Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Nice tweets, sweetheart

Get your mind out of the gutter.  That says “tweets.”  When anything gets big, it hits a t-shirt.  Now, Twitter is no different.  Let’s take a look at these tees.  “I’m huge on Twitter” which might as well say “I have no real friends.”  “In space no one can hear you tweet,” but that’s not true if you’ve got some kind of communications system aboard your space station.  “The messaging system we didn’t know we needed until we had it”—that one rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?  And “140 is the new 420.”  I’d say something here, but I wouldn’t want to blow your mind.  [Source]

Moto says “Hello, Dave”

Motorola, you know that company that used to be relevant at one point, has decided that humans are the problem and decided to side with the machines.  Here’s their latest: their networks reorganize by themselves.  Every time a new cell site is installed, their software will reset so everything will work on its own.  Before, you’d need to reconfigure the network via a human team.  This allows the networks to grow without needing the same kind of manpower.  They call it the “Self-Organizing Network.”  But in all seriousness, this is kind of useful because it actually lets an increase in network coverage without the hassle.  [Source]

Google is your savior

Google, a small start up company with a funny name, says they could have predicted the swine flu.  I’m unaware of the “Google Prophecies” service—maybe it’s in the labs.  Larry “Don’t tell me what’s on the last” Page says that if Google was able to keep records for more than 6 months that they would have been able to predict lots of things like the swine flu.  It turns out that Page isn’t crazy.  Google did a demo recently that showed they could predict an outbreak before the government could since with their search records. 

Mr Page said the less data companies like Google were able to hold the “more likely we all are to die”.  - BBC*

There’s a t-shirt idea!  [Source]

Drink up!  Wait, I’m drinking what?

The big space news of the week is that astronauts were drinking water.  The water was previously urine that had been recycled to produce potable water.  I know what you’re thinking, “I saw that in ‘Waterworld,’ the underrated Kevin Costner masterpiece years ago!”  Yes you did. 

While many are disgusted at the concept of drinking recycled water, keep in mind that this is what water treatment plants do all the time.  There’s really no need to think about it.  Have faith in science.  (And yes, that is a joke.)  [Source]