David Lidsky's Blog, page 4690

LEDs: The Bright Bulb Revolution

The soft glow of a burning-hot wire in an incandescent lightbulb, and the bluish tinge from the screaming electrical plasma storm in a fluorescent tube may soon become largely things of the past. LED lighting has arrived to beat them both.

Ever since British inventor Humphry Davy passed current through a platinum strip in 1802, electrical lighting based on incandescent technology in vacuum-sealed glass bulbs has lighted up our lives. Edison didn't invent the things, despite what you may have...

HTC's Evo 4G: Everything You Like About This Smartphone Costs Extra

HTC's Evo 4G is certainly the most exciting phone since the Google Nexus One, and could actually prove more important to Android and the smartphone industry as a whole. It's got amazing hardware and software, sure: a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, HTC's Sense UI over Android 2.1, two cameras (an 8 MP on the back and a 1.3 MP on the front for video chat), Adobe Flash support, and a ridiculously big 4.3-inch screen that very nearly places it in the tablet category.

But it's the...

Infographic: Facebook's Labyrinthine Privacy Settings

The New York Times's new infographic (check it out in full size here) shows the complex maze of Facebook's privacy settings. I don't blame you if you get lost along the way.

Exceedingly complex controls like those Facebook offers for privacy always struggle with balance. Keep things too simple, and everyone can understand them but advanced users won't be able to tweak the settings the way they want them. That leads to Facebook making decisions for people--a dangerous system. But if you...

Judge Rules LimeWire Liable for Its Users' Rampant Copyright Infringement

[image error]I know some people, if they're like me, are thinking, "LimeWire? Didn't that go out of fashion years ago in favor of BitTorrent?" Turns out the courts don't let possible copyright offenders sneak out of the limelight (bam! Welcome to PunTown, population all of us!) as fast as fickle music sharers do. According to Ars Technica, a judge just granted summary judgment in agreement with the RIAA, which according to my extensive legal experience (read: Google University, with a minor in Wikipedia...

BP Releases Videos of Main Gulf Oil Leak, Underwater Dome

Up until now, the story of the Gulf Oil Spill has mostly told through pictures and harrowing stories. But after weeks of delaying the inevitable, BP has relented and posted video of the main leak (hat tip, Kevin Grandia). The oil company even kicked in a suspenseful clip of the giant containment dome being lowered onto the site.

The videos don't tell us much that we don't already know. Scientists can't predict how much oil is coming out of the well from the first clip and we learned that the...

Fast Company's Gulf Oil Spill Scorecard

Members of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), a domestic offshore energy industry group, want to help out with the Gulf oil spill for obvious reasons--it makes them look good and it helps ensure industry survival. But some members are doing more to help than others. Below, we take a look at who's doing what in the scramble to clean up the Gulf.

ExxonMobil

Overview: $19 billion in profits last year, largest publicly traded integrated petroleum and natural gas company

Oil Spill...

YouTube Introduces Unlisted Videos for Private--But Not Too Private--Uploaders

YouTube's got a few different types of videos: Public, which is 100% viewable, showing up in search results, your own channel, and in the Browse section; and Private, which requires an invite and a YouTube account to view, and can only be shared with up to 25 different people. The recently announced Unlisted is somewhere in between.

An Unlisted video is unlikely to be stumbled upon, but has fewer limits than a Private video. It won't be listed in the Browse section or on your own channel, nor...

SVA Student's "Spoonful" Project Helps People Eat Local, Seasonal Foods

We all know that the responsible thing to do for the planet is eat local foods which are sustainably produced and purchased only in the season in which they actually grow. But most would-be chefs get discouraged when the only thing popping up a the farmers market during those dull winter months are endless bundles of seemlingly boring Swiss chard. Carli Pierce, a student in the School of Visual Arts Designer as Author MFA program, created a project named Spoonful, which not only helps...

Hidden Chemicals in Hannah Montana, Britney Spears, J.Lo Scents Could Be Hazardous to Your Health

Forget secondhand smoke--the Environmental Working Group thinks we should be worried about "secondhand scents" from perfumes containing hidden chemicals. A report from the EWG claims that best-selling fragrances like Chanel Coco, Britney Spears Curious, and Old Spice After Hours Body Spray contain a number of unlisted chemicals, many of which are associated with hormone disruption and allergic reactions.

The EWG's analysis came up with the following results:

Fourteen secret chemicals not l...

Gates Foundation Funds Insecticide-Treated Scarves, Reversible Male Contraceptives

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is known for funding innovative projects. The latest round of 78 grants doesn't disappoint, with recipients across 18 countries and six continents receiving $100,000 apiece for inventions that prevent and diagnose infectious disease and promote family health. It's hard to pick favorites, but we think you'll agree that the projects listed below are unique, to say the least.

Ultrasound as a reversible male contraceptive: James Tsuruta and
Paul Dayton of...