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Archive for May, 2009

Artifacts From the Future: Chewing Gum

May 29, 2009 Multimedia

Click on the thumbnails below for a closer look at gum from 2017.

We’ll continue to create a new artifact from the future in each upcoming issue of Wired magazine, but we’d like to see your prognostications, too. What do you think our world will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years? Each month, we’ll propose a scenario and ask for your help. Sketch out your vision, then return here to upload your ideas, see other submissions, and vote for your favorites. Check out this month’s challenge.

The concept for this Found page came from creative director Scott Dadich. Contributing Wired magazine designer Walter Baumann, contributor Steven Leckart, deputy photo editor Anna Goldman Alexander, senior editor Chris Baker, associate editor Catherine DiBenedetto, and production director Jeff Lysgaard helped create the image. Kudos go to readers BigFatChronic, jgombarcik, PRXstimulus, and Sparkus, who contributed to this Found Photoshop contest.

Photo: Daniel Salo; Face: Getty Images

We imagine that Altoids® will branch out from its “Curiously Strong” line to create “Curiously Smart” chewing gum that temporarily boosts your intelligence.

Incredibly sour gums are all the rage today. In this Found, we predict that the gum of the future will be incredibly hot — so hot it’ll blow your mind.

The product’s slogan plays on a line borrowed from Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben (“With great power comes great responsibility”).

The gum is packed with stimulants that increase cognitive output. Aderall enhances concentration, and modafinil improves focus, pattern recognition, and short-term memory. RTX-451 adds the spice. We imagine it to be a milder derivative of the ultra-fiery chemical resiniferatoxin. (Pure RTX is 4 million times hotter than a jalapeño!)

Curiously Smart gum super charges your brain. But once it wears off, you’re back to your normal self.

The gum’s pungency can cause anything from sweating to hearing loss. But it’s the neuroenhancers that cause side effects like brain hemorrhaging and Tourette’s-like symptoms.

Due to the drugs and the heat, minors will need adult supervision to chew Cherrybellum Explosion.

Tags: moved-temporarily, Multimedia, temporarily

Gallery: Oddities From NASA’s Massive Image Archive

May 28, 2009 Multimedia

NASA probably has one of the biggest, most impressive collections of photo images on Earth. Its archive is full of the expected — shuttle launches, space walks and celestial objects — that never fail to inspire awe.

But while browsing this photographic buffet, the Wired.com photo desk uncovered some other nuggets, too, strange and often amusing images that inspire smiles, if not awe.
From jet-shoes to astronaut food, we’ve chosen some of the best or you.

Left: The sombrero-topped hombres picture here are the Apollo 11 astronauts being swarmed by thousands at a 1969 parade in Mexico City during the world tour that followed their trip to the moon. The tour was meant to show the United States’ willingness to share its space knowledge, and its space heroes. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins visited 27 cities in 24 countries in 45 days.

NASA has long been at the forefront of technology, even as far back as 1947, before it was NASA. Here’s how things looked at the Langley Research Center in Virginia, where women performed mathematical computations for the male staff.

This impressive looking projectile leaving its hangar at Michoud Air Force Base in New Orleans in 1977 was the first external tank for the space shuttle. If nothing else, it proved NASA need not feel ashamed in the boys’ room of the global space community. It contained two tanks, one for liquid hydrogen and the other for liquid oxygen.

This is what passed for dinner in the Skylab space station, circa 1970. Unappetizing as the food may appear, it was a major improvement over the fare served up to astronauts on previous missions, thanks to the all-in-one heating and serving tray. Gone were the days of squeezing liquefied food from plastic tubes. Each member of the Skylab crew could choose his preferred purees and prepare them just so.

Ham was the first chimpanzee launched into outer space. He was captured in Cameroon and eventually bought by the U.S. Air Force. He was the cream of the crop of 40 potential astrochimps. On his 16-minute flight in a Mercury capsule, he proved that astronauts would be able to perform tasks in space by pressing levers nearly as quickly as he could on Earth. After his flight, Ham retired and lived for 17 more years at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and then later at the North Carolina Zoo. He died in 1983 at age 26, which is relatively young. Chimps average 45 years in the wild and can live more than 50 years in captivity. Ham is shown here in a fetching space suit in 1961 at Kennedy Space Center.

The guy in this photo is using jet shoes to propel himself around in a wheeled apparatus to mimic the zero-gravity conditions of a spacewalk. A description of the contraption was presented at an engineering conference in 1966: “Called OMPRA (One-Man Propulsion Research Apparatus), the device will provide a gimbals system for rotational freedom, a quick response vertical servo for this translational freedom … and a versatile maneuvering unit.” The photo was taken in 1967 at Langley Research Center in Virginia.

No, it’s not Lawrence of Arabia’s troop of bodyguards. The seven original Mercury astronauts used parachute pieces to make hats and clothes during a 1960 training exercise in the Nevada desert. The idea was to prepare the men to survive in the event of an emergency landing in the wilderness. Pictured here, from left to right, at Stead Air Force Base: Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald Slayton.

The Apollo 11 astronauts peer out from an odd-looking mobile quarantine facility aboard the USS Hornet as President Richard Nixon gives them a verbal high-five for their successful moon landing. Pictured from left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

The Launch Control Room at Cape Canaveral teems with identically clad NASA flight controllers and engineers in this 1965 image. The object of all the concerned faces seen here was SA-8, the first NASA mission to launch at night. The Pegasus II satellite, designed to detect micrometeoroids (tiny space bits that could potentially damage spacecraft), was successfully deployed.

This transformer-esque contraption was the NASA 952 Lunar Landing Training Vehicle, seen here in front of a wind tunnel at Langley Research Center in 1969. A sister vehicle crashed at Ellington Field in Texas and this thing never went operational. The surviving vehicle is now on exhibit at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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Tags: moved-temporarily, Multimedia, Technology, temporarily

ZIP RAR ACE Password Recovery 1.80.01 (Windows)

May 27, 2009 Uncategorized

ZIP RAR ACE Password Recovery is a program to recover lost or forgotten passwords on ZIP, RAR and ACE archives. Key Features: Unlimited Password Length; RAR 2.0 and 3.0; RAR archives with encrypted Filenames Support; Multi-volume RAR archives; ZIP Archives Support; ACE Archives Support; SFX Archives Support; Brute-Force attack; Mask attack (with custom mask character); Dictionary attack; User-defined charset; Autosave feature. Auto Update.

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ZIP RAR ACE Password Recovery 1.80.01 (Windows)

Maker Faire 2009: Tech-Savvy Lego Maniacs Assemble a Plastic World

May 27, 2009 News

Colorful plastic bricks taught software architect Mark Warren the fundamentals of construction when he was a child, giving him an early start on building a skill set that became his career.

“There’s a precision about Legos and how all the pieces fit together,” said Warren (left), who prolongs his childhood hobby by participating in the Bay Area Lego Users Group (BayLUG). “It’s like writing in a different language — creativity with a constraint.”

BayLUG, which boasts over 100 members, meets monthly to celebrate its lifelong love for Lego. At their meetings, members share and collaborate on their projects, some of which take anywhere from a few days to an entire year to assemble.

BayLUG will display an entire city constructed of Legos at this weekend’s Maker Faire in San Mateo. The exhibit, with individual members responsible for building a single city block, will measure about 2,000 square feet — a ton of Legos. BayLUG’s Lego city will be one of more than 500 exhibits of do-it-yourself technology, hacks, mods and just plain strange hobby projects at the fair, which drew more than 65,000 attendees last year.

Nearly 80 years old, Lego construction toys were invented by carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, who coined the name by combining the Danish words “Leg” and “Godt,” meaning “play well.” (In Latin, the words coincidentally translate as “I put together.”) He started the Lego Group in 1932, which became Lego in 1934. The small toy company’s first Lego blocks were constructed of wood, which evolved into plastic, interlocking bricks in 1940. Today, Lego is the world’s fifth-largest toy manufacturer, according to the company.

Given the construction-oriented essence of Lego toys, it’s only natural that the majority of BayLUG members hold positions in the tech industry, ranging from software development to electrical engineering. Bruce Chamberlain (left) was formerly an engineer at Apple, and he’s applying his skills to a 500-square-foot Lego train layout, which will circle the group’s plastic city.

Within the city will be an entire amusement park, featuring a parade, a Ferris wheel, carnival games and even a haunted house (below). Stephanie Schuller, who works in Yahoo’s cloud computing division, is building this section. She, too, has been building with Legos her entire life.

“Something I love about building with Legos as an adult is you can build much more complicated things [than when you were a kid],” Schuller said. “Plus, with Legos as an adult, you can afford more.”

At the Lego carnival, you’ll even see a variety of “costumed” individuals. Since when were Chewie and Darth Vadar cool enough to grab lunch?

Another part of the group’s Lego city will include a campground, where software engineer and BayLUG president Bill Ward (above) will be showing off his Lego RV (below) among other vehicles. What’s special about his RV? It’s actually a deluxe motor home with a fully detailed interior featuring two bathrooms and a kitchen. It’s even got a diesel motor and pump-out stations for the holding tank.

“I’ve always wanted to make a justification to buy one of these things, but for now I can dream,” Ward said.

One of the biggest spectacles in the city will be automotive engineer Johannes Van Galen’s 15-story skyscraper. Looks fancy enough to belong in the Financial District, doesn’t it?

Electrical engineer David Wegmuller’s gigantic Lego crane will certainly prove eye-catching. The model uses Lego motors to lift objects weighing up to 5 pounds.

Enjoy opera? Paul Sinasohn, an Oracle instructional software designer, will be setting up a Lego stage depicting a dress rehearsal for HMS Pinafore, Gilbert and Sullivan’s famous comic opera. Sinasohn’s attention to detail borders on neurotic: He custom-painted the characters’ costumes and faces to make them one of a kind. The princess above is a fine example.

Gallery: Trekker Recreates Classic Star Trek With Legos

Gallery: Lego Tableaus Recreate Classic Photos

Tags: moved-temporarily, Multimedia, Technology, temporarily

Gallery: On the Road With the Aston Martin DB9 Volante

May 22, 2009 News

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Saying an Aston Martin is just another car is like saying the Louvre is just another museum. For the better part of 100 years, the British automaker has been producing vehicles that are not only saturated with British opulence (each car is assembled by hand), but offer top-drawer performance (Astons routinely compete in axle-busting marathons like Le Mans — a race they won in 2007 and 2008 with a vehicle based on a DB9). So, when Aston offered Wired.com some quality time in its new DB9 Volante, we wiped off the drool and went for a ride. Sure enough, the rush from the road test proved to be more breathtaking than a punctured lung.

The DB9 receives its bountiful thrust from a hand-crafted 5.9 liter V-12 engine that puts down 470 horsepower. This power plant delivers 443 pound-feet of torque to the crank and sends the car gliding down the road to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds. (We clocked it.)

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Everything about the DB9 hemorrhages luxury, even the starter key. The 3-inch long hunk of glass, metal and plastic fits into a slot at the top of the dashboard. Once inserted, you press the key a quarter of an inch and the engine erupts like a volcanic event in the Indonesian archipelago.

The buttons flanking the ignition? Those control the 6-speed automatic transmission. At first it felt a bit odd to flick a button to throw the car into reverse but after a while it became second nature — and actually pretty fun to change gears with controls that feel like they were purloined from a fancy arcade machine.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The paddle shifters are indispensable when you’re zipping through corners on desolate country roads. It’s a blast to drop down to second gear right before a 45-degree turn and then gun through it in third. But if you’re not in the mood to dabble in paddles, switch the car to Sport mode and the tranny will rev higher before upshifting.

Satellite navigation is standard, as is integrated Bluetooth and a 700-watt audio system. The sound system is excellent, with heavy bass and good separation at mid levels — even when riding with the top down. Starting this month, a 1,000-watt Bang and Olufsen stereo system is available on the DB9 as a $7,000 upgrade.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

All DB9 Volantes come standard as ragtops. Our DB9’s softy folded down in less than 30 seconds, and with the roof up, road noise is nearly nonexistent.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

When revved hard, the DB9 produces a bellow like an irritated grizzly bear. Fuel economy, as you might suspect, is also bearish. Aston claims 12 mpg city and 19 mpg highway, but we got about 10 mpg in the city and 16 mpg on the highway.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

You don’t walk onto the lot and haggle over DB9 trim lines. Rather, you tell a dealer exactly what you want in your Aston: Everything, from the wood accents (an extremely rare option for any car) to the stitching in the seats to the color of the paint, is built to your specs at Aston’s newest manufacturing plant in Gaydon, England. From inception to delivery, each DB9 takes roughly six months to be produced.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Luxury sports cars typically don’t offer a ton of options. One of the few extras Aston makes available on the DB9 are these 20-spoke, 19-inch alloy wheels, which will cost you nearly $1,600 extra. They won’t add any extra performance to your Aston, but we think they look pretty damn cool.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The hand-stitched leather seats of the DB9 are in a 2+2 configuration — there’s no room for a middle passenger in the rear because a subwoofer is taking up that space. It’s also extremely hard to fit anything larger than a sack of groceries back there. Aston reports this supertight rear seat is inherited from the DB7 (predecessor to the DB9), which was offered as both 2+2 coupes and 2-seat roadsters. For some reason (an insurance dodge?) Aston buyers almost always opted for the 2+2. Result? The DB9 always comes with room for four.

Tags: moved-temporarily, Multimedia, News, temporarily

New eMachines desktops: Small in size and price

May 20, 2009 News

New models just announced by eMachines, the budget desktop brand, emphasize size (as in small), style (as in sleek), and price (as in really low).

Sure, the new offerings cut back in power, but for many households it’s possible that a system with 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, and a low-power AMD Athlon processor is sufficient—especially if it costs only $398 with a 20-inch LCD, as does the new EL1300G-02w desktop.

The company claims the EL1300G-02w is one-third the size of a regular desktop. And it comes loaded with Windows XP instead of Vista.

Want to save another hundred bucks? The EL1300G-01w costs just $298, about $30 more than the Compaq nettop in our Ratings. This eMachines system uses the same Athlon as the EL1300G-02w, while the Compaq uses an Atom processor typically used in netbooks and nettops. The EL1300G-01w has 2GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows Vista Home Basic. It does not include a monitor.

We’ll be testing the EL1300G-01w soon; we’ll let you know how it stacks up. —Donna Tapellini

Tags: computers, computers and internet, desktop

Pentax joins ranks of SLRs that shoot video

May 20, 2009 Technology

Pentax K-7 digital SLR (Click image to enlarge.)

Canon and Nikon will no longer be alone as the only camera companies making SLRs that can shoot video. Pentax today announced the K-7, a 14.6-megapixel SLR that, in addition to shooting high-resolution still images, will be able to capture video. The video format will be 720p at 30 frames per second.

The K-7 will be available in July (an exact date was not announced) and will retail at $1,300 for the camera body only. That's pricier than two video-capable competitors—the Nikon D5000 and Canon Rebel T1i are both priced under $1,000—but less than the Canon 5D Mark II, which retails at $2,700.

Here's what's most noteworthy about the new Pentax:

It's one of the first SLRs I've seen with an HDR (or high dynamic range) image-capture mode, which captures three images then combines them in-camera into one composite image. The intent is to expand the dynamic range of images and bring out detail in all areas of an exposure. It will be interesting to see if other SLR makers follow suit and start including HDR controls on their cameras.
It has a 3-inch live view LCD.
It's somewhat more compact than previous Pentax SLRs.
It offers in-camera lens-correction function, which electronically adjusts for various types of distortion and aberrations.

The Pentax K-7 D-SLR is expected to retail for $1,300 (body only) in July. (Click image to enlarge.)

Here's what else Pentax says you'll get; most of these features are now fairly common on SLRs:

5 frames-per-second burst mode capability.
Image stabilization that's body-based, and so should work with any lens.
A dust-reduction system for keeping debris off the sensor.
An HDMI output for viewing pictures and video on HDTVs.
Eleven points of autofocus.

Also, Pentax has announced two new weather-resistant SLR lenses: DA 18-55mm, $200 and DA 50-200mm, $250, also available sometime in July.

The K-7 might seem to suggest that video capability has become a standard feature for any new SLR. Not quite the case, it seems, since Sony just announced several new SLRs that will not capture video. (They are, however, relatively inexpensive.)

I'll have more soon on how SLRs, both current and upcoming, stack up on video specs—and address how those specs may, or may not, necessarily align with actual video performance. —Terry Sullivan

Tags: digital cameras, News, Photography, video

I’m in love with my DVR

May 20, 2009 Technology

Photo: apdk/Flickr

Please don’t tell me whether Jack Shephard blew up the island, or whether Jack Bauer lives to fight another day. I haven’t watched the season finales of Lost and 24 yet—they’re on my DVR.

I’m saving my two favorite shows for an evening when I can kick back and revel in them. I want to watch them at my convenience, not the network’s, so I’m not rushing in from work, dealing with a sick dog, or debating the merits of zoysia grass versus tall fescue with the landscaper.

Another reason I prefer to watch a recording is that I can fast-forward through each 2-hour program in about an hour and a half (sorry about that, advertisers, but I swear it doesn’t affect my decision about which toilet-bowl cleaner to buy). I also make ample use of pause and rewind (a godsend for deciphering Jack’s mumbled threats or simply replaying a scene to get a slow-mo look at the Smoke Monster).

Other things I love: It’s incredibly easy to use—in fact, it’s hands-down the most intuitive tech product I’ve encountered. Many folks say TiVo is even better than the Scientific Atlanta model I rent from my cable company, but I found it easier to go the rental route and get a recorder integrated with my set-top cable box.

It’s also brain-dead simple to record a whole season of a series (just choose “Record all first-run episodes on this channel” option), and I’m blown away by the ability to record two new programs while watching a previous recording. Plenty of other consumers evidently agree with me—about one-third of households in Nielsen’s People Meter Panel have a DVR, and the research firm says this device is “changing the TV landscape.”

I’d agree. I half-jokingly tell friends that the DVR has changed my life—I know that sounds pathetic, but my defense is that watching TV is part of my job covering TVs and services for Consumer Reports.

It’s not that I’m new to recording. I was quite expert at recording on a VCR, if I do say so myself, but even so, I was constantly juggling tapes, accidentally recording over something I hadn’t watched, or losing the last episode of a six-part series on Masterpiece Theater. And it killed me to settle for a low-quality standard-def VCR recording when the original was in glorious HD. The day I ditched all my old videotapes was a happy one.

True, I don’t relish forking over $10 a month to the cable company for the DVR service, but I consider it money well-spent. In fact, if I ever have to flee the house at 4 a.m., I’m going to grab the DVR as I head for the door. I’d take my plasma TV if I could, but I can’t quite get my arms around it.

I can’t say much about DVD recorders because I skipped right from the VCR to a DVR. DVD recorders offer a middle ground in convenience and quality, and the advantage there is that capacity is unlimited. With a hard drive, I occasionally have to purge some unwatched recordings to free up space for something else. Or when I’m nearing the limit, I’ll record a show in standard-def, because it takes up about one-third as much space as its high-def counterpart. There’s a way around that: I’m deciding whether to buy an add-on drive for my DVR or a DVD recorder for off-loading some of my archived programming, like the entire season of Monk.

Have you made the move to a DVR yet? Do you think you will? If not, why not? —Eileen McCooey

Tags: camcorders, dvr, video

Digitope 1.0 (Windows)

May 20, 2009 Free Downloads

The Digitope multimedia toolkit includes five applications for working with pictures, music and icons. Record cassette tapes to CD and MP3 with Media Digitalizer.

To download go here:
Digitope 1.0 (Windows)

Tags: Multimedia, Technology, webcasts

GoMail Standard Edition 2.7.3416 (Windows)

May 20, 2009 Internet

Fast mass email engine for your email marketing needs. It can send over 100,000 e-mails under 5 minutes using up to 150 threads. GoMail operates from Microsoft Outlook2000/2002/2003/2007 as an add-on component.

Go here to learn more:
GoMail Standard Edition 2.7.3416 (Windows)

Tags: executeit, Photography, Technology, Whitepapers