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The Internet of Things…that Go Bump in the Night

May 9, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

As sci-fi and techno-horror flicks are fond pointing out, the future is chock-full of things that want to kill us. Yep, our own technological progeny want to consign us to the great bit-bucket in the sky but, hey, at least we were warned, right?

Well, sure, if we had any intention of heeding these cinematic Cassandras. Think about it: The Terminator warns us about Skynet, so what do we do? We set to work on autonomous drones. Christine frightens us with a possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury, so we get busy designing self-driving cars. It’s like we want to die.

And then there’s the Internet of Things: Trillions of everyday objects exchanging data, everywhere, all the time, with only the most basic human oversight. Can’t wait to see how that one turns out.

10 Nightmare Scenarios From the Internet of Things

Computing, Consumer, Engineering, Materials, Technology

Rethinking the Black Box: Is it Time for Cloud Storage?

April 22, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

The 2014 loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 revived a perennial argument among airline safety wonks: In the age of satellites, big data and cloud storage, why do we lock away essential flight data on a box that can go down with the plane? It wasn’t simply a question of losing the device, as nearly happened with the Air France Flight 447 crash five years earlier; it was the risk that, when we finally found it, the data we needed to understand the calamity might already have been erased.

Does the black box need a 21st-century update? And, if so, is cloud storage practical, affordable, reliable and secure enough to supplement or replace the status quo? In other words…

Should black box data be stored in the cloud?

Computing, Consumer, Engineering, Gadgets, Technology

Android Wear is Stalking You

April 9, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

The much-ballyhooed Moto 360, one of the flagship Android Wear smart watches. Photo by Chris F.

Personal assistants who know all of your business might be fine in the halls of Downton Abbey or stately Wayne Manor, but there’s something a bit unsettling about their 21st century equivalents, smart watches. Chalk it up to working-class roots or incipient techno-paranoia, but many of us balk at a networked device that tracks our every habit, secret and preference like a cybernetic Mrs. O’Brien, particularly one built by a company with a burgeoning robot army and a secretive barge flotilla. Then again, they’re kind of cool…

How Android Wear Works

Astronomy, Engineering, History, Imaging, Physics, Science, Space, Technology

Mars in a Nutshell

March 30, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Think you know everything about Mars. eh?

We live in a golden age of Mars exploration, an era of unprecedented knowledge brought to us by ingenious rovers and probes. Already we have learned that our diminutive neighbor once held water and perhaps life. Future missions will help determine where that water went and seek evidence deep beneath the surface of living creatures. One day, we might even go there ourselves. But how much have you kept up on the latest developments?

How Mars Works

Astronomy, Chemistry, Electromagnetism, Engineering, Imaging, Physics, Science, Space, Technology

To Catch a Comet

March 17, 2014 Nicholas Gerbis Leave a comment

Rosetta and Philae at their destination. Image courtesy ESA.

For a spacecraft to overtake a comet, let alone touch down and ride it sunward, requires trick-shot billiards on an astronomical scale. But that’s exactly what the ESA/NASA International Rosetta Mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is doing. Launched a decade ago aboard an Ariane 5 rocket, its loop-the-loop, gravity-slingshotting journey has juiced its speed enough to overtake the comet, which can reach speeds of up to 83,885 mph (135,000 kph), and set it up to land in November 2014. Which raises the question…

How do you land a spaceship on a comet?

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