tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039Thu, 22 Mar 2012 05:48:38 +0000spacemobileISPTexasmediaconstructiontoolsChinainternetcultureDRMpolicyprojectsiPadApplecensorshipThoughts on science and technology in societyhttp://www.nameofscience.com/noreply@blogger.com (DD)Blogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-6463621098789615459Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:46:00 +00002011-02-24T20:24:40.629-06:00ISPpolicyinternet Many ISPs are considering the move to usage-based tiered pricing models. This would result in data caps and overage charges or bandwidth throttling. These new models are simply a cash-grab which plummets us back to the stone age. Remember counting usage hours and AOL disks with x hours free where 10 < x < 1000 (hint, there are no more than 744 hours in a month)? Being in the streaming HD video http://www.nameofscience.com/2011/02/nonprofit-data.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-4337624652238317048Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:50:00 +00002010-07-14T22:30:55.702-05:00I've been engrossed in reading This Gaming Life by Jim Rossignol recently. A significant portion of the book discusses the oddities of the role of video games (and games in general) across world cultures. This book also presents the most comprehensive defense of playing video games recreationally, that video games are not a pointless time-sink and that the players are not simply "blinking lizardshttp://www.nameofscience.com/2010/07/massively-multi-player-games.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-6607205304339404719Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:55:00 +00002010-07-19T09:36:45.568-05:00mobiletoolsmediaIntuition says that more colors is better than fewer colors, right? Many mobile devices use size of the color palette as a marketing point. The hotly anticipated new Android phone, the HTC Evo 4G, has come under criticism for supporting "only" 65K colors (16-bit) while the competition (iPhone) supports 4 times as many (18-bit or 262,144 colors). Are these colors really necessary? Is there any http://www.nameofscience.com/2010/06/more-colors-on-mobile-device-bad.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-5304545253790580804Mon, 17 May 2010 06:08:00 +00002010-05-17T01:08:35.347-05:00projectstoolsmediaImage Error Level Analysis is a great online tool for detecting digitally manipulated images. Digital images are ubiquitous. Most cell phones now have a built-in digital camera. Popular internet destinations such as Facebook, Ebay, and dating sites rely almost entirely on digital images. Digital images drive e-commerce, social networking, advertising, dating, and many other web enterprises. http://www.nameofscience.com/2010/05/image-error-level-analysis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-801280489849711176Mon, 17 May 2010 01:55:00 +00002010-12-06T16:59:16.216-06:00projectsspaceconstructionCopenhagen Suborbitals is a nonprofit group of Danish hobbyists who embarked on the lofty mission to send a human to space. Even more impressive is that the team is a varied group of engineers and hobbyists working on a volunteer basis during their spare time. Their projects are run on a shoestring budget provided by both corporate and private sponsors. It's easy to write this crew off as a http://www.nameofscience.com/2010/05/copenhagen-suborbitals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-4052955772768327566Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:37:00 +00002010-04-22T11:45:15.786-05:00DRMmediaWhat do movies, music, video games, telephone conversations, textbooks, magazines, television shows, tweets, SMS, blogs, etc. all have in common? They are increasingly created and distributed as bits. Each bit is either a 1 or a 0, and the bits in the latest video game are of course the same as those representing a math textbook. The real magic is the careful arrangement of bits and communicatinghttp://www.nameofscience.com/2010/04/bits-are-bits.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-8517904523148236182Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:21:00 +00002010-04-08T01:21:02.003-05:00cultureTexasObviously it's a state. Perhaps it's also a state of mind. As a Texan for most of the last 6 years, it seems Texans strongly identify with Texas, and no matter where you're from, Texas carries a lot of weight. Much like New York City overshadows the state of New York, it seems people identify with the state of Texas perhaps more than even our country. A whole host of catchphrases have sprung uphttp://www.nameofscience.com/2010/04/what-is-texas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-808512303677520936Mon, 05 Apr 2010 04:57:00 +00002010-12-06T16:55:12.071-06:00DRMiPadAppleThe Apple iPad went on sale April 3rd, 2010 to much fanfare. Apple is billing it as a new type of device, and reviewers consider it a tablet media player/PC. Reputable reviewers are raving about iPad with such superlatives as: "a laptop killer", "a winner", "one of the best computers [sic] ever", and "the iPad beats even my most optimistic expectations. This is a new category of device. But it http://www.nameofscience.com/2010/04/problem-with-ipad.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8968333009916888039.post-6184512622371179000Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:03:00 +00002010-05-17T01:14:10.793-05:00censorshipChinainternetAccording to the official Google blog, as of March 22nd, 2010 Google has begun redirecting traffic on its Chinese site, google.cn to its uncensored Hong Kong site, google.com.hk. This includes Google Search, Google News, and Google Images. This was prompted by “Operation Aurora” which was an attack in which the Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents were hacked via a security hole in Internet http://www.nameofscience.com/2010/03/chinese-internet-censorship.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DD)0