Showing posts with label Las Vegas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Las Vegas. Show all posts

Mar 20, 2015

International Pizza Expo

You might think this type of expo would be held in Italy, but it is held in the Las Vegas, NV Convention Center. The 31st Annual International Pizza Expo is billed at the World's Largest and Oldest Pizza Tradeshow. It is held March 23-26, 2015.

May 17, 2013

Google Earth Time Lapse

Amazing The first time lapse is for Las Vegas 1984 - 2012. Interesting to see the size reduction of the lake on the right. You can type any place in the world you choose and watch the changes.  LINK 

Feb 15, 2013

Fingernail and Toenail Facts

Fingernails grow about 3.5 mm per month and toenails grow about 1.6 mm per month on average. The exact rate at which your nails grow depends on several factors, such as age, sex, diet, exercise, etc. Nails also grow faster in summer when it is warmer. Fingernails can be seen on babies after the tenth week of pregnancy.

Nails consist of many different parts. The visible part is known as the nail plate and below that is the nail bed. The white, half-moon shaped part at the base is called the lunula or distal matrix. The tissue over the top of the matrix is called the cuticle, and the soft tissue directly over the cuticle, is called the eponychium.

Ninety percent of nail growth comes from the matrix. Pressure within the matrix forces dead karatinized cells out. Speed of growth is caused be blood supply and it seems the increased activity of our fingers vs. our toes causes more blood supply to our fingers which leads to faster growth.

The longest fingernails ever recorded on a women belonged to Lee Redmond of Las Vegas. After growing for 30 years, they measured a combined length of 28 feet 4.5 inches. Unfortunately, she lost her fingernails in a car accident in February 2009.

Clean trimmed nails are more noticeable to the beholder than the owner.

Jan 18, 2013

Good Tech, Bad Tech, Cool Tech

Last week the annual Consumers Electronic Show happened in Las Vegas. As usual, there were thousands of whizzbang gadgets that will never hit the store shelves. Car makers were out in force with devices to tech-up new cars and take our minds off of driving. Hundreds of toys, games, bots, and tablets were on display, but almost no PCs. The buzz is that PCs are so yesterday.

According to Cisco, 1 trillion devices will be connected to the Internet in 2013. Interesting note that Apple iPhones only made a bit over 14% of smartphone shipments during the last quarter of 2012. How far it has fallen from leader of the pack.

TVs - Of course, there was a plethora of 4K and OLED TVs that are amazing in clarity (4k is four times the definition of your HD TV, OLED is same definition as current HD, but much better quality), size (up to 100 inches), and price (up to thirty+ thousand dollars). Only thing small on them is the width of the screen at just 23mm. Samsung introduced a TV that can display two shows simultaneously. The 3D TVs that were supposed to be the next best thing to sliced bread last year were said to be dead on arrival this year.

Here are a few of my other observations:

Bad Tech, iPotty 

This is a training potty for youngsters with an ipad to distract them while they are supposed to learn what to do on the potty.

Cool Tech, Papertab - a tablet as flexible as paper and has a 10.7in plastic touchscreen display

It is as thin as a piece of paper with a fully interactive plastic touchscreen display. The tablet is powered by a second generation Intel Core i5 processor and aims to replace the need for paper. A few phones and pads will have bendable screens in the not too distant future. This technology has been discussed for a number of years, but finally has reached the demo stage and it is impressive. Samsung, who has been outselling Apple three to one has this 'Youm Flexible Display'. Awesome!

Dumb Tech, HAPIfork - This little device starts to vibrate if you are eating too fast.


Good Tech, Leap - My personal favorite (and I will be getting one when they come out in next few months) is a $69 sensor from Leap Motion that enables full control of PCs or other devices using hand and finger gestures.

The 3D motion control technology has the ability to track the movement of the user's hand (including all 10 fingers) at 290 frames per second, tracking movements to 1/100th millimeter. It will make any screen react as if it was touch screen, so you do not need to go buy a touch screen.

My observations and prognostications for the next few years: ubiquitous wireless everything, smartphones getting larger toward the 5 - 6 inch sweet spot, smartphones as the universal controller for everything from TV to stoves to robots, Apple needs a new device to remain competitive, the mouse will begin to go the way of the PC as new technologies, like touch screen and Leap become more common, personal privacy is dying faster than the rotary dial telephone, devices controlled by the mind are progressing beyond games and will continue to go mainstream, smaller proved to be not better as we went too small with phones, thinner is the new 'better'.