Miscellaneous

Until just recently, the Navy had a lot in common with your obnoxious uncle who just now discovered the Internet and has been celebrating ever since by posting Facebook updates in all capital letters. Naval messages have been sent in all caps since the 1850s, but a fresh directive has abolished the practice.

Early teletype machines that didn't have the ability to generate lowercase letters are to blame for the long-standing requirement of all-caps communications. The problem is that modern readers interpret the capitalized letters as shouting, a practice that is frowned on as rude.… Read more

They work them hard in German banks.

They make the eat, breathe, and sleep their jobs. Especially that last one.

At least that's the impression that must be gleaned from the tale of a German bank employee who fell asleep on his computer keyboard.

Oh, we've all done it. We've all woken up hours later to read that we just wrote: "CHHCHCHCHCHCCHCHCHCHCCCO."

And yet this bank employee seems to have fallen asleep during a transfer of funds.

As Agence France-Presse tells it, a court in Hessen heard that he was supposed to send 62.40 … Read more

You're sitting in the living room. You're wondering if the Mother-in-Law's Tongue growing in a pot in the back room needs to be watered. You could get up and stick your finger in the dirt, or you could check your smartphone and see what the plant's personal sensor says.

The Motes Indiegogo project offers several different flavors of remote sensors that work with iOS devices (Android and Surface coming soon). Each sensor costs $39. That price point and the variety of sensors available has attracted plenty of interest. The Motes project has already doubled its $22,000 goal with 35 days of fundraising left.… Read more

From comics without pictures to bioengineered veins, it was again a week during which we saw some very futuristic technologies come to life.

A design student in Germany created a graphic novel for the sight-impaired that tells a simple story through touch. "Life" is a simple tale told using only circles of varying textures to describe a single life cycle.

The first-ever bioengineered vein was recently implanted into the arm of a 62-year-old Virginia man with kidney disease. Cultivated from donated human cells on tubular framing to form a vessel-like shape, the replacement part performed better in preclinical … Read more

You can already buy an infrared camera, but only if you have hundreds of dollars to sink into the purchase. An inexpensive infrared-modified camera, originally developed by Public Lab to monitor damage to wetlands after the BP oil spill, is now available through Kickstarter.

The Infragram project has already handily topped its $30,000 goal and gives you several different options for obtaining a cheap infrared camera. You can do it yourself and modify your own camera for $10, buy a pre-modified bare-bones Webcam for $35, or buy a ready-to-use point-and-shoot camera for $95.… Read more

In 2012, 83 firefighters died in the line of duty in the U.S. alone, and another 37 fatalities have been reported thus far in 2013. But, with better scouting tools, these numbers could be lowered.

Thank goodness for robots.

A new one out of the University of California, San Diego, may soon help first responders survey a fiery scene with its ability to enter a burning building and immediately transmit data on the state and location of the fire, the building's structural integrity, and the presence of any volatile gases -- all while on the lookout for survivors.… Read more

Apple has filed for a trademark on the "iWatch" brand in Russia, a new report out of that country claims.

Russian newspaper Izvestia reported on Wednesday that Apple filed for the trademark with the country's patent and trademark office, Rospatent. Not surprisingly, the news has sparked more speculation on when Apple's long-rumored iWatch might finally launch.

For its part, Apple has not confirmed that it'll launch a wearable watch. However, a slew of reports over the last several months have suggested that the company is indeed working on such a device, and it will be … Read more

"We were more behaved than kids should be."

These deeply felt words were offered to CNN by just one of the 101 students asked to leave an Air Tran flight bound for Atlanta from New York on Monday.

Some might feel that kids on planes should just sit like the rest of the adult cattle in a soporific stupor. However, this incident provoked feelings that are anything but sleepy.

Please imagine, too, the bemused thoughts of those few left behind after 101 students (and 8 chaperones) from New York's Yeshiva of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School were … Read more

With all the recent advances in user interfaces and head-mounted displays, there's little reason virtual sex can't offer a truly 21st century, nearly realistic experience.

That's the sentiment behind VRSexKit.com, a set of sex simulators in the works from ThriXXX, a company that has been a leader in adapting technologies like Microsoft's Kinect for virtual-reality sex play.

Though ThriXXX was quick to figure out how to use the Kinect in virtual sex, founder Brad Abram now believes Microsoft's motion-control camera system doesn't offer a "granular enough" experience. … Read more