Some kids build nice things. Other kids build dangerous things. But they're still building - same skills that can be used for good! Join my dog Leia and I as we take another stroll down Forbidden Drive in the Germantown area of Philly and talk about tech that we were forbidden to use.
The above pic is me, showing off my effortless swag that caused me to shatter my glasses on the pavement. While I wait a week or so for my new pair to arrive, I'll be rocking the ugly tape that decides to peel off at least once a day. Yeah, I'm awesome.
For those of you that have never had an eye exam, there's more involved than the eye chart reading that you've probably seen in the movies. The most notable part is the one that used to scare me as a kid - the glaucoma "eye puff" test. Otherwise known as The Puffy.
The test involves putting your head in front of a machine and resting your chain on an always dirty chin strap (seriously, they never clean them). You hold your eye wide open for as long as possible, without blinking, until they put a strong puff of air into your eye to measure fluid pressure.
That little puff, (and it has become smaller and more gentle as technology has evolved) is measuring the fluid pressure inside the eye. There is fluid constantly being produced in your eye and a drainage system that ferries it back into the bloodstream. When the drainage system malfunctions, the pressure inside the eye starts to rise. We know from large-scale studies that keeping the eye pressure low enough helps prevent loss of sight. High pressure acts to dampen the circulation to the optic nerve and cause a slow, painless loss of vision. Over 50% of the nerve may be dead before you become aware of the loss of vision, so annual eye pressure checks are good, preventative medicine.
Sounds horrible, and it is definitely uncomfortable. But it could be worse! In the 19th century, a similar machine known as a tonometer measured eye pressure by pressing small weights onto the eye. Yeah ... I'll pass on that.
Stay puffy my friends!
i do a lot of reading on my tablet - from newspapers to novels to comic books. For a while, The Daily was also in the mix - a completely digital newspaper backed with the resources of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. Well, that's come to an official end, as News corp is shutting down the Daily. Does this mean that we're not ready to pay for electronic news?
The Daily was built off of a subscription model, which needs to be justified by interesting content. Unfortunately, The Daily's content was a mix of interesting op-eds and tabloidish material. There were often one or two gems, but never enough to keep me going back to the app. I pay to subscribe to the New York Times electronic edition because it is the source of record for enough original content that I can't get anywhere else. Not so with The Daily.
As I mentioned in a March 2011 post, the app is not impressive from a technical perspective - it's slow and not intuitive. It had a seemingly great option - the ability to download the current issue via WiFi so that you can read it on the go while offline - but this feature strangely left certain parts of the newspaper inaccessible and did not improve load times. It shouldn't take me a long time to flip through a digital newspaper that is supposedly downloaded onto my device.
With that said, someone had to be the trailblazer and put a lot of money and resources into a new technology. Even though News Corp has to bite the bullet on this, they did push the idea forward. Let's hope that other media players, old and new, take this idea and do it right. People will pay for good content. The Daily didn't nail it, but someone else will.
Have you received a new computer for the holidays? You'll probably be surprised that Windows 8 looks completely different from what you may used to. Here are a few shortcut commands that have helped me out - if you don't see the video above, click here.
The most helpful tip is that to search, all you need to do is begin typing! As you can see in the above video, you can find the Control Panel by just typing "Control Panel". Even before you spell it out fully, you'll begin to see results. These results are separated by Apps, Settings, and Files. You can use this searching methodology to find anything that you're used to seeing, from setting your resolution to launching the Notepad
If you want to go back to the Windows experience that you're most familiar with, hold the Windows button and press D to enter Desktop view. Here you'll be able to access My Computer, the task bar and other familiar areas of Windows 7. To get back to the Windows 8 tiled view, simply press the Windows button.
One last thing: Microsoft has not made it clear how to actually shut down your computer! The easiest way is to press Control + Alt + Delete, and then select the power button in the lower right corner.
I think Windows 8 is a great operating system, but it takes some getting used to. Hope you have a great time!
I've posted in the past about gender diversity in the sciences. There have been gaffes, such as the EU attempt to get women more involved in science by making it "sexy". But there has been plenty of positivity out there too - women like Adria Richards, Clara Ma, Andrea Deveaux, Sally Ride, and the ladies of Nerdgasm Noire Network.
Iit disgusts me to read stories that women in the gaming industry are sharing via the #1ReasonWhy hash tag on twitter, and covered by publications such as Mother Jones and GamesIndustry.biz. Women are not being valued for their contributions to the gaming community and it had to stop if we ever want to be the true center of innovation and excellence that we claim to be.
When women are being asked about husbands and body parts more than there science and tech skills, is there a question why less women wan to enter these industries?
The more women we have making games, the more games we will have that accurately represent the full human condition. Lets face it - a male dominate industry is not good for any of us, especially given the purchasing power if women in our economy.
Discrimination within the science and tech industries only harms us all. Lets put a stop to it.
