Inside Design Visionaries

goo.gl

Google has launched a website for their URL shortener here.

Google says:

Stability: We've had near 100% uptime since our initial launch, and we've worked behind the scenes to make goo.gl even stabler and more robust.
Security: We've added automatic spam detection based on the same type of filtering technology we use in Gmail.
Speed: We've more than doubled our speed in just over nine months.

You can also get an extension for Chrome or Firefox.

Extra!! According to Matt Cuts, if you add .qr, you get QR code!

April Fools' Day

Good luck today!

Trivia Question-BTUs-Answer

Q: Which will yield the most BTUs of energy--a gallon of oil, a pound of coal or a gallon of gasoline?

A: A gallon of oil.

Trivia Question-BTUs

Which will yield the most BTUs of energy--a gallon of oil, a pound of coal or a gallon of gasoline?

*Answer will be posted March 17.

Ada Lovelace Day

What is Ada Lovelace Day? And who is Ada Lovelace?

Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.

The first Ada Lovelace Day was held on 24th march 2009 and was a huge success. It attracted nearly 2000 signatories to the pledge and 2000 more people who signed up on Facebook. Over 1200 people added their post URL to the Ada Lovelace Day 2009 mash-up. The day itself was covered by BBC News Channel, BBC.co.uk, Radio 5 Live, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Metro, Computer Weekly, and VNUnet, as well as hundreds of blogs worldwide.

In 2010 Ada Lovelace Day will again be held on 24th March and the target is to get 3072 people to sign the pledge and blog about their tech heroine.

Ada Lovelace Day is organised by Suw Charman-Anderson, with design and development support from TechnoPhobia and hosting from UKHost4U.

Get more info about Ada Lovelace Day.

Answer-This week's trivia question

Which of these materials has the highest thermal conductivity?

Aluminum

Copper

Silver

Gold

Diamond

The answer is diamond. Don't tell anyone.

Trivia Question

Which of these materials has the highest thermal conductivity?

Aluminum

Copper

Silver

Gold

Diamond

We'll post the answer on Thursday.

Best Quote Ever?

“As president, I believe that robotics can inspire young people to pursue science and engineering.

And I also want to keep an eye on those robots in case they try anything.”

-President Barack Obama, in a speech regarding his "Educate to Innovate" campaign

This week in history . . .

October 7, 1913 - Henry Ford institutes moving assembly line

October 7, 1959 - USSR probe Luna 3 transmits first photos from the dark side of the Moon

October 9, 1930 - 1st transcontinental flight by a woman completed, Laura Ingalls

October 7, 1868 - Cornell University holds opening day ceremonies; initial student enrollment is 412, the highest at any American university to that date.

Galileo's Telescope-400 years ago today

On this day, exactly 400 years ago (August 25, 1609, to be exact), Galilei Galileo, Italian mathematician, debuted his new invention, the telescope.  Galileo's telescope, which was not the first, was made of wood and leather.  It magnified eight times, and had a convex main lens. Its concave eyepiece allowed images to be seen right side up, unlike other telescopes of the period.