This patent for a pocket protector was issued to Himan C.1 Dexter on February 24, 1903, which predates Hurley Smith's famous and more celebrated "pocket shield" by a good 40 years.
Ownd?
Not exactly. Despite its appearance, Himan's invention wasn't exactly the full sheath pioneered by iconic nerd doodad creator Smith, which is probably why Dexter's got zero Goog juice. In fact, it was only an "Improvement in Pocket-Protectors." Turns out there are a handful of patents that attempted to further the functional design of shirt pockets. Some date back to the 1880s. And who knows what was being created before the rise of patents. This complicates how you'd go about identifying the one and only "pocket protector."
When we think of the "pocket-protector," Smith gets the bulk of the credit. Articles in Wikipedia, geek historian Benjamin Nugent's American Nerd and even IEEE's "History of the Pocket Protector" all neglect to mention or even footnote Dexter or any of the other pocket-science developers from the 19th century. It's like discussing the history of the automobile, and giving Henry Ford all the credit, no?2
Granted some pocket-protector aficionados do recognize those early contributions, but that's not evident online. So today, I'd like to salute Dexter, D.J. Scott (1887), W.V.S. Bastian (1890), Joseph W. Parmley (1892), Joseph D. Heffner (1899), and all the other tailors, seamstresses, and engineers who dared to push pocket function forward.
1Uneducated guess: the "C" stands for "Could-be-worse-at-least-my-surname's-not-Poindexter.-But-yeah,-you're-right.-Himan-is-kind-of-a-bummer."
2On the other hand, the most effective marketers always get the most credit. From the NYT (bold is my own):
Made possible by the same heat-sealing process used to make World War II flak jackets, the pocket protector was intended as an advertising giveaway, emblazoned with a company logo. But this simple polyvinyl chloride product evolved into something far more culturally symbolic: it became the ultimate emblem of nerdiness.
Had Dexter found a way to freely distribute mass quantities of his early pocket protector, perhaps we'd be calling the device the "Dexter."
The interface consists, essentially, of a keyboard displayed on a computer screen. "The way this works is that all the letters come up, and each one of them flashes individually," says Williams. "And what your brain does is, if you're looking at the 'R' on the screen and all the other letters are flashing, nothing happens. But when the 'R' flashes, your brain says, 'Hey, wait a minute. Something's different about what I was just paying attention to.' And you see a momentary change in brain activity."
Wilson, who used the interface to post the Twitter update, likens it to texting on a cell phone. "You have to press a button four times to get the character you want," he says of texting. "So this is kind of a slow process at first."
However, as with texting, users improve as they practice using the interface. "I've seen people do up to eight characters per minute," says Wilson.
Having a yard has been sweet surprise, like picking mushy cornbread out of my molars with my tongue. I mean, I've always liked gardening. I even like to mow the lawn. But I spent the last six years in Brooklyn, with planter boxes on concrete and gardens with more brick and glass than rocks in the soil; Saturdays the smell of grills interleaved with the winds of hot trash.
Sometimes I'd walk out into the park and pluck hookers right off the tree.
Okay, not really. Grilling and such in New York is quite a lot of fun. But I spent Saturday and the better part of Sunday at my house here in Eugene, poking around in Movable Type with Rob while tending to a pork loin that I was smoking in my new Charbroil American Gourmet Smoker, sipping a ridiculously wonderful lambic, watching Porter run around in the yard sniffing ferns, and being rejuvenated by one of the first legendarily awesome Oregon rainless spring days.
It's the first time in my adult life that I've had a yard, and I've lucked out with this one, with its blackberry bushes, bamboo stands, and flower-happy landscaping. It even had a garden pre-cut in the yard with a sprinkler outlet underneath, although I'll be damned if I can figure out how to actually turn the sprinkler on.
I'm just renting this place—I only plan on being in Eugene for a couple of years, and I don't think I could afford to buy it, besides—but even after just a few weeks I think I may be spoiled already. There's just something incredibly civilized about it all, lounging in your couple hundred square feet of nature, enjoying the grounds.
(For the record, I have no idea why the yard has a sprinkler system—in Oregon of all places—and I don't plan on running it anyway. If I wasted all that water on the yard, what would I use to wash my car in the hot tub every day?)
In Brooklyn I used an indoor stovetop smoker for years, which wasn't perfect for actual barbecue, but can produce surprisingly great meat, provided you can get the meat inside. They don't even stink up the house as much as you'd think. Within a couple of hours after using the stovetop smoker, the smell would usually have dissipated, although we didn't have carpets. I'd often smoke some pork ribs for a couple of hours on the stove, then rub them outside to grill for a few minutes and slap on some sauce. (Unlike some, I think tomato-based barbecue sauces taste best when slightly caramelized by the heat of a grill, although one should avoid any actual burning if possible.)
I lost the stovetop smoker in the break-up, though, along with the beer brewing gear*, so I needed a new grill. So on a lark we went to Jerry's, a honkin' home improvement store out by the airport, staffed by some really nice people and a few confused starlings.
What I saw there was a shock. Three aisles of "barbecue grills", most of which were gas-powered, and many of which cost over a thousand dollars. As Justin said at the last Baker Boulevard Geographic Society meeting, "Grills like that are a lifestyle choice."
Besides, gas is meant for the kitchen, not the grill. I understand it's more convenient, but it's just not the same for me, in flavor or experience. I don't even like using pressed charcoal briquettes, preferring chunk charcoal or even just wood chunks.
But really, grilling over gas or over charcoal is mostly affectation in the first place: heat is heat is heat. And none of it is actually barbecue.
Which is why I ended up buying the embarrassingly named American Gourmet, a little offset smoker than also works fine as a grill. The best thing about it: It was $100, very nearly the cheapest grill in the store. I was amazed that the grill closest to my ideal was so inexpensive, but it wasn't made of burnished metal and didn't have any infrared warming trays, either.
It's mostly just two simple black metal tubes bolted together. (And the owner does the bolting, which took me about a can of Dale's Pale Ale to get through.) The grill height can be adjusted in the smoker box simply by turning it ninety degrees—the bottom is curved, so the rectangular grill sits higher. Nothing fancy about it at all.
It does have a thermometer that sits on the top of the main chamber, just a few inches from the stovepipe. That's handy, because when you're smoking, keeping a constant temperature for a long time is important. You might only bring the smoke up to 250° (or less!), but need the internal temperature of your meat to reach, say, 180&dwg; for several hours to make sure it's properly cooked.
It works, but it's entry-level equipment. The smoker box is pretty small, making it difficult to get a constant smoke going without periodic noodling, which further affects the temperature in the main chamber. And because there's just a couple-inch lip separating the smoking chamber from the main chamber, it's easy to get ash and soot in there if you blow too hard on the coals to try to get them to hot up—which you wouldn't have to do if not for the small smoke chamber.
The metal of the smoker walls is also very thin. So thin, in fact, that when I put coals in the main chamber to grill some steaks, the metal had warped itself enough that I couldn't fully insert the cooking grills. Cooking on a slope is a pain, although the steaks still came out fine—it's hard to beat the searing heat of real hardwood briquettes. (Although lest you think I'm too far up my own ass, I think almost the best way to cook a steak is to skip the fire entirely and cook it in a cast-iron skillet.)
Worse, the thin metal means that smoke tends to leak at every loose seam, from the door to the place where the smoke chamber attaches to the main chamber. Not the end of the world, but it does make it more difficult to maintain a constant level of smoke and heat, especially since the smoke chamber is relatively small to begin with, so any wisp of smoke that isn't going over the meat feels like a waste.
That said, I'm pleased. As a grill it allows all the finesse of a public park grill, but that's fine—grilling isn't a precision art. It's a middling grill with a middling smoker attached, but until I someday muster the gumption to actually build a smoker of my own out of something sturdier, I suspect it'll do.
* Which is another story. Ask me about my shattered carboy!
Heavens to Betsy, Casual Profanity's liquid sculpture is captivating. And oh my goodness, I bet you could weave this into someone's hair. (The excellent video and music work helps, too.) [via Waxy]
Update: The music is Ratatat's "Imperials" from LP3 -- Steven
Five inches long, two inches deep and an inch and a half wide, Belkin's Mini Surge is a useful and versatile portable power strip. It's just a smidgin too big and heavy for the manbag, however, making it better in the hotel room than the coffee shop.
Readers asked us to check it out after we gave Monster Cable's Power To Go a positive writeup: it's actually a very different kettle of electrons. Whereas Monster's item is a sturdy, tiny but otherwise standard power strip, Belkin's box contains a surge protector and adds two USB power ports. It has three grounded outlets, and can swivel around the prongs to fit in tight spaces, locking at each 90 degree interval.
Sturdy and relatively easy on the eye, the Belkin Mini is $20-ish.
Porter 9-Volt is a San Francisco-based dog that sings and plays a Casio keyboard. He wrote this song, performed exclusively for YouTube, on the fly. [via Neatorama]
SquishBot is a program to develop a new class of soft, shape-changing robot. The goal is to design systems that can transform themselves from hard to soft and from soft to hard, upon command. Another goal is to create systems that change their critical dimensions by large amounts, as much as 10x. Such robots will be like soft animals that can squeeze themselves through small openings and into tight places.
Every orifice on my body just went all Dizzy Gillespie.
When I first got it, I was a little intimidated by the number of pieces in the box. Being an educational robot, I was hoping it was going to be a quick and simple setup. While the instructions are fairly easy to follow, it did take me about 5 hours from opening the box to a completed robot. Assembly requires handing many similar looking parts and lots of tiny screws. However, it is very satisfying to see the robot slowly take form as you assemble the components.
It definitely seems like a kit exclusively for the committed and talented, with spotty documentation and a price tag starting at nearly a grand.
I love these new mannequin-lamps by product designer Daniel Loves Objects!--they're made of gold-plated cast metal, come in two sizes, and are bendable and adjustable so you can have them sit in various positions in your living room. You can't buy them yet, but the Singaporean designer hopes they'll hit consumer space soon. [via Cool Hunting]
Canson's Papershow works like this: there's a pad of paper printed with a subtle patten; a ball-point pen with a tiny scanner near the tip that handles tracking, and a USB dongle that plugs into your computer. The pen talks to the dongle via Bluetooth, and software on the computer makes as perfect copy of whatever you write or draw.
It's pitched at anyone who might want to save (or project) their scribbles, and it's remarkably well-implemented. Papershow produces accurate results without adding much of a usability burden atop the classic brainstorming setup of pen and paper.
There are useful extra features, too. For example, the special paper has an icon panel, with line width options and an eraser, and palette swatches. Though it obviously can't change how the ball-point pen works, it "just works" on-screen.
There are some drawbacks. It's $200 and the pen is quite bulky. The dongle and bundled software work only under Windows. The special paper is pricey ($20 for a pad of 200 sheets, or $13 for a 48 sheet pad) and proprietary. Given the distinctive tracking grid, corporate logos and icon bar, the "hard copy" is really just an input device.
If you have a setting in mind, such as aa school classroom or creative brainstorming group, Papershow's almost a no-brainer. Digital artists might also like it, too, though the lack of color choices and painting tools will be a limitation.
That said, it lacks the generic utility that a graphics tablet brings -- or any other reason for everyday consumers to drop $200 for it.
Unlike other color e-paper examples, Bridgestone's prototype color e-paper can refresh its screen in just 0.8 seconds, making it fast enough to use with touchpen input.
The WristShot is a $200 brace for photographers that also describes the outcome it seeks to prevent. Like most of my camera equipment, I want it because it makes me look like I know what I'm doing. There's also something to said for having your camera attached to your hand, even when it's at your side. [via Red Ferret]
When I make pizza for the family, one of the pies goes on a stone but the other goes on a regular baking sheet. And guess what--it's just as good! Want to try a fun method? Bake it on an inverted cast iron pan! That works great, too!
(The other 871,246 uses are things you can cook in cast iron right-side-up.)
Update: Our own Bynk has done this and made a handy video! (Well, sort of. He's got a cast-iron Lodge sheet that is much more like a regular pan. But the same principle applies.)
Behold the new Colgate Wisp, a disposable toothbrush for on the go hygiene. They're pretty much like the travel toothbrushes available in truck stops for ages, with the toothpaste inside the handle, but in a more attractive packaging complete with case. They're $8.50 plus shipping for a pack of 16 at Drugstore.com.
It's not like toothbrushes aren't travel-sized to begin with, but I could see myself using these if I'd forgotten my brush at home. They're better than the truck stop brushes in one way: the paste inside has more fluid, making water unnecessary (unless you wanted to rinse); worse in another: they're single use.
Make these biodegradable, Colgate, and we'll talk.
Yubz Talk is an old-fashioned phone handset, available in a variety of colors, that plugs into the 1.5mm jacks found on cordless phones and some cellphones -- adapters are available for the iPhone and other models. On it is a button for answering calls, and a volume slider -- its purpose and manner of operation is otherwise obvious.
Audio quality is good and it feels well-constructed. Is it worth $40? You already know if you want it, so that's for you to decide.
That said, it'd be great fun to pull one of these out of your inside coat pocket when the cellphone rings, then carry out a loud and agitated public conversation with it. Bonus points if you get angry with the caller and start looking around for a corresponding phone cradle to slam it back onto.
Over 90 million rounds of the "green" training ammunition has been used in the United States, since its introduction. It relies on a blend of tungsten and nylon, or tungsten and tin. That gives the bullets the same density and firing properties as the original, but without using lead. Tungsten was considered non-toxic. And, besides, it was believed that it was "non-mobile", unlikely to dissolve and travel, so it wouldn't get into the groundwater. But new research by University of Arizona Research Professor of Pediatrics Mark Witten points to a different conclusion: that tungsten may elevate the risk for cancer.
NFG of the NFGForum has an interesting series of posts about aspect ratios and scanlines in pixel art from the 8- and 16-bit days, how they were shown on old CRTs, and how that affects display on modern digital displays. Not a ton of new info for veterans of the emulated game scene, but still a pleasant overview all the same.
A couple of years ago I got into a fiery argument on a forum with someone who thought he knew the 'right way' to display a video game, and all other ways were simply wrong 'cause the designers wouldn't want it that way.. He went through great lengths to add screen curvature, scanlines and even reflections of overhead lights to try and replicate the appearance of gaming on a CRT monitor.
He was obviously deranged.
In the above image, the leftmost art is from the Super NES versions, the rightmost from the arcade versions, and the middle is a representation of what the Super NES art looked like when stretched out on a typical home CRT. Not much difference! [via GameSetWatch]
Steven Berlin Johnson in the Wall Street Journalon eBooks and eReaders, which is large part another paean to the Kindle:
On another occasion, I managed to buy and download a book on a New York City subway train, during a brief two-stop stretch on an elevated platform. Amazon's early data suggest that Kindle users buy significantly more books than they did before owning the device, and it's not hard to understand why: The bookstore is now following you around wherever you go. A friend mentions a book in passing, and instead of jotting down a reminder to pick it up next time you're at Barnes & Noble, you take out the Kindle and -- voilà! -- you own it.
While I can't disagree that the wireless downloads are part of the Kindle's special magic, there's one thing that I noticed whilst sitting outside with my Kindle and pulling my fiction pud with a little Conan this weekend: The best thing about the Kindle is that it isn't a computer. It has the convenience of wireless internet, but the calm of a proper book. Sure, it has a web browser and a dictionary, but I so rarely use them because of the shoddy interface and slow refresh of the screen that I don't conceptualize the device in my head as a computer, but just a fancy book.
That's actually going to go away here soon enough, with fast, color epaper wedded to better touchscreen interfaces. I'll then have to train myself to do something herculean like turn off the wireless. But in the meantime, I enjoy having a pleasant reading device that doesn't whoop and bloop every five seconds with email and IM alerts.
Toffer writes: "My wife has a jewelry line (Olivia Clare Designs) in a few boutique shops in the Portland, OR area and has recently started selling her stuff on etsy. I have seen you guys post entries about interesting techy etsy items and thought you might want to take a look at her latest creation."
I like her non-robot stuff, too, which has a lovely organic art nouveau look. (Excepting the pin-up button rings, which I also like!)
That's designer Ross Lovegrove, contemplating whether or not a white senatorial robe is appropriate attire in which to fuck a sink. (It's interesting that padded walls now come in 'marble'.) [via Core77]
Fun fact: in the old days of Macs, when the faster 68020 processor came on the market, it was put in the new Mac II. When the the 68030 processor was later introduced, Apple dictated that an "X" be added to the end of the model number. So the Mac II became the 68030 Mac IIx. Well, that naming scheme worked fine until Apple decided to upgrade the SE to a 68030. I guess Apple didn't want to try and explain the Macintosh SEx.
⌦ iMac – 20-inch 2.4GHz iMac for $970, shipped from Newegg. Probably want a little more RAM in there (it just has a gig), but would be a fine mother-in-law machine. [Dealhack]
⌦ Nintendo DS Game – Master of Illusion, a DS game that teaches card tricks (and comes with its own deck of cards), is just $6, shipped, from Buy.com. The reviews were middling on Metacritic, but user ratings were 8/10. [Dealoco]
Grant Meacham has written The Sensoring Manifesto, a pithy proclamation about the fact that gadgets are just an intermediate state for something that will eventually exist inside of us:
By acquiring information as sensory input instead of a disruptive gadget, the natural senses are strengthened. The capacity of the brain can be increased, new senses added, and old senses enhanced. It has already been found that additional streams of information can be parallel processed by the brain, the user only aware of the information, not the delivery system. Not only is this possible, but it is happening right now. We are silently entering the age of sensoring, where our interaction and perception of the world will be defined by hacked and augmented senses. We are at the start of this transition, and we can choose how we will let it effect and shape our lives, but only if we are aware. Recently, technology has been advancing faster than culture, resulting in the adoption of objects without consideration of social ramifications. If the implications of sensoring are not addressed and discussed now, we will be unprepared for the future. The progression of technology is not going to slow down, and we will be expected to monitor increasing amounts and sources of information. Sensoring, augmenting and synthesizing new senses to process this data, will be the most effective way of staying connected without becoming detached from your environment.
Not a new notion, per se, but one that's always worth revisiting again and again until it is true. (And I am out of a job. Or at least "Gadgets" becomes "Genomic" in our name and each post has RNA by RSS includes.)
"Bionic solutions for efficient automation." That's the motto from Festo, who have crafted some robot penguins designs that work both underwater and in the air. For some reason the company's promotional video is not embeddable.
A self balancing, human powered, steampunk styled, Segway. All you need is a brave self balancing human. This is the ultimate green vehicle for all you eco conscious steampunkers. Is that an oxymoron? I made this out of mostly found materials. This was my first steampunk styled build. Any good suggestions on making it look better will be incorporated as long as the materials are cheap and easy to find. I have been calling it the Legway in reference to the propulsion method. Yes, I know about those Lego self balancers of the same name.
The Consumerist's article on what card skimmers look like describes the two gadgets that thieves use. First, there's an inconspicuous card reader attached to the real one, and second, a discrete camera to record your pin number:
How much does that high-tech assembly cost? You can grab it on Amazon for less than the cost of a video game!
"While the Hydrokinetic Adjustable Wrench won't let you start up your TARDIS, it will let you fiddle with twenty three different sizes of bolts and nuts"
In the mailbox this morning, we are greeted by SLT lightbulb of Shenzhen, China, which would like us to know that it makes MD BULBs, SMD SPOTLIGHTs, SMD TUBE, Hipower downlights(dimmable), hipower spotlights(dimmable), hipower PAR lights(dimmable) etc.
If only Canadian pharmacists would supply lavish illustrations of their products, hand-painted in the style of a 1970s children's book about what life will be like in the year 2000: "Following picture for your reference."
The balance on my T-Mobile pre-paid SIM mysteriously vanished a couple of weeks ago, despite the account having "Gold Rewards," wherein minutes supposedly don't expire for a year.
Here's part of the transcript of a chat with a T-Mobile support staffer, who patiently explained that qualifying for Gold Rewards does not actually mean that T-Mobile has granted them:
T-Mobile: I understand you want to know why your prepaid balance suddenly disappeared.
Rob Beschizza: That's right ... I'd topped it up only a few months ago
T-Mobile: Please hold on for a minute or two while I check this one for you. Would that be okay?
Rob Beschizza: And it should have lasted a year
T-Mobile: As I have checked your account, I found out that you are not yet in Gold reward status.
Rob Beschizza: I am looking at my account right now and it says "You are qualified for Gold Rewards!"
T-Mobile: Your Gold reward status will take effect on your next refill.
Rob Beschizza: So I have lost the $40 remaining balance?
T-Mobile: Yes, that is correct Rob.
T-Mobile: I apologize for the inconvenience.
I imagined that it was my own fault: the word-dance around "qualification" and "status" is just the sort of small print trick that's easy to miss. However, the agent's claim actually contradicts T-Mobile's own FAQ, which says you gain the status and the perks as soon you qualify. Emphasis mine:
Gold Rewards is a status that is reached once a T-Mobile To Go customer has applied more than $100 worth of refills (in any combination of $10, $25 or $50 refills) to his or her account or has purchased and applied a $100 refill to the account. Once a customer reaches Gold Rewards status, he or she automatically receives 15% more minutes for free and any unused minutes won't expire for a full year!
If you ... have already reached Gold Reward status, all unused minutes won't expire for one year from the date you last applied airtime to your account.
A third FAQ entry contains more evasive language and changes the deal's name to "Gold Reward Rates," but still says you receive Gold Rewards minutes when you qualify for them, not at some future date when you buy another round:
Gold Rewards rates take effect as soon as you spend over $100 on refills. ... NOTE: The 15% bonus minutes are included as part of the 1,000 minutes you received when you qualified for Gold Rewards.
In yet another T-Mobile FAQ, it's made clear that you receive Gold Rewards status as soon as you qualify for it:
You'll reach Gold Rewards status once you've applied more than $100 worth of refills (in any combination of $10, $25, $50, or $100 refills) to your T-Mobile To Go account. Once you reach Gold Rewards status ... any unused minutes won't expire for a full year!
Remember, T-Mobile said I didn't have this status, even though I've paid my dues.
Given how poor the carriers' customer service generally is, I'm fine with getting tricked by fine-print wrangling over the difference between "qualification" and "status." But T-Mobile's rationale for cancelling the minutes I paid for contradicts all but one of the FAQs I could find. T-Mobile explicitly promises that when you spend $100, you "reach Gold rewards status" and that "any unused minutes won't expire for a full year."
Is it really that difficult to have a no-BS rate schedule and to stick to it?
Update: So after writing this, I decided to call. T-Mobile gave me the same run-around regarding "qualified for Gold Rewards" not being the same as "Gold Rewards status." However, the operator offered a $20 credit when I pointed out that last FAQ entry.
I took the offer, so that I can put it to bed. Commenters Stumo and Michiel are likely right that the best way to have gotten the full amount back would have been to put the dispute in writing -- another next step could have been to email the corporate brass directly.
![If you are a soldier using a Touch in the field, I'd love to know what applications you're finding most useful.](http://www.bargainist.com/deals/2009/04/pur-twostage-water-dispenser-20/">Bargainist</a>]</p> <p>⌦ <strong>Pen Camcorder</strong> – A strange little camcorder inside a pen for corporate espionage or infiltrating your local poetry club. $43, shipped. [<a href="http://dealnews.com/net-Zeye-4-GB-Pen-DVR-Digital-Camcorder-for-42-free-shipping/291892.html">Dealnews</a>]</p> <p>⌦ <strong>LEGO Corkscrew</strong> – Amazon is selling the LEGO Corkscrew and Bottle Opener set for $6.50, about half off. If you pad your order over $25 (or have Prime) shipping is free. [<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YIYP8G?ie=UTF8&tag=boingboinggadgets-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000YIYP8G">Amazon</a>]</p><br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/> <br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/> <a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=e6e436a8cb509f1c78bebda1306b2974&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=e6e436a8cb509f1c78bebda1306b2974&p=1" /></a> <img src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/gadgets/~4/bQSRGKqao6E" height="1" width="1" /></td> </tr> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <tr> <td height="20"><hr width="100%" size="1" noshade style="padding:0; margin:0;"></td> </tr> <td><span style="padding:0; margin:0;"><a href="http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/gadgets/~3/VAXdGmGjlXs/ipod-good-enough-for.html" style="color:#011c9f; font-size:20px; line-height:23px; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold; padding:0; margin:0;"> iPod good enough for government work </a></span> <br> <span style="color:#666666; font-size:11px; padding:0; margin:5px 0 0 0;"> April 20, 2009 at 10:26 am </span><br> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="20"><hr width="100%" size="1" noshade style="padding:0; margin:0;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="content"><p><span><a href="http://gadgets.boingboing.net/gimages/64198318_e8fbbc27f0.jpg"><img alt="64198318_e8fbbc27f0.jpg" src="http://gadgets.boingboing.net/assets_c/2009/04/64198318_e8fbbc27f0-thumb-200x150-19498.jpg" width="200" height="150" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" /></a></span>Benjamin Sutherland <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/194623">reports for <em>Newsweek</em></a> about an increasingly common sight in the hands of our soldiers:<blockquote>Using a commercial product for such a crucial military role is a break from the past. Compared with devices built to military specifications, iPods are cheap. Apple, after all, has already done the research and manufacturing without taxpayer money. The iPod Touch retails for under $230, whereas a device made specifically for the military can cost far more. (The iPhone offers more functionality than the iPod Touch, but at $600 or $700 each, is much more expensive.) Typically sheathed in protective casing, iPods have proved rugged enough for military life. And according to an Army official in Baghdad, the devices have yet to be successfully hacked. (The Pentagon won){kind=link}
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu