Category Archives: Technology, science, and math

No doubt NASA administrator Mike Griffin wishes that the tale of a diaper-wearing astronaut who drove to Florida with black gloves, a wig, a BB pistol and ammunition, pepper spray, a 2-pound drilling hammer, rubber tubing, plastic garbage bags, an … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The future of the city’s ambitious wi-fi plan is questionable right now. From a Chron story by Carrie Feibel: Following months of delay, an ambitious plan to blanket Houston with wireless Internet signals now is in serious jeopardy. The city’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

All things considered, I’d have to say that this counts as pretty good news. For now, anyway. Should “intelligent design” – the cousin of creationism – be taught in science classes in Texas alongside evolution? A solid majority of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Looks like EarthLink might be getting some cold feet over the WiFi deal they’ve inked with the City of Houston. Months after the City Council approved a contract to allow EarthLink Inc. to blanket Houston with a wireless network, the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Today’s the day that the city of Corpus Christi celebrates the end of its citywide WiFi installation. The city’s wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, network was sold in March to EarthLink for $5.5 million and an additional $340,000 during the first … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A comprehensive study of electronic voting machines used in California has exposed some security weaknesses in machines used here in Houston. The tests, administered by the University of California at Davis, found that absent tighter procedures, hackers could alter vote … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The switch is on, but not all newly Comcasted users are happy about the experience. Tony Speller, Comcast senior vice president, said less than 1 percent of the 750,000 Comcast customers in the Houston area have experienced problems during the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The switch is going on, and they say it’s going smoothly. Which I suppose they would, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong. About 75 percent of Comcast’s Internet and e-mail customers in the Houston area have been switched from the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I suppose this makes sense, even if it is something I’d rather have remained ignorant about. Listen to an iPod during a storm and you may get more than electrifying tunes. A Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Nor will I be getting one any time soon. I like whizzy gadgets as much as the next guy, but at some point, one must say “Get a life!” AT&T’s Dan Feldstein says 80 percent of the store managers in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There’s good news and not-so-good news in this story on Philadelphia’s experience with municipal WiFi as provided by EarthLink. Testing by the Houston Chronicle and a private consulting company show that the first phase of Philadelphia’s project works — most … Continue reading → Continue reading →

That’s too bad. Plans to build what would have been the nation’s largest offshore wind farm in South Texas have been called off because the multibillion-dollar project didn’t make economic sense, the developer said Monday. John Calaway, chief development officer … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Wireless phones. Wireless networking. Wireless electricity. Had to happen sooner or later, right? Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers announced last week they had made a 60-watt light bulb glow by sending it energy wirelessly, potentially previewing a future in which … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’ve been dealing with a dead high-speed Net connection all day today, so this strikes a chord with me. Comcast Corp. is taking steps to improve customer service — long a point of criticism for the cable industry — as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’d recommend that you read Grist’s How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic page, but be warned that the weight of evidence they bring is depressing. File it away for future reference in any event, as you’ll be sure to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Dwight pays another visit to Corpus Christi, and says their WiFi installation is much better than it was the last time he was there. Yes, EarthLink is their provider, so that’s very good to hear. Check it out. Continue reading →

Good news for EarthLink, our city WiFi provider. EarthLink, the Internet Service Provider that has contracted to build a wireless network in Houston, today cleared a major hurdle in Philadelphia, where it has begun building another of the nation’s largest … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Dwight notes that EarthLink is rethinking its municipal WiFi commitment. Following a quarter in which it posted a loss of $29.96 million broadband provider EarthLink said it is reviewing four of its Wi-Fi deployments in Philadelphia, Anaheim, Milpitas and New … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I have four things to say about this story about the ten-year anniversary of the invention of the camera phone: “It’s had a massive impact because it’s just so convenient,” said Philippe Kahn, a tech industry maverick whose other pioneering … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Where can I get some? Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films. A mineral found by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As you know, I grew up in New York City. I experienced a number of culture shocks in coming down to Texas as a college student, but one of the more vivid ones was during my sophomore year, when I … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Thankfully, yesterday’s unpleasantness turned out to be not so bad. One of our servers hadn’t reconnected after RIM’s switchover at their network operations center, so we had to reboot it. As noted in my comment at Dwight’s place, we had … Continue reading → Continue reading →

We’ve seen the 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time, and we’ve seen the 50 Best Tech Products of All Time. What else is there? Well, there’s the 20 Most Annoying Tech Products: Unlike PC World’s 25 Worst Products of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

RIM says it has Blackberry outage Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) said on Wednesday its Blackberry mobile e-mail network had an interruption, and gave no time frame for restoring service. “We are currently experiencing a service interruption that is causing … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I don’t actually have a problem with the ban on cellphone use on airplanes. Like any normal person, I’d rather not have to overhear however many one-sided conversations – it’d be a smorgasbord of TMI, which (let’s face it), we … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There’s a lot of “coulds” in this story about how the city of Houston hopes to integrate its new WiFi network into existing functions, but there’s some meat to it as well: Richard Lewis, the city’s director of information technology, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Last year, PCWorld gave us the 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. Proving perhaps that there’s more good than bad in the world, they now give us (via Dwight) the 50 Best Tech Products of All Time. Looking through … Continue reading → Continue reading →

What would the world be like if that asteroid of 65 million years ago had missed? Here’s one possible scenario. Nothing like a little alternative paleontology for a Friday morning, right? Feel free to make whatever dinosaur jokes you can’t … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Sad to see the two big iconic Texas ranches locked in such combat over wind turbines, but that’s the 21st century for you, I suppose. Based on what I now know, I’d have to award the debate so far to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I got some good comments to this post about wind farms, specifically addressing the issue of danger to birds. From that, I gather that the peril is fairly small. I particularly like this quote from John Flicker of the Audubon … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This article on the dynamics behind wind farms was interesting but a little unsatisfying. I got some good information out of it, but I think it needed some more to really finish the job. Though embraced by state political leaders … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Are you one of those people who always runs a little late? Do you set your clock ahead a few minutes in an effort to be on time, only to be thwarted because you mentally adjust for the fact that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Houston is going to be the center of some lightning research. With its proximity to a nearly endless supply of warm, humid coastal air that breeds thunderstorms, Houston attracts more lightning than any part of Texas, with an average of … Continue reading → Continue reading →