As traders at Morgan Stanley were frantically trying to shore up Facebook’s share price in the days after the company’s IPO, other managers on the deal were helping short sellers bet that the newly minted stock would fall.
From Business and financial news – CNNMoney.com: Broadcasters sue Dish over ad-skipping DVR
Three television studios and Dish Network are suing one another over an ad-skipping digital video recorder technology that the satellite TV company debuted earlier this month.
From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: SpaceX Dragon Successfully Captured by International Space Station
SpaceX Docks NASA
Just minutes ago, via the NASA TV stream, we learned that the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft has successfully been attached to the International Space Station–the very first private spacecraft to do so. (Read more about its launch earlier this week here.) NASA is still broadcasting footage of the attachment, but everything looks smooth so far. Watch it live here.
from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now
From Gizmodo: Google Purges 1.2 Million Links a Month from Its Searches
From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: Video: Paratrooping Roomba-Style Drone Concept Could Help Clean Oil Spills
Roomba Sea Drones A new design concept that’s a little familiar. Hsu Sean
Clearing the muck from an oil spill is tough enough without having to worry about collateral damage, but designer Hsu Sean is looking to create a Roomba-like Bio-Cleaner drone that degrades oil while keeping animals out of harm’s way.
An overview on Yanko Design shows how, after a spill, several of the drones could be dropped from helicopters above the ocean and into the water, where they could maneuver into a formation around the spill and use stored oil-hungry bacteria to clean house. An acoustic wave device installed in each drone would keep fish and other wildlife away from the danger/cleanup zone. If completed, the drones would also act autonomously while on a mission, staying powered by using ocean waves and hopefully not coordinating an autonomous paratrooping pseudo-Roomba uprising.
It may be just a wish-upon-a-star dream that we’ll ever see one of these in action, but it’s at least good to see oil spills given a creative solution (read: probably impossible robot-based solution; incidentally, it’s not the first time we’ve seen one of those). The drones are still in the concept phase right now, and there’s no telling exactly when Hsu Sean’s design will be manufactured, if ever. A lot of it – like the specifics of the bacteria and the water-based engine – seems destined to wind up mired in concept limbo.
The closest thing you’ll ever get might be throwing your Roomba into the ocean from a helicopter, which probably isn’t going to do all that much for the environment but could at least keep a few dolphins from needing to sweep the house this week.
[via TreeHugger]
from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now
From Technology Review RSS Feeds: For $74, a Mini-Android Computer
The menu of low-cost mini-computer options expands.
Ars Technica and others report on a cool miniature Android computer that can plug directly into your TV. The whole thing is housed in a 3.5-inch plastic case, weighs in at 200 grams, and measures roughly the size of a USB thumb drive (a tiny bit bigger, actually.) It’s being sold by Chinese retailers, and you can get yourself one online for the low price of $74 (or 5% off, if you order 5 or more).
From MAKE: $49 Android PC from Via
For the price of a cheap date you could pick up Via’s new APC all-in-one computer. It’s about the size of a smartphone and about as powerful. It comes with Android 2.3 pre-installed, so it could make a decent media streamer or Android development platform. It comes without a case, but conforms to the mini-ITX and MicroATX formats. They’re taking pre-orders and expect to ship in July. [via geek.com]
from MAKE