A teenage school blog
Archive for February, 2010
Earthquake strikes Chile
Feb 27th
A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 has hit central Chile, killing at least 78 people, ministers say.
The quake struck at 0634 GMT about 115km (70 miles) north-east of the city of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital, Santiago.
President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe” in affected areas and appealed for calm.
People are moving to higher ground on Easter Island amid fears of a tsunami. Alerts are in place across the Pacific.
Tsunami warnings have been issued for Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Central America and Pacific island nations.
Santiago airport has been closed and all flights cancelled until further notice, airline officials say. Flights are being diverted to Mendoza in Argentina. 
[BBC UK]
Cleankeys Touch Sensitive Keyboard
Feb 25th
Did you know that your run of the mill keyboard is basically a gigantic apartment complex for bacteria? Gross, no? Thankfully there’s Cleankeys, a keyboard that bulldozes that shit and replaces it with a sleek, sterile touch-sensitive slab. Wiping a standard keyboard with a disinfecting cloth kills about 5% of bacteria. Cleankeys claims the same test kills 99% of bacteria on their keyboard, simply because they have nowhere to hide. The wireless keyboard trades actual keys for touch-sensitive ones, so in exchange for a much more sanitary experience you’ll be giving up that satisfying clickity-clack you’ve grown accustomed to. It’s intended for use at hospitals where keyboard-germs are a serious issue, though I’d imagine it might pique the interest of regular old germaphobes too.
The Cleankeys keyboard includes a trackpad for clicking about and uses patent-pending technology to keep it from registering keystrokes when you’re just resting your hands on the thing. That way your doctor doesn’t accidentally diagnose you with alsdfjasgyboxicyuixccccccccc. A molded model costs $400 and a glass version will run you $50 more. No one said your campaign against germs was gonna be cheap. [cleanKeys]
HDMI 1.4’s 3D Spec
Feb 5th
3D’s happening whether you like it or not — but the good news is that there won’t be any format war to go with the adoption of the new tech. At least that’s the sense we’ve been getting, as most manufacturers are adopting active shutter glasses, delivery will happen on cable, satellite, and Blu-ray, and now the HDMI Licensing group has opened up the 3D portion of the HDMI 1.4 spec so non-licensees can make their gear compatible. There’ll be some changes coming down the pike in HDMI 1.4a, but that’s also due for public release, so really we’ll all be one big dorky family in 3D glasses when this is all over.