period

You've seen it on the wall in every science classroom, and now you can have it on your mobile gadget. Periodic Table is just about everything you could ask for in a study buddy. It's detailed, easy to explore, and even lets you do really deep calculations. Whether you're solving chemistry problems every day or just need to ace your Chem final, you'll want this app on your phone or tablet.

When your phone is in landscape mode, you'll see the table just like you've come to expect it. The app focuses on each … Read more

We've tried quite a few payroll programs over time, and they tend to share certain features, such as a database of company, employee, financial, and tax information that greatly simplifies the process of creating payrolls and reports. PayWindow 2012 Payroll System is a fine example of the type. Once you've populated its database with the facts it needs, doing the payroll becomes a matter of a few clicks, not hours of calculations. PayWindow 2012 (build 10) is free to try for 30 days and costs $89.95 to register.

It's probably safe to say that business owners … Read more

They say the shoes make the geek... or something like that. You don't have to wear a GameBoy dress or glowing Tron T-shirt to radiate your geekiness, however. Just throw on the right pair of shoes.

Geek Sneaks from geek outfitter KlearGear.com are designed for code monkeys, scientists, astronomers, and engineers. The shoe design is a simple slip-on, but it's the patterns that really stand out.… Read more

The Interactive Periodic Table of Swearing speaks both to the giggling inner 12-year-old and stressed-out adult in all of us. It's a big, electronic table with push buttons that prompt a rainbow of cuss words and phrases.

The table is rife with variations on F-bomb expletives. You can guess what phrase pushing the "Mf" button triggers. There are also some milder insults like "silly bastard" and "stinks like piss." The table is a British creation, so some of the curse words feature charming Briticisms like "arsehole" and "bollocks."

Heavier swears are to the left while lighter and more infantile interjections are to the right. This would certainly spice up your next chemistry lab.… Read more

Two small, but significant changes are coming to Sprint. And they're not changes that we like.

First off, Sprint has confirmed to PhoneScoop that it is shortening its return policy from 30 days to a mere 14 days. Of course, that means that new customers will have only two weeks to return new phones and leave service plans without incurring an early termination fee (ETF). If customers go past the 14 days, however, they will be locked into their contract and will be subject to the full or prorated ETF if they cancel early. Verizon Wireless made a similar change … Read more

For the most part, computers do a pretty good job of keeping accurate time, but every now and then they need some help. AnalogX Atomic TimeSync is a simple utility that lets users sync their system time with time information retrieved from the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, a government agency that's part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Although it's a fairly basic program, some of its features are more intuitive than others.

The program's interface is plain, with boxes displaying the local time on your computer, the network time retrieved from the server, and the … Read more

If you hadn't noticed, Barnes & Noble has a bunch of new brands that go along with its ever expanding Nook brand. On the straight e-book front, there's Nookbooks. Then you have Nookkids for digital content aimed at younger readers. And Nookfriends encompasses the social networking side of the Nook universe.

This week the company has chosen to highlight its Nooknewsstand brand, which includes Nookmagazine and Nooknewspaper, that it began marketing more heavily with the launch of the Nook Color last Fall. In a press release, Barnes & Noble says, "Digital periodical sales are exceeding expectations with … Read more

In the biggest development to rock the popular-science world since Pluto got demoted, 10 elements will see their atomic weights changed on the periodic table.

With the news, oversize posters and textbook inserts around the world (not to mention the tiny periodic table I've been carrying around in my wallet since the ninth grade) are about to become outdated.

The reason for the change is that atomic weights are not always as concrete as most general-chemistry students are taught, according to the University of Calgary, which made the announcement, and the snappily named International Union of Pure and Applied … Read more

In a forum post today, Amazon made a couple of small but significant Kindle announcements. First, it's soon going to make Kindle newspapers and magazines readable on any Kindle app, "so you can always read Kindle periodicals even if you don't have your Kindle with you or don't yet own a Kindle."

Second, the company said that later this year a lending feature will come to the Kindle, though it has the same restrictions as the current lending feature on the Barnes & Noble Nook.

"In the coming weeks, many newspapers and magazines will … Read more