Feb
19
Blu-ray wins: High def wars over
Posted by Dirk Avery at 9:54 am under Technology.
Sony may have lost the videotape format war when the Betamax case went down in flames, but has won the high definition video disc war. WSJ reports: Toshiba Exits HD DVD Business, Ceding Market to Sony’s Blu-ray
Feb
18
Collaboration with geneticists yields faster fiber
Posted by Dirk Avery at 12:49 pm under Internet, Patent, Technology.
This is just plain cool. Researchers in Australia were working to produce faster fiber optics. When they ran into an issue they couldn’t solve, they collaborated with the geneticists in the neighboring lab to come up with new, patent-pending technology. (Hopefully it will help US Internet providers upgrade infrastructures that are falling […]
Feb
17
In memory of the mixtape
Posted by Keeley Vega at 3:32 pm under Technology.
“The Mixtape is a fine art that is threatened by the loss of the medium. Two channel analog magnetic tape is disappearing in favor of MP3 files. A mixtape is a snapshot of your musical and social tastes during the brief period in which you created it. That summer in 1992, maybe your mixtape was […]
Feb
13
Green patents: dryer and nano-solar cells
Posted by Dirk Avery at 10:01 am under Patent, Technology.
EarthTimes reports:
At the 2008 International Builders’ Show (IBS)® Hydromatic Technologies Corporation will launch a new technology [Dryer Miser™] for clothes dryers that will reduce the appliance’s energy consumption up to 50 percent and cuts clothes-drying time by up to 41 percent.
And the Journal of New England Technology reports:
Solar cell equipment maker Spire Corp. has been […]
Feb
13
Goodbye Polaroid!
Posted by Keeley Vega at 8:01 am under Technology.
Sad news. ”Polaroid Corp., the Massachusetts company that gave the world instant film photography, is shutting down its film manufacturing lines in the state and abandoning the technology that made the company famous.”
The company is closing two facilities, laying off 150 employees, and will begin to focus on flat-panel TVs and digital photography gear. According to […]