Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
ie8 fix

libs

E-book librarian

If you're big on reading you no doubt have your book collection displayed on a bookcase, maybe even with some semblance of organization. If you enjoy electronic books in addition to--or instead of--their paper counterparts, why not organize them as well? eLib is a basic program you can use to create collections of e-books for easy organization and viewing.

The program's interface is plain, with a tree view on the left that displays user-defined collections. Clicking on a collection allows you to view the contents either as a list or as a group of thumbnails. To view an … Read more

Entertaining word game

As children, many of us had fun with Mad Libs. You remember these; the game asks for a set of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech, which are then inserted into a story with hilarious results. StoryMaker operates on the same basic premise, and is just as much fun.

The program's interface is rather unattractive, but it is simple and can be easily navigated by kids. There are large buttons for the program's four main functions. The first button let users play the game. The program asks for words in various parts of speech, and at … Read more

LIBS sniffs out explosives

A simple and inexpensive analytical technique has made it possible to detect explosives from up to 60 feet away, a desirable commodity in an age of IEDs and suicide bombers and one that may become commercially available in the near future.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Maryland has developed a system that detects explosive residues, using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to identify the elemental composition of molecules. Refinement and standardization of this technique would fill a growing security and military need, researchers say.

"Currently there are no proven technologies that can accomplish residue explosives detection at … Read more