Wired: Top Stories (25 unread)
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What Works, What Doesn't, on Mobile Web
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by Scott Loganbill
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Remember when your phone couldn't do much more than make phone calls and send text messages? We've come a long way in a short amount of time, but, as Webmonkey Scott Loganbill explores in this analytical essay, we still have some work to do before we can ditch our desktops for good.
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Pentagon Slices and Dices Darpa Budget
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by Sharon Weinberger
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The Pentagon's storied research and development arm turned 50 years old this year. Its birthday present from the Pentagon brass: another $100 million in budget cuts.
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New Geoengineering Scheme Tackles Ocean Acidification, Too
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by Alexis Madrigal
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A geoengineering scheme that could fight ocean acidification and climate change has resurfaced -- and it's got some early backing from a big oil company.
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How to Ace Your Math SATs
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by How-To Wiki
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Wired's How-To Wiki offers some expert test-taking tips sure to boost your math-geek cred as well as your SAT score.
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Higher, Faster, Stronger: 1950s Experimental Aircraft
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by Tony Long
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: Photo: U.S. Air ForceThe 1950s was the decade of the test pilot and the experimental aircraft, as aviation technology turned to the jet engine and pushed its limits in both speed and endurance. With the world divided in Cold War, the stakes were high. Jet aircraft dominated both U.S. and Soviet arsenals and the data returned by subsonic and supersonic test flights had implications for the coming space race as well.
A number of aviation companies turned out experimental aircraft, primarily for the armed forces. The pilots who flew them measured success in ways their predecessors could only dream of. They set records for speed and altitude that were unimaginable only a few years earlier, piloting aircraft that were volatile, unpredictable and often flat-out dangerous. When the time came to select astronauts for the nascent U.S. space program, it's not surprising that NASA recruiters turned to their ranks seeking the guys with the right stuff.
Hiller X-18
The X-18 was an experimental cargo-transport aircraft designed to be the first testbed for tilt-wing and STOVL (short takeoff and vertical landing) technology. The Hiller Aircraft Corporation began design work in 1955 and received a manufacturing contract and funding from the Air Force, resulting in the only X-18 ever produced.
: Photo: NASAThe Bell X-2 Starbuster was built to investigate flight characteristics in the Mach 2-3 range. This 1952 photograph shows an X-2 with a collapsed nose landing gear after a rough landing on its first glide flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The aircraft pitched and slid along its main skid, causing the right wingtip bumper to hit the ground and break off. The nose wheel collapsed upon making contact with the ground.
: Photo: NASAA composite photograph showing the Bell X-5's variable-sweep wing.
The Bell X-5 was the first aircraft capable of changing the sweep of its wings in flight. It was inspired by the untested wartime P.1101 design of Germany's Messerschmitt Company. The German design, however, could only be adjusted on the ground. Bell engineers devised a system of electric motors to adjust the sweep in flight.
: Photo: NASAThe Bell X-14 was an experimental aircraft flown during the 1950s. It was built to demonstrate unorthodox maneuverability, including vertical takeoff, hovering ability, transition to forward flight and vertical landing.
: Photo: NASAThe Douglas X-3 Stiletto was a 1950s experimental jet aircraft with a slender fuselage and a long, tapered nose, manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Its primary mission was to investigate the design features of an aircraft suitable for sustained supersonic speeds, which included the first use of titanium in major airframe components. It was, however, seriously underpowered for its purpose and could not even exceed Mach 1 in level flight.
: Photo: U.S. ArmyThe Goodyear Inflatoplane was an experimental aircraft made by the Goodyear Aircraft Company, a subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The Inflatoplane was roughly equivalent to the commercial Piper Cub. Although a capable enough aircraft, the Inflatoplane project was discontinued after the Army was unable to find a valid military use and remarked, unkindly perhaps, that it "could be brought down by a well-aimed bow and arrow."
: Photo: U.S. Air ForceThe Ryan X-13A-RY Vertijet, Ryan Model 69, was another vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. This one was used by the Air Force.
: Photo: NASAThe Vertol (later Boeing Vertol) VZ-2 (or Model 76) was designed in 1957 to investigate the tilt-wing approach to vertical takeoff and landing. The aircraft had a fuselage of tubular framework (originally uncovered) and accommodation for its pilot in a helicopter-like bubble canopy. The T-tail incorporated small ducted fans to act as thrusters for greater control at low speeds.
: Photo: U.S. ArmyThe Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee was a unique, direct-lift rotor aircraft, using a counter-rotating ducted fan inside a platform carrying a single pilot. The craft, which first appeared in 1953, was maneuvered by the pilot shifting his body weight to tilt the platform in the desired direction.
: Photo: U.S. Air ForceThe North American X-15 rocket-powered aircraft was part of the USAF/NASA/USN X-series of experimental aircraft, begun with the Bell X-1. The X-15 set numerous speed and altitude records in the early 1960s, reaching the edge of space and bringing back valuable data that was used in the designs of aircraft and spacecraft. The altitudes reached by the X-15 remained unsurpassed by any piloted aircraft (except the space shuttle) until the third space flight of SpaceShipOne in 2004.
: Photo: U.S. Air Force
The Lockheed X-7 (dubbed the "Flying Stove Pipe") was an unmanned testbed for ramjet engines and missile-guidance technology. It was carried aloft by a B-29 or B-50 Superfortress carrier aircraft. The booster ignited after launch and propelled the vehicle to a speed of 1,000 mph (1,625 km/h). The booster was then jettisoned, and the underslung ramjet took over from that point. The X-7 eventually returned to Earth, its descent slowed by parachute. A maximum speed of 2,881 mph (4,640 km/h, or Mach 4.31) was attained, setting a record for fastest air-breathing aircraft. A total of 130 X-7 flights were conducted between April 1951 and July 1960.
: Photo: NASAA Convair XF-92A in flight over Edwards Air Force Base around 1953. Powered by an Allison J33-A turbojet engine, with an afterburner, the XF-92 was America's first delta-wing aircraft. The delta wing's large area, thin airfoil cross-section, low weight and structural strength gave this design a great potential for a supersonic airplane.
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Google Maps Gets More Pedestrian
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by Adam DuVander
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The popular mapping site added walking directions to its arsenal of on-the-go search info. While the results aren't perfect just yet, the service is capable of finding and recommending the most direct, flat and pedestrian-friendly route.
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Alt Text: Back to the Batcave: Grading More of Batman's Gear
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by Lore Sjöberg
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Part of the enduring appeal of Batman is that he accessorizes. He was toyetic before toyetic was even a word. A horrible, horrible word.
In that sense, he's much like those who fanatically follow his adventures: He avoids the sun, dresses in a, shall we say, idiosyncratic manner, collects neat stuff and spends a lot of time on a computer looking for excuses to get into fights. We'll just gloss over the fact that he's in tip-top physical shape and probably doesn't have the complete Buffy series on a hard drive somewhere.
Alt Text Podcast
Download audio files and subscribe to the Alt Text podcast
This, then, is Part 2 of our look at Batman's stuff. We look at the Dark Knight's various possessions, and subject them to the harsh, cold light of judgment. Because when you don't spend every night wiping crime from the streets like a vengeful Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, you have plenty of time to write stuff like this.
BatcaveThe Batcave has aged well. Underground bunkers never go out of style! If anything, in this age of constant surveillance your secret base would have to be underground to avoid space lasers and Google Maps. I am, however, disappointed whenever the Batcave is depicted without a life-size dinosaur statue. I don't care how gritty and morally ambiguous your story is, there's always room for an anatomically inaccurate T. rex. On the other hand, Wikipedia informs me that the Batcave originally just held a desk and filing cabinets. Bat-cubicle!
Rebreather
Grade: AThis is usually depicted as a small device that Batman can hold in his mouth like a Binky. A Bat-Binky. However, rather than providing Batman with comfort while teething or tripping on ecstasy, the rebreather turns Batman's superheroic exhalations back into life-giving oxygen, allowing him to survive unpleasant gases or even breathe underwater. Carbon dioxide into oxygen? Batman could solve global warming on his own, but he won't. Global warming didn't kill his parents.
Batplane
Grade: C+I'm not even going to consider how Batman deals with air-traffic control. I assume he just tells them he's the god-damned Batman and they'd better get all the other planes out of the sky because some villain is launching a series of awkwardly themed crimes and needs to be flied at. I like to think that Batman also has another Batplane, a simple woodworking tool he uses for home improvement. One shaped like a bat.
Explosives
Grade: BBatman has explosives? Many sources agree. It seems to me that if you have explosives you don't need much else. Really, Explosives Man is probably going to frighten more cowardly, superstitious criminals than a bat theme. Criminals have one main superstition: "If someone explodes you, you die." Yeah, I know Batman doesn't kill, but if he plays his cards right, nobody ever has to find that out. Just convince them you're completely crazy. In that outfit, that's not tough to do.
Flashlight
Grade: C-In some incarnations, Batman has night-vision lenses, but I like it when he just has a plain old regular flashlight. Why? Because I carry a flashlight. That means I am, in some small way, like Batman, if Batman had a key chain. Which I guess he doesn't? At any rate, I'm hoping in the future Batman will carry around a Leatherman, a BatPod MP3 player and a miniature bottle of Tabasco. Then the parallels will be uncanny.
Shark-Repellent Bat Spray
Grade: B-Whenever I talk about Batman's utility belt -- and I do that far too often -- someone always mentions the Shark-Repellent Bat Spray from the Adam West Batman movie. Yeah, that was pretty awesome.
Grade: A- - -
Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a dark knight, a white knight and Michael Knight.
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Yahoo Q2 Profit Down, Below Analyst Views
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 5:20pm EDT by Associated Press
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Yahoo's performance isn't as bad as many investors feared after its rival, search and advertising leader Google Inc., posted second-quarter earnings that disappointed Wall Street last week.
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Details of DNS Flaw Leaked; Exploit Expected by End of Today
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 5:15pm EDT by Kim Zetter
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The details of a critical vulnerability in a core internet infrastructure have leaked onto the web, despite efforts to keep the information under wraps. The security researcher who found the hole the the Domain Name System is now urging everyone to fix the vulnerability before it's too late.
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EMusic Extends Into Social Networks
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 4:12pm EDT by Eliot Van Buskirk
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The DRM-free music retailer eMusic has linked up with several Web 2.0 hotspots to give subscribers more bang for their buck and allow them to post album excerpts to social networks.
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Computer Security Dire as Malware Spammers Get Sense of Humor
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 3:52pm EDT by Ryan Singel
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Computer security threats are constantly changing, but what madness will ensue when online criminals start developing a sense of humor?
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Electric Cars Are Inevitable ... and Essential
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 3:27pm EDT by Chuck Squatriglia
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The DRM-free music retailer eMusic has linked up with several Web 2.0 hotspots to give subscribers more bang for their buck and allow them to post album excerpts to social networks.
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Bin Laden Driver Faces Life Behind Bars Even if Acquitted
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 3:01pm EDT by David Kravets
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Opening arguments get underway in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, against Salim Ahmed Hamdan -- Osama bin Laden's driver -- in what is the first U.S. war crimes trial since World War II. But Hamdan faces a lifetime behind bars if convicted or acquitted. He's deemed an enemy combatant, which the Bush administration says means he can be held indefinitely.
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TiVo to Cash In on Couch Potato Commerce
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 2:20pm EDT by Betsy Schiffman
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TiVo is looking for new ways to generate revenue from its existing subscriber base. Its most recent plan: Let subscribers shop through Amazon while watching TV.
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Net Censorship Law Struck Down Again
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 2:06pm EDT by Ryan Singel
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A federal appeals court struck down yet again a law that would have required websites to verify all visitors' ages if any of its content wasn't suitable for minors. Tuesday's ruling from the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals adds to a decade of losses for the government's attempt to regulate speech on the internet.
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Microsoft to Sell Home-Brewed Xbox Games, Share Revenue
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 2:00pm EDT by Chris Kohler
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Microsoft announces its going to let home-brew gamemakers sell their games to other Xbox 360 owners online, and take a share of the revenue.
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GM Joins Utilities to Ensure Plug-In Hybrids Can Plug In
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 1:37pm EDT by Chuck Squatriglia
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General Motors is working with more than 30 utilities nationwide to ensure the nation's grid can handle an influx of cars that run on electricity.
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Even McCain Campaign Hopes to Profit From Obamamania
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 1:30pm EDT by Sarah Lai Stirland
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John McCain’s campaign is using a sarcastic new video to conduct his latest round of online fundraising .
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FavTape: Playlists Don't Get Any Faster Than This
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 11:05am EDT by Eliot Van Buskirk
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Got a second? That's more than you'll need to create a sharable mix of your favorite songs at Favtape. Their lightening-fast online mixtape creation tool uses your Last.fm or Pandora account to retrieve 10 songs that you have bookmarked or favorited.
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Report: 'Dark Knight' Star Bale Accused of Assaulting His Mom, Sister
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 9:30am EDT by Lewis Wallace
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Batman behind bars? Sounds like a Joker plot, but the allegations are real. British police reportedly arrest Christian Bale in the wake of a family scuffle.
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Step Right Up and Buy ... The Holy Grail!
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 7:30am EDT by Matt Blum
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A mouth-watering selection of geekly movie memorabilia is going on auction, including Indiana Jones' Holy Grail and Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments. There's stuff from Blade Runner, Alien, Conan the Barbarian, Austin Powers, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Back to the Future to name just a few.
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Video: Hands-On With the $11,000 Clover Coffeemaker
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Wired.com Video Department
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Wired.com takes a look at the Clover, an $11,000 coffee machine hand-built by Stanford engineers.
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Seafloor Zombie Microbes May Look Like Exo-Organisms
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Alexis Madrigal
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Primitive organisms found on the sea floor have a metabolism so slow that it might be more accurate to call them undead rather than alive. And how they live may be a model for how life might survive on Mars or a Jovian moon.
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July 22, 1952: Genuine Crop-Circle Maker Patented
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Randy Alfred
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1952: Frank Zybach gets a patent for the center-pivot irrigator. Hundreds of thousands of crop circles will appear on landscapes around the world ... eventually.
You've seen 'em if you've flown across farmland in the United States or other nations: big green circles of irrigated land, making repeated dot patterns. But they weren't always there.
Zybach grew up in Nebraska but was farming in Colorado in 1947 when he saw a demonstration of modern movable irrigation. Workers were moving and connecting pipes fitted with sprinkler heads from one part of a field to another. Sprinklers could beat a couple of problems: uneven, hilly terrain and the tendency of water to run into sandy ground before getting to the end of the ditch.
But Zybach, a lifelong tinkerer, saw something more: Why have humans set up, take down, move the equipment and repeat? Why not have the equipment move itself?
Zybach built his first prototype within a year. It rotated around a center wellhead. Guy wires that were attached to support towers held the sprinkler-fitted water pipes above the ground. Control wires and two-way water valves kept the towers in line. The first support towers moved on skids, but Zybach soon replaced those with wheels propelled by the irrigation water itself.
He applied for a patent for the "Zybach Self-Propelled Sprinkling Apparatus" in July 1949. He knew he needed to improve his invention -- making it tall enough to work for corn, among other things. So, the same year he got his patent, he moved back to Nebraska and went into business with a friend, A. E. Trowbridge.
The duo didn't immediately succeed, partly because Zybach kept making improvements before Trowbridge could sell the models they'd already manufactured. They sold the patent rights for a 5-percent royalty to farm-equipment manufacturer Robert Daugherty of Valley Manufacturing (later Valmont) in 1954.
Valley built only seven systems the following year, but it kept on improving the device. Variable pressure let farmers apply different amounts of water on each full rotation. They could apply fertilizer and pesticides automatically, too. End guns let water reach those dry corners between the circles. Business took off in the 1960s. The amount of land tended by one irrigation worker quadrupled from about 400 acres to 1,600 acres.
More than a quarter-million center-pivot irrigation systems now water fields around the world. Modern systems run in forward or reverse on rubber wheels driven by electric motors. The control sensors that keep the support towers in line have evolved from simple mechanical linkages to computerized sensors. Some systems use GPS and wireless to control water flow. They take directions from laptops and cellphones. Sophisticated mechanical trusses, not wires, support the pipes.
But what about those empty corners between the circles? Some countries now arrange their circular fields in large, hexagonal patterns to minimize the unsprinkled areas. That's hardly practical in the United States and elsewhere where land holdings have already been divided up in big, old-fashioned squares. So, the up-to-date center-pivot systems rely on low-voltage, radio-signal wires buried in the corners of the field. A sensor at the end of the pivot arm picks up the signal and telescopes the pipe outward toward the corner, then retracts again, following the border of the field.
And, as that technology spreads, the circles you see from your jet-plane window seat may someday be a thing of the past.
Source: Wessels Living History Farm
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Blogs for Print Nerds: Zine Fest Flaunts Camp and Crafts
Posted: July 22nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Emily Lang
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: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comSAN FRANCISCO – More than 100 zine-makers packed the County Fair building in Golden Gate Park over the weekend to celebrate San Francisco's annual Zine Festival.
The two-day conference featured a wide variety of DIY arts and crafts, zines, comics and a gypsy-like atmosphere. Attending noobs were also treated to hands-on workshops, from bookbinding to illustration and Q & A sessions with accomplished self-publishers.
For zinesters, zines are like the blogs of the print world. They're an essential part of offline geek and underground culture and their DIY aesthetic has influenced an entire generation of designers and writers.
Click through the gallery for highlights from this DIY ComicCon.
Left: Festival-goers browse through the plethora of independently published zines and books.
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comJonathan Fetter-Vorm, one half of the production company Two Fine Chaps, displays an array of his self-published work. His work ranges from a large, full-color illustrated book of the poem Beowulf to a very small, hand-made, three-dimensional pop-up fable titled The Clockmaker's Joy.
"I wanted to make books that are fun to hold, interesting to read and beautiful to look at," Fetter-Vorm said.
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comRani Goel's Typecritters zines feature letter art made from mirroring and layering type. Her booth also displays her Servings zine, which tackles the issue of body image and our cultural obsession with weight and food.
"There's something about someone's handwriting, something more real about it than a MySpace or a blog, something raw," Goel said. "And there's room to be messy, it doesn't have to be perfect."
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comJennie Hinchcliff (left) and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler, of Pod Post, model their zine merit badges.
"We wanted the merit badges to be about something we care about," Hinchcliff said. "Merit badges for book and zine making." "Instead of cookie selling," Wheeler adds.
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comAmy Martin, a cartoonist, gets a little work done at her booth and perhaps a head start for next year's festival.
"Last year was the first [festival] I did," Martin said. "The shows are great and you get to meet lots of people."
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com
Matt DeLight, illustrator and co-producer of several comics, described his work as autobiographical, funny and tragic.
"It started with a love of comics as a kid," DeLight said. He stumbled upon an issue of Too Much Coffee at 16 that detailed how to make your own mini comic. "It blew my mind to think that I could go to Kinko's and make my own comic."
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comThe 2008 SF Zine Festival moved to the SF County Fair building in Golden Gate park this year in anticipation of more exhibitors and a larger crowd than ever -- twice the size of last year's.
: Emily Lang/Wired.comKelly Lee Barretts (right) mans her street-photography mini-book booth with Jon LaSalle (middle).
"I had taken a bunch of photos and was rolling around with them on the floor of my room one night and decided to make a book out of it," said Barretts, a UC Santa Cruz graduate. Barretts has books available in three different sizes, from the miniscule to the pocket-size.
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.com
Lori Stein (left), author of Ranger Strange Bunny, shares table space with professional Yo-Yoer and ziner, Doctor Popular.
Doctor Popular peddled his zines, hand-made iPhone cases and yo-yos. "Three things keep me alive: yo-yoing, crafts and tailoring," Popular said. "Some of that is represented here."