Category: Columns & Opinion
Humans hit evolutionary limit – here's how SCIENCE should intervene and make man BETTER
According to some scientist, humans have stopped evolving. This means we’re not going to get any better – at least not naturally.
So I propose science steps in to make us better, seeing as Mother Nature can’t be bothered any more. Here’s how. These are the evolutionary steps scientists need to introduce to our gene pool ASAP.
1. SIDE EYES
Seeing as our ears are always in use listening to MP3s of 1980s cover versions, it’s hard to hear cars, bicycles and lorries coming toward you. I therefore suggest moving our eyes to the sides of our heads, like horses, so we’re less likely to step out in front of buses because we can’t hear them coming. You never hear about horses never get run over because they’re too busy listening to the new Oasis album to listen out for cars, do you?
2. WIDER EAR CANALS
Dunno about you, but my ear holes are never big enough to accommodate all these so-called “in ear” earphones. You know, the ones you’re supposed to ram right in. I ram them in so hard it hurts and my brain pops, yet they still fall out after three minutes when the cable snags on my shirt. I therefore suggest we evolve wider ear holes for better audio clarity and comfort “on the go”…
O'Malley's Mashup: Enhance your Twitter feed
Twitter‘s great. It’s like a secret club where people in the tech sector go to talk about the inanities of their lives… and it’s horrendously addictive. It may surprise you to learn though that Twitter can also be used for some genuinely useful things.
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Okay, that was obviously a lie. But there are many things you can do that will enhance your Twitter feed, and give it the virtual 140-character equivalent of bells and whistles. For this week’s mash-up, I’m going to go through some services that you can hook into Twitter.
VIDEO: Energy & Efficiency, Episode 2
Today, I’m looking at renewable energy sources, with this video review of a wind-up torch. Is it a good idea? Does it work? Is manual electricity generation a viable alternative to traditional plugs, bulbs and power leads? Let’s find out!
I apologise for the poor sound quality.
In summary, wind-up torches work, but require constant winding. There is an additional energy saving to be found…
VIDEO: Energy & Efficiency, episode 1
With rocketing energy prices and the pressure to be “green” in everything you do, I thought it’d be fun – and hopefully educational – to start a series of videos looking at ways we can all be more energy efficient around our homes and offices.
To kick thinks off, I take a look as the massive (white) elephant in the room – the always-on electricity sponge that is the household refrigerator. Do we really need access to cold cheese 24 hours a day? Or is it just a conspiracy by the electricity companies to keep their shareholders happy?
I hereby declare that next week is National Turn Your Fridge Off…
Sporegasm: Creationists and gamers angered but Maxis release game prototypes to quell the riots
This is three stories in one really, so I apologise in advance for the length of this post. The three things I’m about to cover are as follows: Creationists are trying to ban Spore in the USA due to its evolutionary content, video-game fans are slamming EA and refusing to buy the game due to its DRM system, and EA have released a bunch of early prototypes of different aspects of the game….
OPINION: Still searching for reasons to switch to Google Chrome
Yesterday – and this is not a joke about how sad my life is, it’s the honest-to-Betsy truth – I decided to make the switch and start using Google Chrome as my default browser.
I’d decided the night before, in fact. I was, sadly, really quite excited about the prospect of turning over a new leaf or, to update the phrase, starting a new session. Doing a fresh install of my life and switching from Firefox to Chrome.
I like Chrome. It works, it’s already imported…
OPINION: Exams haven't met the 21st Century yet
It’s easy to forget sometimes that the 21st century is now. Information is the currency that the world runs on, and is far more transferrable and globally relevant than actual cash. However, despite its focus on knowledge, the education system is hopelessly out of date. The traditional “exam” involves sitting down with a pen and some dead tree, and trying to remember when the battle of Sevastopol was. A school in Australia is trying to change that…
OPINION: No lawsuits for German P2P sharers is a good thing
Lucky Germans – a bunch of law enforcement officials in Germany have declared today that they won’t be prosecuting the vast majority of file-sharing lawsuits.
Basically, they’ve (very sensibly) decided that home users aren’t worth bothering with and will only go after P2P users that share on a “substantial, commercial” level. What level is that? I’m glad you asked. Being a German, the state prosecutor of Nort-Rhine Westphalia has defined it in very prescise terms…
OPINION: Embrace the spam
So after yesterday’s rubbish McAfee scare-mongering attempt to get us all to sign up for one of its products, us lot here at Tech Digest thought it might be good to take a look at a sample of genuine spam.
You never know, one of those lottery emails just might be the real deal. And what if, one fortunate evening, you find yourself in the company of a willing lady and could actually really do with some herbal Viagra and a winky that’s five times its original size?
Spam could be a life saver. And if nothing else, it’s always very entertaining…
Opinion: why Napster can't fail with their new DRM-free venture
Katherine Hannaford writes…
Can we call 2008 the heady days of digital music yet – can we? Can we? Sure, 2007 had its fair share of digital movers and shakers, with Radiohead pioneering the music release formula, but with today’s news that Napster is going DRM-free, surely things can only pick up in speed?
Beginning life as an illegal P2P service in 1999, it was acquired by Roxio in 2003 after numerous legal battles with the RIAA and, err, Metallica. I’m sure there’s a generation of kids who only know of Metallica as those baddies who shut down their favourite way of downloading 50 Cent.
Napster’s move to go DRM-free, and offer MP3 file formats encoded at 256kbps, has led a lot of people to draw even more comparisons between them and iTunes and Amazon. However, there’s no ignoring the facts, that iTunes currently has just EMI feeding them DRM-free tracks, and whilst Amazon, like Napster, has support from the four big record labels, it doesn’t have anywhere near the size of catalogue as Napster, who can also boast all the indie labels in addition to EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and Universal…
