Free Republic

An Eastman Kodak engineer named Steve Sasson invented the first digital camera back in 1975... In a Kodak blog post written in 2007, Sasson explains how it was constructed: It had a lens that we took from a used parts bin from the Super 8 movie camera production line downstairs from our little lab on the second floor in Bldg 4. On the side of our portable contraption, we shoehorned in a portable digital cassette instrumentation recorder. Add to that 16 nickel cadmium batteries, a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, an a/d converter implementation stolen...

Georgia Institute of Technology has announced a partnership with Udacity to offer an online Masters Degree in Computer Science for $7,000, down 80% from the existing cost of $40,000 for the on-campus, instructor led program. Suddenly, masters programs around the country will have to compete with Georgia Tech‘s $7,000 program, and that won’t be easy or fast in coming. The traditionally taught graduate degree in computer science at Georgia Tech is a very well regarded program that is in high demand and has very positive outcomes in terms of jobs and earnings. Georgia Tech graduates tend to do very well...

"For a country of 9.5 million people, Sweden attracts more than its fair share of venture money. According to data from the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, Swedish hi-tech firms attracted €108 million ($139 million) in venture investment in 2012, behind France (€140 million), Germany (€176 million)(..). What is the secret behind Sweden's entrepreneurial success? (..) Isn't Sweden also the great liberal heartland of Europe: a high-tax nation with a smothering welfare state, the antithesis of entrepreneurialism?

It [Memorial Day] would seem an ideal time to take a break, but our ability to unplug and relax is under assault. A three-day weekend? We can barely get through three waking hours without working, new research shows. The average smartphone user checks his or her device 150 times per day, or about once every six minutes. Meanwhile, government data from 2011 says 35 percent of us work on weekends, and those who do average five hours of labor, often without compensation—or even a thank you. The other 65 percent were probably too busy to answer surveyors' questions... "It's like...

Researchers Create New Material for Semiconductors Graphene has dazzled scientists, ever since its discovery more than a decade ago, with its unequalled electronic properties, its strength and its light weight. But one long-sought goal has proved elusive: how to engineer into graphene a property called a band gap, which would be necessary to use the material to make transistors and other electronic devices.Now, new findings by researchers at MIT are a major step toward making graphene with this coveted property. The work could also lead to revisions in some theoretical predictions in graphene physics. The new technique involves placing a...

When he was 6 weeks old, Kaiba Gionfriddo lay flat on a restaurant table, his skin turning blue. He had stopped breathing. His father, Bryan, was furiously pumping his chest, trying to get air into his son's lungs. Within 30 minutes, Kaiba was admitted to a local hospital. Doctors concluded that he had probably breathed food or liquid into his lungs and eventually released him. But two days later, it happened again. It was the beginning of an ordeal for the Youngstown, Ohio, family that continued day after agonizing day. Watch this video CNN Explains: 3-D printing Watch this video...

The parents of a U.S. engineer found dead in Singapore last year said on Wednesday they will not take part in the rest of a coroner’s inquiry into his death, which they say was linked to a project involving the transfer of sensitive technology to China. In a statement issued through their lawyers, Rick and Mary Todd said they had lost confidence in the system investigating the death of their 31-year-old son, Shane, who was found hanging in his Singapore apartment last June. The Todds did not appear in court on Wednesday, the day after a U.S. medical examiner they...

During the dot-com boom, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital investment firm, all but minted money, making prescient early investments in Netscape Communications, Amazon.com and Google and delivering astonishing returns to investors. Along the way, it became a symbol of Silicon Valley. But the firm has hit a rough patch over the last decade, frustrated by unsuccessful forays into clean technology and by a catch-up effort to take later-stage stakes in social media companies. Kleiner has held a series of status-report meetings with its outside investors this year, acknowledging that recent fund performance “wasn’t great,” one attendee said....

n a massive new research report, analysts at investment bank Citi take a close look at 10 technologies they say will disrupt the way we do business. They've dipped into practically every sector you can think of: energy, entertainment, IT, manufacturing, and transportation among them. Some of these technologies have been with us for awhile, but are poised to get better or cheaper. Others have only recently surfaced, but will be ubiquitous in a matter of years. This is what they say the future is going to look like. 1) Disruption 1: 3-D Printing Printing parts and materials practically at...

Recent claims of an excess supply of high-skilled workers in the STEM occupations of science, technology, engineering and math are at odds with anecdotal and empirical evidence. While it’s difficult to definitively conclude whether or not there is a shortage of workers in any field, publicly available government data and common sense reject the notion that there are “too many” high-tech workers in the United States. More importantly, this entire discussion misses a larger point—high-skilled employment isn’t a zero sum game where a fixed set of workers are competing for a fixed set of jobs in an economy free...

I remember many years ago there was a machine on the market that (I think) was designed to reduce second-hand smoke. You inserted a real cigarette into the small device, and the device burned the cigarette for you and caught all the smoke that didn't come through the filter. Again, I think--I never used one. Does anyone recall the name of this product? Thanks in advance, FA

Many Apple fans have dreamed of one day getting the chance to drive a car crafted by people behind the iPhone and the iPad. In fact, according to the New York Times, just before he died, Steve Jobs said he wanted to build an Apple car. Now Volkswagen hasteamed upwith the computermakerto deliver the next best thing until Apple decides to actually make its own. The vehicle is called the iBeetle, and while it doesn't look like a sleek iPhone-on-wheels, it does include a decidedly Apple-centric dashboard. Unveiled at this month's Shanghai Auto Show, the iBeetle features an embedded iPhone...

The next wave of television viewing, ironically, may more closely resemble the days of yore when home antennas dotted landscapes both urban and rural. Except this next generation antenna is no larger than a thumb drive that plugs conveniently into a tablet, smartphone or desktop computer. New technologies have always displaced older technologies much to the chagrin of the latter’s proprietors. Now comes Aereo with a mini-antenna that allows the reception of free, over-the-air broadcasts to anyone with an Internet connection and $8 a month for a subscription fee. For the time being, Aereo services are available only in New...

Dear FReepers, Wow, it's truly an amazing time to be alive. At our very fingertips we have ancient books, art and archeology. Please ping our G&G ping list for me. Enjoy your readings, Agape, STD / DrMike

The same material that formed the first primitive transistors more than 60 years ago can be modified in a new way to advance future electronics, according to a new study. Chemists at The Ohio State University have developed the technology for making a one-atom-thick sheet of germanium, and found that it conducts electrons more than ten times faster than silicon and five times faster than conventional germanium. The material's structure is closely related to that of graphene—a much-touted two-dimensional material comprised of single layers of carbon atoms. As such, graphene shows unique properties compared to its more common multilayered counterpart,...

First, I will assume that everyone here knows that your smart phone has a camera, a microphone, and a GPS system built in. Software running on the phone is capable of enabling/disabling those functions, gathering data from them and transmitting the data over wifi/cell connection to whomever wrote the software. Clearly the technology is in place for a wonderfully efficient personal espionage system. Further, we live in a culture in which normally honest people commonly break the law using technology because it’s easy to do (e.g. downloading music for free, thus stealing from artists). So: 1. I wonder if the...

Washington - The US received nearly 50,000 packages of H-1B visa applications on the very first day, a media report has said, which is reflective of the sudden surge in demand of the country's most sought after work-visas for the IT professionals. The USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services), officially, has not come out on the number of H-1B applications received by it since April 1 when it started accepting petitions for it for the fiscal 2014 beginning October 1, 2013. According to an estimate provided by FCi Federal, Virginia-based government services and technology provider, which is supplying personnel...

PASTOR: "Praise the Lord!" CONGREGATION: "Hallelujah!" PASTOR: "Can we please turn on our tablet, PC, iPad, cellphone, and Kindle Bibles to 1 Cor 13:13. And please switch on your Bluetooth to download the sermon." P-a-u-s-e......... "Now, Let us pray, committing this week into God's hands. Open your Apps, BBM, Twitter and Facebook and chat with God..." S-i-l-e-n-c-e... "As we take our Sunday tithes and offering... Please have your credit and debit cards ready." "You can log on to the church Wi-fi using the password Lord909887." Ushers circulate mobile card swipe machines among the worshipers: *Those who prefer to make electronic...

New tech industries start small but can grow into permanent, billion-dollar slices of infrastructure. Sometimes that seems to happen overnight — like with smartphones. And sometimes it takes years — like with the dumbphones that grew like mold from the mid-1990s through the late 2000s. And now, for example, the prevalence of smart mobile devices has spurred the mobile app industry, an entirely new piece of infrastructure which supports thousands of companies and billions of dollars in sales. There is a discussion going on over on Quora about which industries are poised to gain the next $1 billion. We pulled...

Silicon Valley and the GOP — together at last? That may seem like a peculiar proposition given all the public soul-searching and dirge-singing since Election Day over the digital failure of Republicans in modern campaigning. But a blast of cheerful California sunshine may be starting to light the way in the form of an underground gang of young, conservative hackers in the Valley assembling via a communal Google Document to brainstorm about what they can do to save the party from the clutches of tech-phobic leaders. “There’s this myth that there aren’t any Republicans out here who are willing to...