Old news is still good news: Josef Zeitler of AQWON-MOTORS has developed a hydrogen powered scooter which was presented at the ‘03 Hannover Fair in April. The scooter can travel at speeds of up to 31 mph and can be refueled by anyone safely. The hydrogen delivery system operates at low pressure so if the fuel tank is breached, the hydrogen will freeze rather than catching fire. It looks like AQWON has also developed a filling station that makes the hydrogen using solar energy. This zero emission vehicle has a sticker price of a mere 5600 €. I’m glad to see what appears to be a viable hydrogen powered vehicle coming to market. With mass production, the price will surely drop. Now if it only looked more like a Vespa…
via slashdot
- Big Apple Barbecue Block Party: Saturday and Sunday 12:00 - 18:00
- Carnival In Red Hook: Saturday and Sunday 13:00 - 18:00
- Greenwich Village Festival: 6th Avenue from 8th to 14th Streets Saturday 10:00 - 18:00
- Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibition: Sidewalks along the periphery of park Saturday and Sunday 12:00 - 19:00.
So what if the weekend forecast calls for rain? Lightning wind and rain tend to thin the crowds at outdoor events anyway. More BBQ for me!
The New York Times reports that researchers have found players of “first-person-shooter” video games to have much better visual attention skills than non players.
The article states that better visual attention skills are helpful in many different tasks such as flying, driving, radiology and airport screening. I’m willing to bet that avid gamers would also be good at shooting monsters if the opportunity ever presented itself.
The University of Calgary will be offering a course this fall titled “Computer Viruses and Malware” where the focus will apparently be on developing malicious software. Of course this is to better understand malicious software so that it can be stopped more effectively in the future.
Bill Koslosky MD, the Wireless-Doc took a walk last weekend to check out how prevalent Wi-fi access is in Manhattan. I’m glad to hear that the Verizon coverage is good. I’m not sure I’m ready to drop my cable modem so I can gain access to it just yet.
Spam has been getting loads of press lately, most recently there was news of Earthlink’s new challenge/response system, then Mailblocks announced that they are suing Earthlink for patent infringement (that is a story unto itself). What surprised me was an article I read today about the SEC suing a spammer for fraud. This made me realize that there are actually people out there that respond to this stuff. This guy sent out 9 million spam messages grossing $102,554. If people are willing to give their money away to an “investment advisor” that they must contact on a disposable cell phone, think of how many people are willing to “find out anything about anyone”, get “F-R-E-E DIRECTV” or “turn back time” when they receive an email invitation to do so.
No, Gomer Pyle is not making a cameo appearance today. Shazam Entertainment offers a unique service in the UK and Germany that allows users to dial a number and let their mobile phone listen to a few seconds of a song. Shazam will return a text message containing the title and artist. Scientific American writes about it in their June issue, they mention that the company will be offering a similar service in the States.
via Gizmodo
An unfortunate mishap left my glasses in such rough shape that not even geek tape could help them. Since it was Sunday I didn’t think my chances of seeing anything at work on Monday were very good. I went down to Eyes On Broadway (where I had purchased the frames two years ago) on the off chance that they might still carry the same frames.
No luck on finding the same frames, but they were good enough to find a set of frames that my lenses would fit into. So, I can see again. Since I was so happy with their service (again), I thought I would give them a quick plug:
Eyes on Broadway
651 Broadway (btwn Bleecker and Bond)
New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212-614-0069
Fax: 212-614-9407
After being burned a couple times this weekend, I have added a link to the MTA subway service updates page. It is updated each Friday. Does anyone have a wireless version of this?
After being involved in a taxi collision due in part to the driver paying more attention to his phone conversation than the street, I tried to remember the last time I jumped in a taxi where the driver wasn’t jabbering on the phone, I couldn’t. Luckily this was a minor crash, the cab seemed to be the only thing damaged after plowing into the back of a stopped car, but it could have been much worse. In a city where cars, trucks, bicycles and pedestrians are all competing for limited amounts of pavement, I think the “professional” drivers should refrain from the sorts of extended conversations they always seem to be involved in when I am the passenger. As a matter of fact, all drivers would probably be advised to do the same.
A study by the National Safety Counsel demonstrated that people having a conversation on a cell phone “missed twice as many simulated traffic signals as when they were not talking on the cell phone” and “took longer to react to those signals that they did detect”. This study also proved that there was almost no difference between using a hands free phone or holding the phone. This is quite interesting since it seems that all the legislation that has been enacted in this area revolves around holding the phone, hands free devices are normally considered lawful. In light of this evidence, I wonder if it actually should be against the law to talk on a mobile phone regardless of how you actually do it.
I’m no fan of over legislating things, but given the evidence of studies like the one mentioned before, should there be an outright ban on phone use by cabbies? I noticed that the taxicab rider’s bill of rights did not mention anything about this, although, you do have the right to incense free air. One cabbie that I mentioned my concerns to told me that the next time I got in a cab and the guy was using the phone, tell him to shut it off. I have not tried this yet, but I am thinking that the only outcome will be me looking for another cab after liberal amounts of shouting.
While we’re banning things, should this behavior be banned for the general public as well. Cars don’t just hit other cars and immovable objects. In congested areas they have a pretty good chance of hitting something less crash resistant than a car. Perhaps legislation should only effect drivers while they are in congested areas. After all, I think it is probably fairly safe to use your phone when you are on the open highway, it certainly seems safer than when you are in a city. Highway travel generally requires less reactionary type behavior than city driving, so I would say that the chances of talking on the phone when something happens that you must react to quickly are certainly much lower on the highway.
This also makes me wonder why people seem to be so much more distracted when talking on a phone than when talking to people that are sitting in the car with them. Think about it, most automobiles have more than just a driver’s seat, and sometimes there are actually others riding with the driver, many times they actually talk to each other. Has anyone done a study on collisions that might have been prevented if the driver and passenger had not been carrying on a conversation? Maybe talking while the vehicle is in motion should be prohibited as well. Perhaps it isn’t as much of an issue since when conversations take place among people in cars, all of the occupants are in the same situation. They all have some skin in the game so to speak. They know that distracting the driver enough might land them in the hospital. Cell phone conversations aren’t really the same thing. Unless of course both participants are in the same vehicle, but that’s another story altogether. The person at the other end of the phone generally has no idea about the current driving conditions so they really are in to position to say “Look out!” or “Watch the road!” or “You’re a crappy driver!”.
So, what to do about these talkative taxicab drivers? Maybe the next time I am in the back of a cab and the driver is arguing with his girlfriend, I’ll kindly tell him to hang up the phone. After he dumps me on the side of the road, I can lodge a complaint with the TLC. All joking aside, if you have been involved in some sort of incident in a NYC taxi that you feel should be reported, by all means let the TLC know about it, you can even use their online complaint form.