damage

Flames scorch Canon 7D, but flash card survives

Laudably, camera makers are steadily improving how rugged and weatherproof their products are. But there are limits, and being in a flaming car is one of them.

So discovered Swedish photographer Petra Hall and her fiance, whose Canon EOS 7D didn't survive when the MG convertible it was in caught fire inexplicably. It and the 24-105mm lens attached were reduced to a camera-shaped mass of scorched, bubbled plastic.

Happily, no humans were injured in the fire, according to Hall's account of the fire. Gear fetishists, though, might want to avert their gaze before seeing the traces of the red band around the rim of the lens indicating it once was one of Canon's high-end and expensive L-series models.

But here's the happy ending: the SanDisk CompactFlash memory card survived within the camera, and necessary photos were retrieved with no trouble once the card was extracted from the camera body's remains.… Read more

A copyright ruling no one can like

Legal experts sympathetic to copyright owners as well as those known for supporting technology companies are criticizing a federal judge's decision to lower a jury award in a high-profile lawsuit about file sharing.

A year ago, a jury found college student Joel Tenenbaum liable for willful copyright infringement for sharing 30 songs, and later set a damages award of $675,000. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner dramatically reduced the award to $67,500.

Gertner wrote in her decision that the original amount was too high and "unconstitutional." With regard to statutory damages in a … Read more

Data finder

FinalData Standard Demo by AOS Technologies America automatically recovers files that have been accidentally deleted from your Windows PC. It will also perform more complex operations, including recovering data from damaged Master Boot Record files, directories, file allocation tables, and hard-drive partitions. It works with all Windows files systems from FAT12 to NTFS as well as most portable media, including floppy, ZIP, and Jaz drives, so it supports legacy formats and hardware. It has some nice extras, too, such as the ability to place files in password-protected folders to prevent them from being accidentally deleted or deliberately tampered with.

FinalData … Read more

Sweaty workouts killing iPhones?

Some iPhone owners are claiming that exercise, while good for you, may break your Apple device. Of course, as with most electronic devices, significant moisture can ruin Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPod. But now, some are saying that water damage may occur during activities as mundane as going for a jog.

This past Monday, KPRC Channel 2 in Houston ran a story during its Ask Amy consumer segment titled Ask Amy: iPhones Sweat Sensitive. (The video segment can be seen here.) In the segment, investigative reporter Amy Davis pursued consumer complaints about iPhones being damaged by sweat.… Read more

Say What? A do-it-yourself hearing test CD

If you occasionally experience "ringing in the ears" after exposure to loud sounds or concerts, you may be losing your hearing. To find out where you stand check out Digital Recordings' hearing test CD. It can be used to set a baseline of your hearing, and if you're geeky enough, retest yourself the day after attending a loud concert, working with power tools, or riding a snowmobile. A few hours or even a day later your hearing acuity will be significantly reduced. It's kinda like a preview of what's to come, if you don't stop abusing your ears.

That short-term deafness is sometimes referred to as Temporary Threshold Shift (TTS). But repeated episodes of temporary hearing loss, with insufficient recovery times between exposures will eventually lead to permanent hearing loss. At that point there's no need to keep reading the Audiophiliac blog. … Read more

What is U.S. Patent No. 5,205,473?

The title of U.S. Patent No. 5,205,473 (the '473 patent in patent speak) is "Recyclable corrugated beverage container and holder." If you've ever been to Starbucks, the drawing on the first page of the '473 patent probably looks familiar.

I actually have one of these sitting on my desk right now. It's the corrugated, brown cardboard sleeve wrapped around my venti, no fat, no water chai latte. It insulates my hand from the hot liquid inside and allows me to walk from the barista to my car without a wince or painful grimace.

It's a good idea and whoever came up with it got a patent. I know that because the number, "U.S. Patent No. 5,205,473" is printed in neat, black text right on the sleeve. (There's actually a second patent number as well.) The reason the sleeve on my coffee cup, and most other patented products, have patent numbers printed on them is something patent lawyers call "constructive notice."

Under the law, the public is deemed to have constructive notice that something is patented if that something has a patent number on it. The idea behind the law apparently is that if one sees a patent number, one has the ability to look that patent up, read it, and maybe even understand what it says. For the corrugated sleeve, it was simple enough for me--albeit a little geeky--to take a look at the '473 patent and understand how the sleeve works to make the heat from my latte more bearable.

Start-up crafts waterproof concrete

It's a water-based molecule that repels water.

That's Hycrete's business in a nutshell, according to CEO David Rosenberg. The company has a molecule--which consists of a water molecule with a long hydrocarbon attached--that links up to metallic ions in whatever it's mixed into. In the right circumstances, the molecule behaves like an oil and pushes water away.

The company currently sells its material to concrete manufacturers and contractors who use it to replace the bound-to-fail plastic membranes employed to keep water out of building foundations and freeway pilings. With Hycrete's molecules mixed into the cement, … Read more