Oops! I claimed an iPod on expenses again
It is good to know that the Department of Homeland Security is
making sure that Americans can sleep easy in their beds -
apparently it is all down to iPods. Last year 12 iPod Nanos and 42
iPod Shuffles were claimed on expenses for secret service "training
and data storage".
Unfortunately, party poopers in Congress have raised suspicions
that the iPods may not have been used for strictly professional
purposes.
It is that kind of unwarranted cynicism that has undermined many
a fine government project, but Downtime does acknowledge that it
may not be best for the official defenders of freedom to miss a
trick because they have their favourite Britney Spears track turned
up too loud.
Oh, and by the way, if you have seen any of the 100 missing
laptops or any of the 12 boats that have vanished, the department
would be very grateful to hear from you.
Did you hear what that chicken just said?
For years speech recognition technology has promised that we
would soon be yakking away to our computers like seasoned sci-fi
actors. Undeterred by the fact that most of us are still content to
jab away at a keyboard all day, speech technology is now moving on
to the animal kingdom.
Dubbed the Dr Dolittle Project, scientists are building a
database of animal sounds and accompanying behaviours.
By applying human speech technology to animal chatter, they have
been recording animals such as African elephants, dogs, whales and
chickens, in the hope that they can uncover the meaning of these
noises.
Ironically, knowing the meaning behind every cackle, bark,
growl, hiss and squawk may actually be more useful in your average
office.
The ultimate reality TV show on your mobile
Here at Downtime we all scoffed at the tales of anxious mums
setting up webcams to check up on the nanny from their work
desktop.
Dysfunctional, anti-social people that we are, we are much more
taken with a new offering from mobile security firm 3rd-i.
The company promises a mobile-based security system, where a
small camera equipped with motion sensors and infrared is placed in
your house. If the camera is triggered, the footage is beamed
directly to your mobile phone.
You can either view live footage of your valuables being ripped
off or be content with a text alert saying you have been
burgled.
Wonderful thing, technology.
If you need your gadget fixed, ask a woman
We were told again last week that the number of women in IT is
small and still shrinking - about one in five, at the latest count
- but research from Canon puts this statistic in an even worse
light.
Far from being technophobes, as the stereotype would have us
believe, Canon's research found that women love their gadgets and
are happier than men to try to fix them when they go wrong - 57%
are prepared to give it a crack, against 44% of men.
Rather than reading the manual a second time more attentively,
men are also more inclined to resort to violence if they cannot get
their gadgets to work first time.
"We have all been there," said Canon UK's managing director Andy
Vickers. "Something goes wrong with a device in the office and we
tend to turn it on and off a few times before hitting it."
Downtime was also less than shocked to hear that microwaves and
PCs were men's most-favoured bits of kit - and women love the
telephone above all else. Quelle surprise.