Category: Geek Stuff

The votes are in and Barbie fans have selected the doll’s latest career: computer engineer! That’s right, in Winter 2010 you’ll be able to meet Computer Engineer Barbie. Here’s a snippet from Mattel’s press release:

Computer Engineer Barbie, debuting in Winter 2010, inspires a new generation of girls to explore this important high-tech industry, which continues to grow and need future female leaders.

To create an authentic look, Barbie designers worked closely with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to develop the wardrobe and accessories for Computer Engineer Barbie. Wearing a binary code patterned tee and equipped with all the latest gadgets including a smart phone, Bluetooth headset, and laptop travel bag, Computer Engineer Barbie is geek chic.

I really want to make a joke about this doll, but I think it’s a great thing (though the pink laptop is a bit much). I like that Mattel is encouraging young girls to explore professions that are dominated by males. Hopefully it will push hobbies that are considered “guy things” too. Bring on Gamer Barbie and Comic-Book Nerd Barbie!!!

Source via Boy Genius Report

In its ongoing effort to take over the world (would that make Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin tech’s Pinky and the Brain?), Google has announced that it’s launching an experimental fiber Internet service that will be available to 50,000 to 500,000 people. Product manager James Kelly stated:

We’re planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

To get your community involved in the project, head here.

Man…1Gbps Internet that’s not in Korea. I never thought I’d see the day. If services like this become the norm — and hopefully Google’s effort will force cable/phone companies to improve their offerings — then digital distribution will get here sooner than expected. From Google’s perspective, ridiculously fast Internet would make products like Chrome OS, Picasa, Gmail, Google Maps, etc. seem like native desktop apps. Cloud computing would seem like local computing.

Google’s new service could be huge for gamers and Internet junkies alike. I want it now!!!

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Aiming to keep its users attached to its products (and away from social networking services like Facebook, Twitter, etc.), Google has introduced a new feature to Gmail: Google Buzz. Gmail users will be able to share photos, videos, updates, and more. Check out the video below for more information.

As someone that runs his own web site, I love and loathe Google Buzz. I love that it gives me another way to reach people and increase traffic. I loathe that I have to add another task to promote articles.

I haven’t really thought about how and if I’ll use Buzz on a personal level, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

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It sounds like a ludicrous notion, but one of the most high-profile journalists in technology believes that Google’s Chrome web browser has a shot at overtaking Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in the next five years. PC Magazine’s Lance Ulanoff recently wrote:

Google Chrome’s market share numbers are skyrocketing, blowing past Safari and Opera to become the number three most-widely-used Web browser. That’s pretty impressive, and I don’t think it’s going to stop there. I fully expect it to overtake Firefox and challenge, if not beat, Microsoft Internet Explorer sometime in the next 5 years.

While I think there’s a great chance that Chrome will overtake (the alarmingly stagnating) Mozilla Firefox, I have a hard time believing that it can beat IE. Microsoft has a huge advantage in being the default web browser for the most popular operating system in the world. While Google has been making and will continue to make deals with PC vendors to make Chrome the default browser, but those are just drops in the bucket compared to IE. Of course things could change drastically as web browsing moves away from the PC and to mobile devices.

On my laptop, I use Chrome as my main browser and Firefox as my secondary. I rarely use IE. Just for the hell of it, here are the browser stats for RPad.tv visitors.

1. Firefox 41.83%
2. Safari 21.44%
3. Internet Explorer 20.52%
4. Chrome 11.93%
5. Opera 1.31%

What browser or browsers do you use every day?

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The latest great product from the wondrous world of Etsy is this completely cool Iron Man sticker for Apple MacBooks. The sticker makes the iconic Apple logo look like it’s one of Iron Man’s repulsor rays. That’s so awesome!!! It makes me want my dream MacBook (you know, the one with an Intel i5 processor) even more.

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Japanese Railway Central is bidding to bring it’s awesome magnetic-levitation trains to America for a proposed route that would link California to Florida. The trains can reach speeds over 360 miles per hour. That’s frickin’ fast by any standard, but especially so when you consider the sorry-ass trains currently roaming the country. CrunchGear served up more details:

A major requirement for these funds is that the products be American made. JR Central worked up a plan that involves major parts of the $3.5 billion project would be made locally. This would included infrastructure such as the signals, and track, while just parts of the rolling stock would be built by U.S. companies.

I’m pretty big on public transportation (grew up in NY). I’ve also taken a lot of train rides in Japan and love JR’s products. I would love for America to get futuristic mag-lev trains that look like they should have a wave-motion cannon. Come on America! Modernize your railways!!!

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Mozilla has released FireFox version 3.6 for Windows. I’ve been playing around with it for about an hour and I’m very impressed with the JavaScript improvements. It’s much, much faster than the previous version, though not quite as fast as Google Chrome in my limited experience. Version 3.6 also supports a feature called Personas, which gives your browser an adaptive theme if you’re into that sort of thing. Here are the full release notes if you want all the details. I recommend giving it a whirl just for the zipper JavaScript performance.

What browser(s) do you guys and gals use, btw? On my PC, Google Chrome is my main and FireFox is my secondary.