Most Commented Technology Blogs (217)

My recent trip to Dayton, Ohio has markings everywhere as reminders of the Wright brothers being the first to have a powered aircraft successfully take a man into flight. I got to see a reconstruction of their workshop, wind tunnel for airfoil testing, some of their original aircraft and videos of some of their failures and successes.
The desire they had was great, but they were by no means great designers and it took a few years of testing and retesting to get a engine powered plane to fly more than a few seconds with control.

I've started watching a few YouTube videos about their work, the secrecy as they learned others globally were attempting the same thing. They had a patent in the United States for the design, but that means nothing in Europe and other experimenters were right behind the Wrights.

The one thing I read/saw was they based some of the steering in wing bending that was evident in soaring birds. A competitor had a fixed wing and used adjustable flaps called ailerons to control the steering. Fortunately for the Wright brothers, their documented flights were the first.

Probably the smartest thing the Wright brothers did was to avoid a flapping wing design as it proved to be the biggest flop in mankind attempting to fly like a bird!

I came across this video of such disasters in the early days of manned flight.
Funny now, but I'm sure many were injured and killed in their attempts.



It's amazing how many 'test pilots' wore suits and ties.

Back when everyone started to carry a camera on them (cell phone)....the skeptics of UFOs would say, why are we not getting any pictures of them? Today, there are many pictures of them taken. Now what?

What is the next move for society?

Do we continue to just go on with life living literally in our own little bubbles.....or....our big bubble (the planet)? Or, do we now look beyond ourselves....our own species....and start to acclimate ourselves to others out there? What would that even look like?

I seen one documentary where they were saying that they want to understand their technology....harness it...and put it to use to protect our environment when it came to developing new energy. My thoughts to that was.....why?....so they can send us a bill in the mail for something that now cost them something even cheaper to make....to make a larger profit?



Perhaps if people could live free....not where government controls you....but where one can have access to the basic elements to life without being a slave to the powerful.

There seems to be some politics going on with app stores Apple and Google and their relationship with Twitter. Maybe a threat or dare if those stores no longer support the Twitter app.

Elon Musk dreams up manufacturing his own alternative phone if "...there is no other choice"

Google says there are over 200 million smartphones in America... Does Elon think introducing a new phone to support Twitter to be a viable enterprise?

What percent of America would run out and buy an "alternative" $700 MUSK phone that isn't compatible with all the existing Apple and Google apps just to run Twitter?

Elon, take a hint... offer your own app that supports Apple and Android, available via Twitter. That's got to be a viable solution as manufacturing and distribution of an entirely new product could be light years into the future!

A Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) monitors the pressure in a cars tires and should it drop below a certain safe point, an icon on the dashboard will light up. This is a warning should a tire take a nail and lose air as driving on a flat can destroy a tire, especially the ones with a low profile.

Temperature changes will make air expand and contract and 2 cold mornings in South Florida (below 50F) made the warning light come on. A few minutes of driving and the tires warmed up increasing the pressure and the warning light went off.

The pressure is probably at the low reading so I'll top off with more air later today.

I had an Aunt & Uncle from Philadelphia who pronounced battery as BAAH-tree... To me, it was funny as the BAAH was strongly accented and dragged out a little. Kinda like the sound a sheep would make.

That reminds me of the traveling salesman who came up to a house on a country road. He rang the doorbell and a young boy answered. The salesman said "Hey kid! is your mother at home?" and the boy replied "Yeah, she's in the barn making love to the sheep"
A little shocked to hear this, the salesman took a step back and asked "Isn't that bad for her health?" The boy replied "Naah-ah-ah-ah..."



Batteries are an important topic from A to Z in electronics. they are found in all devices in our modern lives. Over the years the technology has improved greatly. Maybe one day those alkaline cells that advertise a 10 year shelf life won't destroy my smoke alarm and flashlights after 2 years!

The entire aviation hobby has switched over to battery power using lithium polymer (Li-Po) batteries (from gas/alcohol engines) and electric systems give tremendous power for short periods of time. 40 years ago, my model helicopters ran on fuel with 25% nitro-methane, 20% synthetic oil and 55% methanol. Flights with a large tank were 15 minutes then. With electric, we average 6 minute flights.

The good thing is Li-Po batteries can be recharged hundreds of times if properly cared for. Don't over charge them or you risk explosion. Don't fully run down the charge as the bad thing about Li-Po batteries will lose their ability to recharge. Long term storage should be monitored so they have no loss of power when fully charged.
The chemical composition in the makeup of these batteries will break down with misuse and give off gas internally. The sealed battery will swell and not hold a charge. At that point, it's best to send them to a recycle center and replace with new ones.

I usually charge-up the night before a planned day of flying. That's 3 to 4 hours with several chargers running to have 10 batteries ready. The chargers are microprocessor controlled for voltage, amperage, internal resistance and time limit. They stop charging when the voltage reaches 4.20 as it's the maximum safe limit for lithium polymer batteries. Every 15 to 20 minutes I feel each charging battery to be sure none of them get warm while charging. That would indicate a serious internal problem.
I've heard horror stories of people leaving batteries to charge without monitoring the session and they have a fiery explosion. A young girl was charging her cellphone in bed (while sleeping) the phone was between the pillow and mattress and what would normally be a warm battery, became hot enough to burn. She was lucky it didn't ignite a fire.

So, however you pronounce battery, please be careful and not overcharge them.

Check this video out. EVs in confined spaces equate to Satan unleashed

Spot is a robotic dog by Boston Dynamics and via their choreographer software they can get spot to dance.

My work computer is rebooting... It stays online 24/7 and I only reboot when necessary.
The video refresh hasn't been right for a few weeks now and I went to the manufacturer of the video board to install new drivers.
Almost done. We shall see.

I will say the reboot process has improved since I switched to Google Chrome, as all my resources come back online after the reboot. Email, Calendar and business apps via Streak and Asana.

Rights activists, journalists and lawyers around the world have been targeted with phone malware sold to authoritarian governments by an Israeli surveillance firm, media reports say.

They are on a list of some 50,000 phone numbers of people believed to be of interest to clients of the company, NSO Group, leaked to major news outlets.

It was not clear where the list came from - or how many phones had actually been hacked.

NSO denies any wrongdoing.

It says the software is intended for use against criminals and terrorists and is made available only to military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies from countries with good human rights records.

It said the original investigation which led to the reports, by Paris-based NGO Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International, was "full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories".

But it added that it would "continue to investigate all credible claims of misuse and take appropriate action".

The allegations about use of the software, known as Pegasus, were carried on Sunday by the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde and 14 other media organizations around the world.

Pegasus infects iPhones and Android devices to enable operators to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones and cameras.

What do we know about the people targeted?
Media outlets working on the investigation said they had identified more than 1,000 people spanning over 50 countries whose numbers were on the list.

They include politicians and heads of state, business executives, activists, and several Arab royal family members. More than 180 journalists were also found to be on the list, from organizations including CNN, the New York Times and Al Jazeera.

Many of the numbers were clustered in 10 countries: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to the reports.

When contacted by the outlets involved in the investigation, spokespeople for these countries either denied that Pegasus was used or denied that they had abused their powers of surveillance.

It was not clear how many of the devices on the list had actually been targeted, but forensic analysis of 37 of the phones showed there had been "attempted and successful" hacks, the Washington Post reported.

This included people close to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in October 2018 and his body dismembered.

The investigation found that spyware was installed on his fiancée's phone days after his murder, and that his wife's phone was targeted with spyware between September 2017 and April 2018.


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