graphs

It's almost like a "Wizard of Oz" moment for Texas Instruments, which is opening the door to color displays on its popular calculators.

Next month, the semiconductor and educational technology giant is launching the $165 TI-Nspire CX handheld, its thinnest and lightest graphing calculator ever. The specs completely blow away the TI-84 that I used in college.

Thankfully, TI has moved away from the monochromatic screen of yesteryear and boasts that the CX has a 3.2-inch 16-bit color LCD (320x240) with a respectable 125 DPI. TI also bumped up the memory in the CX series compared to previous TI-Nspire models with 100MB of onboard storage and 64MB of RAM. I can imagine hackers are already salivating to get Doom and Game Boy Color emulators running on this thing as soon as possible.

Of course, the real strength of a TI calculator is its ability to handle higher-level mathematic concepts. The TI-Nspire CX is designed for pre-algebra, algebra 1 and 2, trigonometry, geometry, pre-calculus, statistics, business and finance, biology, physics, chemistry, and calculus classes.

An alternate Computer Algebra System (CAS) model is also available and is approved for standardized testing, such as the SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, ACT, AP, IB, and Praxis exams. I wonder if it can calculate how many commas were in my last two sentences. … Read more

Not so long ago, the typical science or research lab was filled with large, heavy instruments, each designed to do just one thing. Now scientists, engineers, and amateurs alike can download lab-grade instruments for free. For example, there's SigmaGraph, a free plotting and analysis tool from SIDI. It offers scientific graphing, curve fitting, editable data sheets, drawing tools, a scripting engine, and more.

SigmaGraph consists of three parts: the SigmaConsole, a mathematical tool that's sort of like a tiny virtual blackboard; the SigmaGraph interface, with a typical Windows layout; and the SigmaTray icon, which resides in the System … Read more

Facebook has overcome plenty of challenges and defied plenty of detractors in its ascent to Internet power. It looks likely to take on a new set of both Monday with an expected new e-mail service.

ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley published word of the expected Facebook e-mail service yesterday, along with the possibility that Facebook will integrate it with Microsoft's online Office tools. And today, TechCrunch also said Facebook will unveil its e-mail service, called Titan. Facebook's invitation, styled like an air mail envelope, suggests there's truth to the reports.

E-mail is in many ways a natural … Read more

Febooti's fileTweak Download Speed is a small, specialized utility that clocks your download speed, compares it with standard connection types, and estimates how long it would take to download a specified file via various connections. It integrates with the Windows file properties dialog, too, so it's handy yet unobtrusive. It basically does what those broadband speed test Web sites do, only hosted on your PC. It's a module of the developer's fileTweak utility, but we tested the standalone freeware version.

Although this compact tool is no bigger than the average portable application, it downloads and installs … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Facebook's Open Graph is the reason there are Facebook "Like" buttons strewn across the Web on sites that Facebook doesn't operate. Eric Tseng, Facebook's head of mobile products and a former product manager of the Google Nexus One phone, told the room at MobileBeat 2010 that Open Graph is going mobile.

What does this mean? Simply that as Facebook rolls out its Open Graph plug-ins to partners in the mobile space, many more of Facebook's social tools (such as that "Like" button, for instance) will show up in unrelated mobile apps … Read more

Document-sharing site Scribd has a new trick up its sleeve that will make whatever you're viewing on the site a little more public. That is, if you feel like broadcasting your reading habits to the world.

The new feature is called Readcasting, and it's an evolution of the social-sharing options found on most sites. You can set the site to post your reading activity to Facebook and Twitter. That's pretty standard, though. Not standard: once you've set your log-ins for each network, there's an option to have Scribd automatically share what you're reading with … Read more

Correction 1:05 p.m. PST: Boy, did I get it wrong.

Writing off available information this morning--the AIM beta download site and a few news reports--I assumed the Facebook-AOL interoperability was the result of a corporate partnership. Instead, it's because Facebook actually did open up its technology, embracing rather than neglecting the approach I called for. In this case at least, the bad instant messaging network habits from the past were not carried over.

I have to say I'm impressed with Facebook's move, and not because it makes the crow I'm eating any tastier. What … Read more

AsdGraph3D Pro Excel Addin gives you the capability to create three-dimensional graphs with data from Excel spreadsheets. These 3D graphs can also plot ActiveX controls that can be used in programs such as Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer.

The 3D graphs this add-in produces aren't flashy and would be best used for programming purposes rather than for design or illustrations. Graphic design experience left us unimpressed with the look of the graphs that the program produces; however, from a programming perspective, they're quite sufficient. There's a good built-in Help file that explains the program's controls and … Read more

The icons that reside in the Windows notification area (near the clock in the taskbar) convey much useful information at a glance. Is my network link live? How's my notebook's battery? Is there really yet another Windows update ready to be installed?

But one bit of information I often want to know is how much of my CPU is in use at any given time. Now the notification area gives me the lowdown on my processor as well. All I did was add a Task Manager shortcut to Windows' start-up folder and set the shortcut to open minimized.… Read more