe. It's not exactly the service I anticipated 3 years ago, but Google Scribe works surprisingly well. For example, I started to type "This works sur" and Google suggested "This works surprisingly well", which is exactly what I wanted to type. Instead of typing 14 characters, I could only type "1" or press Enter to select the first suggestion. "Google Scribe provides text completion service. Using information from what you have already typed in a document, Google Scribe provides related word or phrase completion suggestions. In addition to saving keystrokes, Google Scribe's suggestions indicate correct or popular phrases to use," explains Google.The nice thing about this service is that you don't need to use Google's editor. You can add a bookmarklet to your browser and use Google Scribe in Gmail, Blogger, Google Docs or on any web page that includes text fields.Google Scribe only works for English right now, but I'm sure that Google will add many other languages in the future. If you don't like to see suggestions for all the words you type, enable the on-demand mode (Ctrl+Shift+J) and you'll only see suggestions when you press Tab.
Dairy Chooses Cooling Over Cow Shit to Green Its Data Center
September 7, 2010
Müller Dairy has announced its new UK data center will green up by incorpating energy efficient APC InfraStruXure In-Row cooling systems, which focus on cooling specific hardware rather than the entire server room. The company is not yet ready to use food and animal waste to power its computing facilities, a move that Hewlett-Packard has suggested as a means to save energy.