tvb

When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone’s lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you’re in an area with a weak … Continue reading →

Duct tape: also helps iPhone reception I’m getting a little dizzy reading the opinionating and newsitorials on Apple’s antenna problem in its newest iPhone.  The latest data point that’s being argued about is Consumer Reports’ lab test. The venerable pro-consumer … Continue reading →

So why was I sharing a picture of a roast chicken  (food source) at a Spanish restaurant in NYC (foraging spot) with Foodspotting.com (my tribe)?  I’m not getting paid for this activity, though the cost of taking the pic and … Continue reading →

It’s been a slow Friday afternoon at the end of a four day heatwave—it’s now a chilly 84° in NJ.  When my beta invitation to Atmosphir, the do-it-yourself virtual world startup, appeared in my mailbox, I decided to take the … Continue reading →

You can sense where the Internet may be heading by looking at the bandwidth policy platforms that core infrastructure vendors are offering to carriers. With equipment from Tekelec, a major networking equipment player, cable companies can monitor and allocate bandwidth … Continue reading →

Last night was my fourth NYC Tech Meetup, and I think the first time I’ve been in Manhattan in recent memory during a major heat wave. Thankfully, the electro-mechanical HVAC at Skirball worked flawlessly, far better than this new venue’s … Continue reading →

I just find this well-crafted optical illusion incredibly satisfying. It took a few replays for me to get a sense of how I’m being tricked. The design of the ramps was worked out by Japanese mathematician Kokichi Sugihara with help … Continue reading →

Image via Wikipedia Perhaps only a company of Cisco’s still considerable market heft can foist its recently revealed Cius (pronounced “see us”) tablet on the citizens of cubeland. Many of the tech bloggers are underwhelmed and ask the question, “Why?”. … Continue reading →

WordPress just announced an interesting—let’s say somewhere between quirky and neat— addition to their hosted blog site.  You can now phone in a blog post!  With help from  Twilio’s unified communications APIs, the WordPress.com software will deposit an audio file … Continue reading →

At Internet Week in June, I got a quick look at a 3-D printer or fabricator that was being demoed by the  folks at MakerBot Industries.  Their device is one part of a larger do-it-yourself movement in which both serious inventors … Continue reading →