Kiran Upadhyay

In part infinity in our continuing series of heart-warming 3D-printing events, we present Liam and his amazing 3D-printed Clone Trooper arm. A cool dude named John Peterson printed the arm for Liam after learning about E-Nable, a group of volunteers who print arms and hands for kids. Liam’s arm, for example, is a RIT model that works with kids with an elbow but no forearm. Peterson built the arm in iconic black and white and presented it to him alongside the 501st Legion, a group of Star Wars enthusiasts who do good while wearing movie-perfect Storm Trooper gear. It’s nerd umami, really: 3D printing, Storm Troopers, cool makers, and little kids coming together for a taste sensation of feel-good amazingness and really nice 3D work. Peterson presented the arm to Liam after a movie in Augusta, GA while flanked by members of the Augusta branch of the 501st. Liam also received a helmet and certificate but, more important, he was able to use his arm to pick up cups and utensils for the ...

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas will chair the Senate subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, providing him with an oversight role of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA. That slight twinge you felt was the proper emotion. The Senator, by way of a single example, tried to reduce NASA funding to be, in his view, compliant with a Federal spending cut. His amendment failed on a party-line vote. The Huffington Post noted, when covering the Senator’s new gig, that he has disputed the science of climate change. And, as the same article points out, NASA has “conducted research on climate change,” making for something of an awkward combination. (Here’s NASA’s climate page, if you are so inclined.) Elections have consequences. Here’s NASA: In its recently released Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of t...

Duolingo, the popular language learning tool, today announced the launch of Duolingo for Schools, a service that makes it easier for schools to use its platform in a structured learning environment. Using this new service, teachers can use Duolingo for their classes and track their students’ progress through a centralized dashboard. From there, they can get detailed reports on the lessons their students took. There are already plenty of teachers who use the service informally and they will surely be happy to get access to these reports. With Duolingo for Schools, it will be easier for teachers to integrate the service into their lessons plans, assign it as homework or give students extra credit for using the service outside of class. More importantly, though, Duolingo may actually be able to give students a more personalized learning experience than a large classroom because the program can quickly figure out a student’s strengths and weaknesses and then fine-tune its lessons ...

They gave us a fully decentralized Internet and we used it to build web services–Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, iCloud–so massively centralized they verge on being quasi-medieval fiefdoms. Now we’re building the Internet of Someone Else’s Things, wherein every room of every home will contain devices controlled by servers the homeowners don’t know, control, or understand. What is wrong with us? Read More

“Kids spend too much time on tablets and smartphones, not enough time outside!” “They are losing key skills because they are spending too much time on video games and apps!” We hear statements like these constantly, but the fact is, technology is a part of our lives, including our children’s, and that isn’t likely to change. Instead of looking at tech as the ogre, why not consider the types of apps, games and programs children are using? Research from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center shows that less than half of the screen time for kids between ages 2-10 involves “educational” material. Parents should look for more positive and productive ways for kids to interact with devices. Screen time, if monitored and channeled properly, can provide meaningful experiences and outcomes for children.  Studies have shown that students can lose up to two months of mathematical and computational skills during summer break. Low-income students are particularly affected: they can lose...

In 2013, the Internet Archive kicked off a major effort to store and host hundreds of classic video games for free play via your Web browser, and after a late 2014 addition of classic arcade games, the site's Software Library exploded over the final week of 2014 with its biggest update yet: 2,334 MS-DOS games, all playable through a standard browser. "Some of [the games] will still fall over and die," longtime IA curator Jason Scott wrote on his personal blog when announcing the new game selection on Monday, but our cursory tests have shown off remarkably functional MS-DOS games in our web browser; they all run via the Em-DOSBOX emulator, an offshoot of the same emulator that powers many antiques sold at archival games sites like GOG.com. Keep that mute button handy, as we encountered some awful sound emulation quirks in classics like Jazz Jackrabbit, but thankfully, the games' speed and functionality remained intact. Scott also took the opportunity to ask gamer...

Douglas Trudeau of Tierra Antigua Realty in Tucson, Ariz., today became the first real estate agent who can legally use a drone for real estate photography. If you have recently looked at the listings in your local MLS (or on Zillow and Redfin), you have likely seen plenty of images that could have only come from a drone. Under the FAA’s strict definition, however, those weren’t taken legally, as the agency still prohibits almost all commercial use of drones. Trudeau, the FAA today announced, is authorized “to fly a Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter to enhance academic community awareness and augment real estate listing videos.” The Vision+ is currently the top-of-the-line model in DJI’s lineup of consumer drones (the $3,400 Inspire 1 doesn’t qualify as a consumer model in my eyes). In addition, the FAA also granted another exception to Advanced Aviation Solutions in Spokane, Wash., which will use a fixed-wing eBee AG drone from senseFly for monitoring crops. Tierra Antigua and Adv...