GeekSpeak for March 13, 2010

"...a supergiant star two hundred times bigger than the sun utterly obliterated by runaway thermonuclear reactions triggered by gamma ray-driven antimatter production."

University of Florida engineers have achieved what they label in a new paper a "nearly perfect hydrophobic interface" by reproducing, on small bits of flat plastic, the shape and patterns of the minute hairs that grow on the bodies of spiders. "They have short hairs and longer hairs, and they vary a lot. And that is what we mimic," said Wolfgang Sigmund, a professor of materials science and engineering. A paper about the surface, which works equally well with hot or cold water, appears in this month's edition of the journal Langmuir.

A paper about the surface, which works equally well with hot or cold water, appears in this month's edition of the journal Langmuir.

Australian scientists claim they've stumbled upon a sixth sense -- but not the kind where you see dead people. No, researchers down under have found a new flavor sense: fat.

Everyone knows that fat is an excellent vehicle for food flavors and has a highly appealing mouthfeel. A new study, however, suggests that along with sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (essentially, the ability to detect protein), we can also actually taste fat itself.

Google just announced Apps Marketplace, igniting a torrent of applications that all work online. If you have one of Google's free-for-the-taking hosted-domain apps accounts, once you log in, you'll be able to access all of these additional tools. There are 50 of them so far — mostly for business use — and that number is certain to grow in number and scope. With your permission, the third-party applications can access any of the data in your Google Calendar, Gmail, documents, or contacts. See the video below for a more detailed explanation.

ShadyURL Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening.

Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening.

This is one of those cool gizmos that you wish you'd have thought of first! You don't have to hold your PDA or cell phone up like you're the statue of liberty, or glare at the laptop for not being able to find a Wi-Fi signal. Now, just wear your Wi-Fi T-shirt and show everyone the status of broadband availability where you're standing.

The signal strength of a Wi-Fi network will be displayed right on your too-cool T-shirt! The bars on the front of this awesome T-shirt glow and change as the signal changes. Don't be surprised if you go for a walk and end up with a throng of the gadget-obsessed following behind you, looking for a hot spot!

Wear the Wi-Fi T-shirt to coffee shops and shopping malls to detect those Wi-Fi free-for-alls, or just wear it for fun. Other Internet and Wi-Fi fans are sure to notice. It's a great way to meet like-minded people.

You've heard of shabby chic, but this awesome T-shirt is geek chic.

"The FCC is asking the nation’s broadband and smartphone users to use their broadband testing tools to help the feds and consumers know what speeds are actually available, not just promised by the nations’ telecoms."

"For years the entertainment industry has been lobbying for tougher measures against online piracy. In France this has resulted in the implementation of a ‘three strikes and you’re offline’ regime and many other countries are considering similar measures."

In related news, the ACTA needs some attention as well.

Use Google Maps to:

The medical establishment is about to get a dose of web 2.0-style medicine in the form of a crowdsourced, socially networked contest that opens the fight against Type 1 diabetes to the public at large — and to Harvard’s medical research departments — using InnoCentive’s online challenge platform for competition and collaboration.

William Shatner is putting his promotional talents to work for Myouterspace.com, a social network for sci-fi geeks, gamers, animators, writers, and actors.

The Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the data become easier to understand.

The Fitbit Tracker contains a motion sensor like the ones found in the Nintendo Wii. The Tracker senses your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities.

Don't just shorten your URL, make it suspicious and frightening.