ups

A rude awakening behind the wheel

It's been months since we heard about scientists researching a car seat that would detect when a driver is getting sleepy, but there's still no word that it'll ever become reality. So until then, we're stuck with intravenous supplies of caffeine and other, more rudimentary technologies to keep us awake behind the wheel.

On that front, companies are taking small steps to refine wearable alarms that will scream your ears off if your head begins to bob in slumber-like fashion. The "Anti-Sleep Driving Alarm," for example, is smaller than previous models and can be … Read more

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week WiiWare gets two new additions, while the Virtual Console gets a classic scrolling shooter. Virtual Console

SkyKid (1985, NES, 500 Wii points): SkyKid is a horizontal scrolling shooter that has you battling in the skies in order to save Bird Land--yes that's what it's called. Grab the bombs on each level and drop them on various targets to advance.

WiiWare

Critter Round-Up (Konami, 1,000 Wii points): All the animals have escaped and it's up to you to get them back. The puzzle game includes more than 50 levels with various environments. Star Soldier R (… Read more

If the TouchWall had a gambling baby brother

Let Bill Gates have his TouchWall. You can still be the envy of your friends with the "Heads-Up Challenge" digital poker table.

Unlike the "iDealer" or its mahjong counterpart, this one truly brings the game of champions into the Digital Age by using a large touch screen to shuffle, deal, calculate odds, and pay the winner. And get this: It will even let you peel up the cards, according to Chip Chick.

Unfortunately it can handle only two players--hence the name, which refers to a one-on-one game. But it certainly beats that other wireless poker game, … Read more

Quick Tip: Closing pop-ups the safe way

Confronting a pop-up is one of those times when your gut reaction might lead you down the path of frustration and tears. If the "X" is spring-loaded with malware, anywhere you click on the pop-up could trigger that virus.

This is the path less traveled--the majority of pop-ups truly are the ads they appear to be--but when a pop-up does deliver malware, undoing the damage could be a tense, jittery journey. We get enough panicky Spyware Horror Story submissions to know that so-called button flips and booby-trapped Close buttons continue to deliver malicious payloads.

So what is the … Read more

Close pop-ups safely

(See this tip in action at CNET TV)

No matter how good your pop-up blocker is, every so often one of these suckers slips through. No big deal, right? You just click on the 'X' to close it, right? WRONG!

Here's a quick tip for how to close pop-ups safely.

You don't want to click on that 'X' because some nasty pop-ups may deliver malicious software to your computer no matter where you click, even clicking the 'X' to close the pop-up window.

We know this because of the horror stories sent by users to Jessica Dolcourt at … Read more

Study: A profile of the U.S. tech entrepreneur

Have you founded a tech company?

Chances are, if you're a U.S. entrepreneur, you're about 39 years old and hold a bachelor's degree, and there's a good chance your company was started in the same state where you received your education, according to a study released Thursday by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and researchers from Duke and Harvard universities.

Based on a study of U.S. entrepreneurs who started their companies between 1995 and 2005, the findings show the median age of U.S.-born founders was 39 years old, with only 1 percent … Read more

Kleiner Perkins said to form 'Green Growth' fund

Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers is forming a "Green Growth" fund for green-tech start-ups looking to scale up their operations.

PEWeek reported on Thursday that the fund will be over $400 million and have input from Kleiner Perkins partner Al Gore.

The idea behind a late-stage funds such as this is to give up-and-coming companies the money to ramp up, rather than develop their core technology.

This late-stage funding is particularly important in the energy business because companies require a large amount of capital to test their technology at commercial scale.

Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, … Read more

'GPS Mail Logger': Lazy postman's worst enemy

Our favorite Seinfeld character, Newman, was a U.S. postal worker who had a simple solution when he got behind in his deliveries: He'd just stow the mailbags in the basement. If you suspect your own mailman saw that episode and got the same idea, read on.

The "Micro GPS Mail Logger" is designed to be tucked in with the mail and, after delivery, the recipient can track where it's been between origin and destination by examining the data on its microSD card. Bendable and a half-inch thick, it's small enough to fit into packages … Read more

Intel Mash Maker: Mash-ups for the masses

Intel wants to make the whole Web editable, just like a single Wikipedia page.

The chip giant on Tuesday will make a beta available of Intel Mash Maker, a free browser extension that allows users to modify Web pages and combine information from different sources. Its first beta works with Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 7, though at this point the features are far more mature in Firefox, Intel said.

The product, which originated in Intel's research labs, is similar to existing mash-up tools like Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft Popfly in that it has a graphical design tool.

What's different is that the actual mashing up of information on Intel Mash Maker happens on the client, rather than the server. So instead of making a different Web application to, say, plot real estate listings on Google Maps, Intel Mash Maker lets people add a widget that adds visualization to the real estate listing site.

… Read more