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As it turns out, not everyone wants a picture of their front door on Google Street View. Germans, for instance, are pushing back, according to an article I saw in Der Spiegel. Johannes Caspar is in charge of data privacy issues for the city of Hamburg, and according to the Spiegel article, he’s struck a deal that addresses 12 possible data privacy law violations.
You Asked: How do Google traffic maps work? — Nathan, Mcdonough, Ga. Marshall Answered: Google maps offers traffic data in 50 major American cities. You can go to this page to see the cities covered. In a given city, the traffic conditions are shown with a very simple red/yellow/green coloring scheme. If a road has [...]
We normally think of software bugs as minor problems. If your laptop crashes, so what? You might lose a few sentences in a document you are typing. That is about the worst thing that can happen if you are saving your work and backing up regularly. But there are some places where software bugs are [...]
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it would introduce a new Zune mp3 device this fall called the Zune HD. The new Zune will feature an OLED multi-touch screen and an HD Radio receiver. It will also have WiFi capability and an Internet browser. Zune HD owners will be able to access the Zune Marketplace wirelessly and purchase music directly from the service.
You Asked: Why do speakers make a hideous sound when you put GSM phones near them? — Adam, Forestville, Calif. Marshall Answered: What you are hearing is the sound of electromagnetic interference. The antenna on the phone is transmitting a signal that is getting picked up by the speaker wire and sent to the speakers. [...]
This is an hour-long documentary that explains, in a nut shell, how discrimination works. It demonstrates how easy it is to create a discriminatory environment based on any difference between people. It is based on an experiment first performed in a third grade classroom that separated students into two groups based on eye color. Part [...]
You Asked: What is the difference between vaccination and inoculation? — Oliver, Nottingham, Gibraltar Marshall Answered: You will commonly hear doctors and nurses talk about vaccinations, inoculations and immunizations interchangeably. They all mean approximately the same thing. You are getting a substance that protects you against some sort of virus. For example, to receive protection [...]
A dollar bill changer doesn’t just have to sense a bill’s denomination — it also needs to be able to tell whether bills are fake. Join Marshall Brain as he breaks down the science behind bill changers in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
One study reports that women cry roughly four times as often as men, and historically women are often depicted as more prone to weeping — but why? Learn more about crying in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
Smartphones have been very successful in the EU and Japan, but the US didn’t catch on until the iPhone. This isn’t an isolated incident — the US market often lags behind its foreign counterparts. Learn more in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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