Free Republic

Is it bad to charge your phone overnight? What about charging an iPhone with an iPad adapter? Despite how often we use devices like smartphones and laptops, we have plenty of questions about how those technologies works. And with so much information out there — not all of it true — it's hard to know if we're treating our electronics properly. We've dug into some of the most common myths in consumer tech to debunk some of the biggest misconceptions out there. 1. Mac computers can’t get viruses Yes, Apple computers are susceptible to malware, too. Apple used to brag...

The Austrian-born Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr is being given an honorary grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery on Friday, ahead of her 100th birthday on November 9th. Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna in 1914. Not only was she known as one of the most beautiful women of her day, but she also invented a technology that enables the mass use of mobile phones and other wireless communications. She died in Florida in 2000, aged 85. On the anniversary of her 100th birthday Austria’s Film Museum is screening a documentary about her. Lamarr garnered a degree of fame...

Sitting at his laptop, Jon Black scrolled over "Arkansas" to see a burst of bar graphs, each representing a week's worth of data on an important slice of the electorate: Republican-leaning Arkansans who often don't vote. Black winced. A crooked blue line skirted just above the top of seven consecutive bars, telling Black, director of voter turnout at the Republican National Committee, that his Arkansas colleagues were short of their goals for this particular cluster of voters labeled "High Value GOP." He called his colleagues in Arkansas. Almost instantly, Tom Cotton's Senate campaign started visiting, calling, and aiming digital ads...

The Center for Process Innovation, a British technology research company, thinks they’ve got the next big step in aviation transportation figured out. They want to remove the windows from passenger planes and replace them with OLED touch-screens that extend along the plane’s entire length and display the view from outside through cameras mounted on the plane’s exterior.

IT COULD be every crook’s must-have gadget — a device that can warn when a police car is nearby. The small dashboard-mounted display alerts the driver by bleeping and lighting up when it senses police radio transmissions. It also reveals when ambulances and fire engines are near. The maker claims that it is useful for telling drivers that an emergency vehicle needs to overtake. Target Blu Eye has its critics, who predict that the device will be used by irresponsible drivers to make sure that the coast is clear while they speed or use mobile phones. Out on the motorway...

The thing about cancer is that you need to catch it early. Once it spreads, it becomes harder and harder to treat. But part of the problem is making yourself go to the doctor in the first place; a lot of people would rather avoid finding out really depressing news, in some cases via invasive poking. But what if you could detect cancerous cells and various other diseases in 60 minutes using your phone? A new start-up named Miroculus has made a device, "Miriam," that hopes to allow you to do just that. In hugely simplified terms, cancer happens when a cell...

Allergy to Some Metal Implants Linked to Rare Skin Cancer, Study Says - TUESDAY Oct. 14, 2014: A rare type of skin cancer has been linked to allergic reactions to metal implants, researchers said. Some patients who have metal devices implanted near the skin may develop chronic skin rashes caused by contact allergies to metals such as nickel, cobalt and chromium. These rashes may lead to an unusual and aggressive form of skin cancer, the researchers said. The study's authors described the case of a woman who had a metal rod implanted to repair a broken ankle, and later developed...

Uber.Com. AirBnB.Com. TaskRabbit.Com. What are these websites about, and why are they so controversial? Let's be clear: these websites, and others like them, are online hubs for what is best described as the emerging "freelance services industries." The service providers you find through these websites are most certainly freelancers, not established corporate business owners or employees of other peoples' companies. Uber.Com, a San Francisco-based venture that matches people who need a ride from one end of a city to another with people who have cars and are willing to travel, is perhaps the most high profile of these entities.Visit the...

Have you noticed that in most science fiction movies the aliens are almost always biological entities – often obsessed with eating us or sucking our blood or possessing us or at least conquering us.That’ extremely unlikely. If we are ever visited by aliens they are almost certain to be mechanical. They will be intelligent robots.Biological entities evolve on planets. They depend on the atmosphere and the food sources those planets supply. When humans go into space, for example, we need to take oxygen, food and water with us. That’s one reason human space travel is so much more expensive than...

There was a time, not really all that long ago, when the local banker was a pillar of the community. A good relationship with him (and it was always a him) was essential to every business owner. Not only that, every potential homeowner had to trek down to his office in hopes of getting a mortgage. Countless workers walked into the branch every week to cash their paychecks, make deposits to a Christmas Club account and more. That world doesn’t exist anymore.... As the reality begins to sink in, the big banks will use their political clout to try and...

This original and fascinating book sets out to discover which of the ten centuries from 1000 to 2000 saw the most change in the human condition. Surely, most of us would say, it can only be the 20th century? Flying, mass motoring, space travel, advanced weapons, atomic power, telephones, radio and television, computers and iPads — what more change do you want? Ah, says the historian Ian Mortimer, history is not just a matter of inventions. More important are changes in the conditions under which we live and, above all, in the ideas that are ruling at any one time....

A new MIT study offers a way out of one of solar power's most vexing problems: the matter of efficiency, and the bare fact that much of the available sunlight in solar power schemes is wasted. The researchers appear to have found the key to perfect solar energy conversion efficiency—or at least something approaching it. It's a new material that can accept light from an very large number of angles and can withstand the very high temperatures needed for a maximally efficient scheme. Conventional solar cells, the silicon-based sheets used in most consumer-level applications, are far from perfect. Light from...

The launch of the new iPhone 6 late last month set a record for Apple, selling 10-million units in the first three days. In spite of the record-setting sales, it was not long before consumer enthusiasm for the new technology dulled with reports of alleged problems, including a potential for bending if sat on for long periods; a phenomenon quickly dubbed “Bendgate.” The release of the iPhone 6 presented another, more serious problem for a much different demographic: government snoops. Rather than continuing to be the rope in a tug-of-war between consumer privacy and warrantless government requests for consumer data,...

If you are sending a text, watching the TV or listening to the radio, you may want to stop and give this your full attention. Multi-tasking shrinks the brain, research suggests. A study found that men and women who frequently used several types of technology at the same time had less grey matter in a key part of the brain....

Scientists are using your heart as a security authenticator RECOMMENDED FOR YOU Netropolitan: Facebook For The Rich Or Respite From Snark? Besides Scotland, Where Else is Secession Possible? Speak Up: Stop Bullying I Attorney General Eric Holder I Cartoon Network by Taboola In the wake of serious security breaches in the last year, from the pilfering of Target customers’ credit card information to the celebrity iCloud selfie-hack, it’s easy to feel digitally naked. Your current best options—like making your password something along the lines of “**_^XBE47>>” or using two-step verification—also have their shortcomings, which has inspired a crop of enterprising...

In a matter of two days, history was made at Chicago's McCormick Place, as the world's first 3-D printed electric car -- named Strati, Italian for "layers"-- took its first test drive. "Less than 50 parts are in this car," said Jay Rogers from Local Motors.

Samsung Group subsidiary has worked on a robot sentry that they call the SGR-A1, and this particular robot will carry a fair amount of weapons that ought to make you think twice about crossing the borders of South Korea illegally – as it has been tested out at the demilitarized zone along the border over with its neighbor, North Korea. The SGR-A1 will be able to detect intruders with the help of machine vision (read: cameras), alongside a combination of heat and motion sensors. The whole idea of the Samsung SGR-A1 is to let this military robot sentry do the...

Speed and agility are hallmarks of the cheetah: The big predator is the fastest land animal on Earth, able to accelerate to 60 mph in just a few seconds. As it ramps up to top speed, a cheetah pumps its legs in tandem, bounding until it reaches a full gallop. Now MIT researchers have developed an algorithm for bounding that they’ve successfully implemented in a robotic cheetah — a sleek, four-legged assemblage of gears, batteries, and electric motors that weighs about as much as its feline counterpart. The team recently took the robot for a test run on MIT’s Killian...

I home school a young girl. In years past, we have gone to the local air show and done such things as measure the tops and bottom of wings and rotos and figure the ratio or difference between the area of the top of the wing versus the bottom and estimated which wings had more lift than others. We measure how much area the wheels occupied on the ground and consulted with the crew chief what the tire pressure was and calculated the weight of the plane. In years past we were able to see F18s form a vapor cone...

Conveyor Belt Sushi, Japan A dining concept that lets you pick from a wide range of one of Japan's best-known foods. NOTE: Click on the referenced link to watch the video. P.S. This technology will doom the SEIU/$15.00 minimum wage movement.