scale

A more accurate way to serve up a spoonful of sugar

If you're a baker, you know that precise measurements mean everything. So much so, that expert bakers tell us ways to spoon flour into measuring cups in order to avoid compacting the flour and using too much. For smaller measurements, using methods like this are much more difficult, if not impossible.

Using standard measuring spoons can result in too much or too little ingredients (like too much yeast or too little baking soda), completely changing the consistency of the finished product. This precision spoon scale by Admetior alleviates this problem by having a digital weight measurement built right into … Read more

Porsche Design has some hang ups

If you think that I've been blogging heavily on Porsche Design-inspired kitchen gadgets lately, then you'd be right. I can't get enough of the cool designs and brushed aluminum look of their line of housewares. But I've saved the best for last in the trifecta of Porsche Design kitchen gadgets with this wall-mounted kitchen scale.

If you've read enough of my other posts (it's all right if you haven't, we can still be friends), then you'll know that I live in a space-challenged apartment in Brooklyn. OK, by Brooklyn standards, it's … Read more

The Invisible Man: A scientific breakthrough

Today, your eyes might not deceive you. But soon, they very well might.

Some extremely clever people at Cal (the one at Berkeley) have created a material that can control the direction in which visible light travels.

Apparently, this mystery material, some details of which might be revealed in Science and Nature magazines this week (People and OK weren't interested), deflects light around an object as perceived by an insouciant eye.

"In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock," the leader of the Cal researchers, Xiang Zhang, told London's Times newspaper.

In essence, you are looking at, say, the Empire State Building or a John Malkovich-piloted Boeing 747 full of nasty missiles. If these objects are coated with the material, your eyes will see light from behind them, hence creating the illusion that the object in question simply isn't there. I know that there are terrible consequences that may leap to mind in these examples.

For the more technically-minded amongst you, I can tell you that the material the scientists created had to have elements engineered to within 0.00000066 of a meter. This appears to be in a realm that might make wafers suddenly feel ridiculously overweight.… Read more

Digital luggage scale saves money and muscles

As more airlines start charging for checked luggage and extra bags, penny-pinching fliers who shove all their clothes into one suitcase may face overweight bag charges or thrown-out backs.

Balanzza's Digital Luggage Scale is made to prevent travelers from over-packing luggage at times when a bathroom scale is unavailable.

First, the traveler wraps the scale's strap around the handle of a suitcase or bag. When they pick the bag straight up, listen for the device to beep, and set the bag down, the gadget readout will display the weight in pounds or kilograms.

The company is also producing … Read more

Ray tracing for PCs-- a bad idea whose time has come

Dean Takahashi sent me an e-mail pointing to a piece he wrote on VentureBeat describing statements Wednesday by Intel's Chief Technical Officer Justin Rattner targeted at NVIDIA. CNET's own Brooke Crothers covered the same story and provides additional background here.

The technology at issue relates to 3D graphics for PCs. All current PC graphics chips use what's called polygon-order rendering. All of the polygons that make up the objects to be displayed are processed one at a time. The graphics chip figures out where each polygon should appear on the screen and how much of it will be visible or obstructed by other polygons.

Ray tracing achieves similar results by working through each pixel on the screen, firing off a "ray" (like a backward ray of light) that bounces off the polygons until it reaches a light source in the scene. Ray tracing produces natural lighting effects but takes a lot more work.

(That's the short version, anyway. For more details, you could dig up a copy of my 1997 book Beyond Conventional 3D. Alas, the book is long since out of print.)

Ray tracing is easily implemented in software on a general-purpose CPU, and indeed, most of the computer graphics you see in movies and TV commercials are generated this way, using rooms full of PCs or blade-server systems.

Naturally, Intel loves ray tracing, and there are people at Intel working to… Read more

A scale for the Iron Man in your family

Those callous souls who gave their poor mums a Wii Fit for Mother's Day should take note: They can even the score between parents by giving a similarly subtle hint to dad this weekend. But why not be a little more creative?

Tanita is pushing its "BC-558 Tanita Ironman Segmental and Full Body Composition Monitor" as an ideal Father's Day gift. It's especially useful for those vain fathers who spend too much time at the gym and flexing in the bathroom mirror, because this scale measures the body by segments--as in arms, legs, and the … Read more

Gadgettes 93: The Kelly's extravagant baby shower episode

We are gonna miss Kelly around here while she's away on her maternity leave. So guess what? Molly and Jason both chipped in and bought Kelly a bunch of really cool stuff for her time away from the podcast! Yes, we're that rich. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 93

iPhone 2! (Rumor roundup) http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/06/05/new-iphone-rumor-roundup/?mod=googlenews_wsj

Sanyo Xacti HD1000 4MP MPEG4 High Definition 1080i Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom http://www.amazon.com/Sanyo-HD1000-Definition-Camcorder-Optical/dp/B000V79G0M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1212700827&sr=8-1 … Read more

eSolar lands solar power plant deal

eSolar on Tuesday said that it will build solar thermal power plants that will make 245 megawatts of electricity for Southern California Edison.

The plants will be built in the Antelope Valley of Southern California and begin operating in 2011.

The company, created by Idealabs and funded by Google.org, makes utility-scale concentrating solar power systems with a modular design.

Software-controlled heliostats, or mirrors, reflect light onto a tower where the heat turns water to steam that turns a turbine.

The company raised $130 million in April.

California is a hotbed for utility-scale solar power because the state has relatively … Read more

EatSmart does the calculating for you

I have a pan of brownies sitting on my counter. I keep an eye on what I eat, but that doesn't mean that I can't eat a sweet or two. The problem that I run into is that it's hard to decide just how much brownie I can have. I've looked around, but I haven't found any helpful information. One recipe suggested that 1/20 of a pan is the appropriate serving size for a brownie. However, I'm not going to spend my time dividing a pan that precisely.

The EatSmart Nutrition Scale provides … Read more