Monday, September 29, 2014

Article: Turning Programming Into Child’s Play

Dash is a small blue robot that can be programmed to play the xylophone, kick a ball, act like a dog and deliver messages — for instance, a prerecorded rendition of the "Happy Birthday" song. Its head, which spins around, has a single, Cyclops-like eye. Sometimes Dash emits a cheerful chime — a s...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/business/using-robotics-to-teach-computer-programming.html?gwt=pay

Sent via Flipboard

Read More...

Article: This bizarre bendable phone wears like a shirtsleeve

For the past few years, the standing lazy punchline about wearables has been something about awkwardly strapping a computer or a phone to your body. Finally, a crowdfunding campaign has taken the joke to the next level and made that punchline a reality. San Francisco Bay Area startup Arubixs has ...

http://www.cnet.com/news/this-wearable-hopes-to-make-strapping-a-big-screen-to-your-arm-cool/

Sent via Flipboard

Read More...

Article: TinyScreen thumb-sized display supports full color

One of the key elements that anyone who is into making their own electronic devices needs is a screen. Often the size of the screen controls how large your project is overall, and if you want small...

http://www.slashgear.com/tinyscreen-thumb-sized-display-supports-full-color-29348240/

Sent via Flipboard

Read More...

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

An Aerospace Engineer Has Completely Reinvented The Ice Cream Scoop

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-midnight-scoop-kickstarter-2014-9

The midnight scoop kickstarter project ice cream gif

One of Michael Chou’s biggest pet peeves was not being able to scoop frozen ice cream.

“I couldn’t help but feel there was a better way,” Chou, a mechanical and aerospace engineer for the University of California San Diego, explained to The Daily Mail. “I like my ice cream frozen and hard – melting it with a hot spoon or letting it sit out for half an hour ruins it.”

So the 35-year-old Michigan father spent two years to invent the The Midnight Scoop, a “better ice cream scoop” that has the ergonomic design that allows you to scoop even the hardest ice cream.  

The midnight scoop kickstarter project ice creamWhat makes The Midnight Scoop different is that the curved end forces you to push the ice cream with your palm, thereby using the muscles in your arm and chest instead of with the weaker muscles in your wrist.

The key is in the handle which is curved to fit your palm and keep your wrist straight. The scoop is also specially designed with a thin and pointed end that can easily slice through ice cream.

Made from a coated and forged aluminium alloy, it will cost $50 with a lifetime warranty. The Kickstarter project has already exceeded it’s $17,500 goal by over $20,000 with still eight days left in the campaign.

The midnight scoop kickstarter project ice creamYou can donate to The Midnight scoop on Kickstarter here.

SEE ALSO: 10 Ingenious Reinventions Of Everyday Products

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's Life on Facebook!

Join the conversation about this story »








Read More...

This Stat About Digg Reveals Biggest Difference Between Starting A Tech Company Now And Ten Years Ago

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-biggest-difference-between-starting-a-company-now-and-ten-years-ago-2014-9

Google engineer, servers

Vox's Timothy B. Lee has a great story on Digg's comeback. In it, he reveals a super interesting stat.

It's a stat that explains why starting a tech company today is so different than starting a tech company when Digg was founded, ten years ago. 

First some quick backstory.

Digg was founded in November 2004. By 2009, it had 30 million monthly visitors. 

Google wanted to buy it for a couple hundred million dollars.

But by 2012, Digg's traffic was down to 1.5 million visitors a month.

That year, Digg sold for $500,000 to a New York holding firm called Betaworks.

Now Digg is back up to 8 million visitors a month. It's not profitable for Betaworks yet, but executives say there is a "realistic plan" to get there.

Anyway, here's the stat: Back in 2012, when Betaworks bought Digg, it cost $250,000 per month to keep the site running, even with its tiny amount of traffic. Today, it only costs Betaworks tens of thousands of dollars per month, with 5x as much traffic.

The reason for the cost disparity: Back in 2012, Digg was run off of servers owned by the company. Today, Betaworks rents server capacity from another company. Digg is hosted in the cloud.

Running a company from the cloud is standard practice these days. Netflix is still running from Amazon servers. Before it was acquired by Yahoo, so did Tumblr. Probably all the startups you can think of run this way. Only the really gigantic companies out there now own their own servers.

So whenever you see a list of a bunch of silly startups and worry that there's another bubble going on, remember that all those companies cost a lot less to run than all the dotcoms or even early Web 2.0 companies did.

Join the conversation about this story »








Read More...