If you’re buying a new car, you expect the salesperson will hit you with all the impressive-sounding lingo and tech phrases that could possibly apply to a vehicle. However, a new report suggests that when it comes to informing car-buyers about new vehicle safety technologies, dealership sales staff might not have all the information. [More]
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Car Dealers Aren’t Great At Explaining New Safety Features To Buyers, Claims New Study
By 1.10.17 — Updated: 1.11.17
Researchers Develop Device That Can Detect Emotions With Wireless Signals
By 9.20.16
“Hey, buddy. You seem a little down, how about I order you a cheeseburger?” In the future, you could find yourself responding to that kind of a pep talk from your smartphone: a new device created by the bright minds at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a device that can detect emotions by reading wireless signals bouncing off a person. [More]
Tech Would Allow Users To Touch, Interact With Objects In Video
By 8.3.16
Just when you thought virtual reality couldn’t be any more like reality, engineers go and find a way to let you actually touch and interact with the objects coming at you from your VR headset. [More]
Future Travel Apps Will Plan Your Road Trip Bathroom Breaks
By 2.11.15
A three-hour drive is never a three-hour drive, thanks to traffic snarls, pit stops, and weather conditions. While current mapping apps are better able to predict how long it will take us to get somewhere, what if they could also recommend the best time and place for you to stop based on past traffic data? An algorithm from researchers at MIT might help real-life travelers do this. [More]
Marriott Launches New App That Creepily Connects Guests With Each Other
By 6.16.14
After a long day at an out-of-town work conference, it might be nice to enjoy a drink and casual conversation at the hotel bar. Now, instead of taking the chance that your fellow guest will drone on and on about their love for all things animal print, consumers can find like-minded guests they actually want to talk to connect with, but not in the “let’s take this to your room” context. [More]
87-Year-Old Inventor Of Computer Password Keeps His On Sheets Of Paper
By 5.22.14
Do you have so many online accounts that you can barely keep track of where you’re registered, let alone what the passwords are? You’re certainly not alone. Heck, even Fernando Corbató, a retired researcher who is one of the people credited with inventing the computer password 50 years ago, keeps all of his on a few typed sheets of paper. [More]
MIT Club Plans To Give Students $100 Worth Of Bitcoin To See What They Purchase
By 4.29.14
If virtual currency supporters were playing a game of poker, proponents of Bitcoin would have just raised the stakes on the champions of Dogecoin. What could possibly beat Dogecoin’s beautifully painted, Shiba Inu dog-pictured NASCAR, you ask? How about providing an entire undergrad population with a wallet full of bitcoin? [More]
Science Tells You How To Book So You Avoid Airport Delays And Missed Flights
By 9.1.11
Harvard and MIT scientists have used statistical modeling techniques and figured out what are the best things you can do to avoid airport delays and missed connections. [More]
Smart Wallets Get Harder To Open As You Spend More
By 12.7.10
An MIT Media Lab team has developed a series of wallets that physically react when you electronically spend. [More]
By 11.12.07
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The One Laptop Per Child’s “Give One Get One” 2-week sale starts today. $400 buys you a cutting edge (if oddly cheap-looking) laptop and pays for another one to be given to a poor kid elsewhere in the world. [OLPC]
Continental’s Customer Service Plane Goes Boom
By 4.27.06
Thanks to Continental’s incompetence, Adam had to spend an entire night on the floor of the Newark airport.
RIAA Tells MIT Student To Drop Out Of School To Pay Fines
By 4.6.06
Cassi Hunt has recently been accused by the RIAA of being guilty of file-sharing. We all know what happens now: the RIAA will extort her for thousands of dollars (in Cassi’s case, $3750) as a “settlement” to prevent her having to go to court. Or, as Cassie puts it in her highly entertaining and witty account: ” Let us screw you over gently now, or with chains and whips in court.”
