Researchers at Lab42 wanted to know “what makes certain codes so scanworthy,” so they conducted an online survey via social networks of 500 Americans over 18, and found out that many people don’t even know what a QR code is.

via Why Are Some QR Codes More Scanworthy Than Others? [INFOGRAPHIC].

Eric at the lab showed me this. The project is called CrazyCopter. It is basically a micro quadcopter built complete on a PC Board and four motors. The board is densely packed with 2 gyros and an accelerometer feeding a Cortex-M3 processor. The whole thing can be programmed via wireless…and it sends its telemetry data to the computer via 2.4GHz Radio as well.

I want to build one badly. Hopefully these guys will release the plans and open source the project. *Drool…*

This is one of the coolest an geekiest things that I’ve seen in a while.

The Antikythera mechansism was recovered in 1901.  It is the oldest known complex scientific calculator and one of the world’s oldest known gear devices.

Estimates are that it was made around 150-100 BC by Greek astronomers.  Since its discovery, there have speculations on what the mechanism was for, and who built it.  Quacks, of course, have used it to claim the existence of ancient human interaction with extraterrestrials.

As there were no written records of this device, nobody knew how it worked until 2006 when high resolution x-ray tomography revealed its workings and that it was created by ancient Greeks as a way to predict astronomical events like eclipses.

Well, Andrew Carol, a software engineer at Apple decided that his earlier accomplishment of building a Babbage Difference Engine entirely out of Lego wasn’t enough.  He’s now built a working replica of the Antikythera Mechanism also entire out of Lego Technic parts!

Incredible…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

YouTube – Lego Antikythera Mechanism.

I was at my cousin’s wedding and took a bunch of photos.  When I went to blend my contribution in with the pictures taken by others, I realized that the timestamp was set wrong .  Ooops.  Luckily, I’m not the only one with this problem.  Phil Harvey of Queens University realized a need and created a command-line tool for Windows as well as Mac OS X to bulk update image files’ EXIF data.

So with a simple command of:

exiftool “-DateTimeOriginal+=0:0:0 1:0:0″ fix

I was able to add an hour to the creation date of the EXIF data in the “fix” directory.  Thanks Phil!

ExifTool is a platform-independent Perl library plus a command-line application for reading, writing and editing meta information in a wide variety of files. ExifTool supports many different metadata formats including EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, JFIF, GeoTIFF, ICC Profile, Photoshop IRB, FlashPix, AFCP and ID3, as well as the maker notes of many digital cameras by Canon, Casio, FujiFilm, HP, JVC/Victor, Kodak, Leaf, Minolta/Konica-Minolta, Nikon, Olympus/Epson, Panasonic/Leica, Pentax/Asahi, Ricoh, Samsung, Sanyo, Sigma/Foveon and Sony.

via ExifTool by Phil Harvey.

Why the iPad Hasn’t Killed Kindle – Newsweek.

This article has a lot of reasons why the iPad hasn’t killed the Kindle…yet.  I read a LOT on eBook devices, and originally I thought the same thing.

In an attempt to travel with less devices, I started reading on the iPad. Yes, it may be a bit heavier, you’ll need to recharge the iPad more often, and there is a bit more eyestrain if you don’t adjust the brightness of the iPad if you are reading in the dark…

Even so, I find the ONLY real benefit to the Kindle and the other eInk eReaders is that they are much easier to read in bright sunlight.  This is because eInk depends on light reflecting off the screen like normal paper–the more light, the better!  In contrast, the iPad screen generates the light that you are seeing, and bright sunlight reflecting off the screen actually overwhelms the light being put out by the device and makes the screen harder to read.

This isn’t a big problem normally as I read mostly indoors, but it can be an issue if you do a lot of reading outdoors at the beach or lounging by the pool.

This article also misses a point.  Actually I think the writer was a bit confused when writing that section of the story.  With Apple iPad you are NOT locked to just Apple’s bookstore.  The fact that the iPad can run Apps means that it can run Amazon Kindle reader, the app for Kobo, etc.

The variety of sources for reading makes it the best eReader available.  I just finished reading a couple of Kindle books on the iPad and it worked well–actually better as the iPad has a touch screen that I could swipe to change pages.

Amazon likely doesn’t care either.  They’re making their money selling eBooks.  The Kindles are only a delivery and consumption mechanism.  If they can increase their eBook revenue stream without producing, selling, or supporting hardware, in my view that’s a big bonus!