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| Notice: GeekPress is back up and running, thanks to Paul! It's still a not-so-serious tech news blog, but the format is significantly looser. Diana, having given up programming for philosophy, has her own philosophical blog NoodleFood. More of her work can be found at DianaHsieh.com. |
| Trailer homes now hot in Silicon Valley |
| 1:28:04 am mst / 11 February 2001 found by paul / filed in culture / source San Jose Mercury News 78 hits / 0 comments / 1 e-mail |
| Because of skyrocketing housing prices in the Bay Area, more people are looking at trailer homes as an alternative. Sales of RV's have gone up dramatically, and waiting lists for spots at trailer parks are up to 6 months long. |
| Favorite quote -- Perhaps the only drawback is dating. "It's not a good pickup line: 'Hi. I live in a trailer.'" |
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| Robots on the battlefield |
| 10:52:03 am mst / 11 February 2001 found by paul / filed in robotics / source The Times 119 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| The British Ministry of Defence predicts that by 2030, unmanned robots will be able to replace many if not most human functions on the battlefield. |
| It's about time. How can I become an evil overlord without a legion of robotic soldiers to do my bidding? |
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| High-tech snowplows |
| 5:13:31 pm mst / 11 February 2001 found by paul / filed in inventions / source AP News 34 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Highway officials in five midwestern states are testing prototypes of new high-tech snowplows outfitted with "onboard computers, satellite dishes, ultrabright strobe lights, video cameras", as well as GPS navigation. Operators will control the snowplow blades with a joystick. Future models will have "heads-up displays similar to systems found in fighter jets", so that if visibility drops to zero during a blizzard, the "computer will project a graphic rendition of the road on the windshield using global positioning information". |
| "Welcome to Top Plow. You are the elite, the best of the best. We'll make you better." |
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| Curing vertigo with virtual reality |
| 10:34:17 pm mst / 11 February 2001 found by paul / filed in medicine / source Economist 37 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails |
| Patients who suffer from vertigo typically have abnormally slow vestibular-ocular reflexes (VOR's), which causes one's gaze to not keep up with movements of one's inner ear and head. A San Diego researcher has found a way to use virtual reality to treat these patients by immersing them in a simulated slow world where their VOR's can just barely keep up, and gradually ramping up the speed as their VOR's learn to adapt. His results, while preliminary, are encouraging. |
| I wonder if this technique can be used to speed up visual reflexes in normal humans, by acclimating them to virtual worlds where objects move faster than usual? If so, this could become a very popular training tool for athletes and martial arts combatants. |
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