Science and Technology

App of the Week: What Is the Deal with Vine Anyway?

If you don't follow social media closely (hey, good for you!), you may be wondering what the hell a Vine is and why it has been in the news lately? Good question. Vine is another free social media app for smartphones built to share super short videos in much the same way Instagram shares videos but ... More >>

"Feds Order 1.6 Billion Bullets" -- New Spam E-Mail Goes After FEMA Conspiracy Theorists and Sports Fans?

Spammers don't care about your political causes or your beliefs. They prey on the innocent and the naive, which is why a recent spate of e-mails I've received using conspiracy theory scare tactics does not surprise me in the least. I am not a "prepper," nor do I fear the end of the world or being j ... More >>

Spotify Launches Traditional Television Ad Campaign This Week

Spotify is launching its first-ever advertising campaign this week, with an ad debuting tonight during NBC's premiere of its new season of The Voice, hoping to capitalize on music fans who haven't yet made the leap to streaming music services. The three initial ads are heavy on emotion and slow-mo ... More >>

The Tangled Web We Watch: A Bizarre Episode of Father-Son Bonding in the 21st Century

Ten Ways the Smartphone is the Swiss Army Knife of Technology

Growing up, I loved the Swiss Army knife I got from my dad. They came in what seemed like a million variations. Mine had several knives including the one that looked like a saw as well as a corkscrew (not sure why dad thought I needed that one), combination bottle opener/flathead screwdriver, a toot ... More >>

The 10th Anniversary Of The Shuttle Columbia Disaster: Worst Hoax Ever

Today is the 10th anniversary of the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, which blew apart as it was gliding across Texas to a Florida landing. All seven crew members died, and Texans were poking around the Piney Woods for weeks looking for debris. NASA is keeping a low profile for the anniver ... More >>

500px Mobile App Pulled from Apple Store Over Boobs, Victim of Apple's Bizarre Double Standard When It Comes to Nudie Pics

The Apple App store has an incredibly byzantine set of rules that make it almost impossible for app developers to navigate. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the approval process is often random and unevenly applied. Take for instance the case of 500px, a mobile photo-sharing app not that ... More >>

Promised Land's Hard Sell

For Matt Damon and company, the message is the message.

Nerd Humor: NASA Gets Clever With "Why the World Didn't End" and Gangnam Style Parody Videos

Nerds have a sense of humor and when those nerds also have cool toys and a desire to get people more interested in their world, they can come up with some pretty damn clever concoctions. In this case, the nerds in question are at our own Johnson Space Center where they have created a couple of video ... More >>

A Local Venue With an App? Mucky Duck Has One... and It's Good

Survival in the hospitality business is rough. The vast majority of restaurants fail. Bars are an even tougher go, and nightclub success is even slimmer. That puts live music venues on the lowest rung of the success ladder. So, it is understandable when a live music venue, struggling to get by, is ... More >>

Internet Scam from DNS Services Sends Solicitation That Looks Like an Invoice

I've worked as a web developer for 15 years and I've seen a lot of scams related to domain names. At least a couple times a month, one of my clients will forward an e-mail to me with some sort of "request to verify domain name" or "domain name registry" service. Scams like that are pretty commonplac ... More >>

Eater National's Talia Baiocchi Joins Wine Spectator Team

UPDATE AND CLARIFICATION: We received word from Talia Baiocchi that this post has caused some confusion. She is not leaving her position as wine editor at Eater National. She is picking up a weekly column for the Wine Spectator in addition to her current job with Eater. New York-based, twenty-some ... More >>

Houston Wine Blogger Community Grows

One of the things that I love the most about wine blogging is the community it creates and the way it brings together people from different corners of society and all walks of life. After all, I fell in love and decided to move to Texas after I met my wife Tracie P through wine blogging. The Housto ... More >>

Almost There: My Digital ACL Festival Experience

Knowing what's happening at a major music festival is easier than ever. Bloggers post daily recaps, people tweet updates round the clock, and Instagram provides a world of images for those that can't afford to make the trip. Rewind: ACL 2013: What's Next For Texas' Other Big Music Festival? Rocks ... More >>

Cover Story: Is Biomedical Testing on Primates Still Necessary?

On October 24, scientists from around the world will come to San Antonio to discuss how testing on monkeys might one day lead to an AIDS cure. They'll be talking baboons, macaques, and vervets at the 30th Annual Symposium on Nonhuman Primate Models for AIDS, not chimpanzees. Once thought to be the ... More >>

New Cracks in the Frack

Pesky little complaints like pollution, flaming water and abandoned homes continue to cast doubt on the argument that drilling into shale will benefit all.

5 Things The Shuttle Endeavour Needs To Do In Its Houston Layover

NASA is trying to make a big PR splash with its crosscountry trip, of the retired shuttle Endeavour, including a nose-thumbing stopover of Houston, the city who didn't get a shuttle despite being the home of NASA. See Also: - Retired Shuttles: Houston Even Finished Behind McMinnville, Oregon - Eigh ... More >>

Houston's Consolation Prize: Space Shuttle Endeavour Gets A Conjugal Visit

A little bit of Houston died last year when Atlantis returned from its final mission and NASA put the breaks on the space shuttle program. The wound was exacerbated by the announcement a few months prior that Houston would not become home to retired shuttle, but that New York and California would. ... More >>

Four Things It Appears the New iPhone 5 Still Doesn't Have

Schiller: "We designed the iPhone 5 to fit your hand. Exactly where your money used to be."— Brent Ozar (@BrentO) September 12, 2012 I've owned an iPhone for over a few years and upgrades. I've thoroughly praised it for being an integral part of my daily life, from apps to the phone itself. ... More >>

Alternatives to Five of the Pricier Software Titles

The Business Software Alliance announced last week that it had come to an agreement with local business Affordable Power, LP, to settle legal claims that the company pirated software titles. According to the release: As part of the settlement, Affordable Power agreed to pay $150,000 to settle legal ... More >>

Five Ways the Cell Phone Camera Has Changed the Way We Live

When I was a kid, I used to follow my dad around with a Kodak Instamatic he got me from a drugstore. He was the pro in the family, shooting photos for magazines and for himself. Like most shutterbugs, he had an ample collection of lenses and camera bodies. When I turned 12, he bought me my first rea ... More >>

An Evening with Gwendolyn Zepeda

Hurricane Season 2012: The Predictions -- A Quiet Year in the Tropics?

With so few storms impacting the U.S. last season and with one of the worst droughts in recorded history gripping our region, it would be tempting to think that last year was a down year in hurricane production. In fact, it was quite the opposite. In 2011, the Atlantic produced 19 named storms incl ... More >>

"Egyptomania"

“Dinosaurs! at the Houston Zoo presented by Orkin”

State and EPA Battle Over Fracking, Flaming Well Water

When Steve Lipsky blamed fracking for turning his water well into a flamethrower, he set off an epic battle between the EPA and Texas.

Fracking Wreaks Fiery Havoc with Texas's Well Water

Fracking is supposed to be an energy godsend, a cheap way to get lots of natural gas. But property owners are finding it brings along with it such problems as flames coming out of their water hoses and wells, and poisonous chemicals in their drinking water. There's a big fight going on nationwide, ... More >>

Jose Hernandez: Shuttle Vet Allowed To Call Himself "Astronaut"

Jose Hernandez flew on the space shuttle in 2009 and worked on the International Space Station, but he's been having a court battle over whether he can refer to himself as an "astronaut." Hernandez, who stirred up some controversy with his immigration stances as an astronaut, retired in 2011 and i ... More >>

Shell Eco-Challenge Marathon

App of the Week: iCab -- A Highly Recommended Alternative to Safari

App: iCab Platform: iPhone, iPad Website: iCab Mobile Cost: $1.99 One of the great innovations of cell phone technology is the ability to use the web on a phone in much the same way you use it on your computer. When the iPhone first emerged, Apple's Safari browser was included and it was a revelati ... More >>

Tut, Tut

There are some fascinating objects in this wannabe blockbuster, but mainly it's a grab for crowds and cash.

Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention: Inside the World of Wank-Craft

Most conventions are pants-mandatory kinds of affairs -- even those of the adult nature. For the world's first virtual porn convention, however, I'm not wearing any (relax...I'm in my PJs). This past weekend, XBiz and Red Light Center hosted the Adult Entertainment Virtual Convention, porn's first ... More >>

Meet Chris Clackson, Hockey Player, App Developer

It's been a strange season for the Aeros. They shot off to a quick start, having the best record in the league for the first month or so. Then the injury bug hit the parent club, and key player after key player got the call to join the Wild, leaving the Aeros depleted and relying on young players ... More >>

Are Streaming Sites Ensuring The Music Industry's Long-Term Survival?

The look on my face when I couldn't hear "Temporary Secretary" on Rdio.​This past week, Paul McCartney's team pulled most of his catalog - including his works with Wings - off streaming music sites such as Rdio, Rhapsody, Spotify and MOG. Listeners are now deprived of Band On the Run, Back To ... More >>

Skylab IV Splashed Down on This Day: Five Things the Most Complaining Space Crew Ever Bitched About

Skylab IV: Not happy campers​Skylab IV splashed down on this day in 1974, ending the last mission to America's first space station. They were glad to get home. The crew of Skylab IV -- William Pogue, Gerald Carr and Edward Gibson -- became famous for the sheer amount of complaining they did. ... More >>

App of the Week: App Shopper

App: App Shopper Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac Web site: AppShopper.com Cost: Free The iPhone may be good for many things -- most of those may be the result of cool little apps that extend its features -- but finding cool apps via the App Store is not one of them. Calling the App Store utilitarian i ... More >>

Google Shuttering Popular Photo Editing Tool Picnik: Top 8 Alternatives

Google announced that as of April 19, it will shut down Picnik, an online photo editing tool acquired by the company in 2010, and bundle some of the editing tools into their over-arching Google platform. The staff of Picnik remains with Google and apparently is working to add features from the edit ... More >>

App of the Week: Dragon Dictation and Dragon Go!

​App: Dragon Dictation and Dragon Go! Platform: iPhone, Android Website: http://www.nuance.com Cost: Free So, let's say you decided earlier in 2011 that you were going to upgrade your iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4. Let's also say that you were impatient and had no desire to wait until, supposedly, ... More >>

Kindle Goes Solar, But Leaves the Fire in the Dark

A new product for the Kindle family of e-readers has hit the market, but sorry Kindle Fire owners, it's not for you. The new SolarKindle Lighted Cover is for the Kindle 4. The front of the cover is a solar-panel and reports are that as little as one hour in the sun will give you three days of readin ... More >>

Life in the Universe

Manipulate And Control A Captive Katy Perry (As A New Sim Character That Is)

Huh-huh-huh-huh ​Today the makers of The Sims 3: Showtime announced that Katy Perry will be a playable character on this expansion pack off of The Sims 3, coming in March for whatever it is you play The Sims on. We haven't played the game in years, becuase all we did was build houses for avata ... More >>

White and Nerdy: Explaining SOPA vs GoDaddy for the Tech-Challenged

When trying to explain the debate over the Stop Online Piracy Act and the involvement of domain name registrar GoDaddy in a staff meeting this week, my words were met with collective blank stares, as if I were speaking a different language. It is a look I often get from Web-design clients when I tal ... More >>

Five Factors That Will Influence the Growth of Streaming Music in 2012

We all know that in December of 2012, the Mayan calendar ends as will the world, but before that fateful day, I've got a lot of music to listen to and, like many, I seem to be doing that increasingly on my computer and via streaming music services. Whether it is Pandora or Grooveshark or Last.FM or ... More >>

Last Minute Shopping: The 10 Best Online Retailers (Not Named Amazon.com)

​For a decade now, online retailers have increasingly grown their sales to the point they now rival traditional brick and mortar establishments. Let's face it, it's just easier to shop online if you have a computer, an internet connection and a desire to avoid crowds. You can sit there with a ... More >>

Cover Story: Foster Kids on Antipsychotics

​Here's a riddle: If the Texas Attorney General sues a drug manufacturer for allegedly lying about the safety and efficacy of one of its antipsychotics, why would the state agency that oversees the foster care system still allow that drug to be given to kids as young as three? Why would the s ... More >>

Black Keys Not Licensing New Record to Streaming Services

​There's been a furor brewing among people who love streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio over bands like Coldplay denying licensing to those services for new releases. Older albums are available, but bands have essentially delayed the release to streaming services. That was all well ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Another Wine Blog: Love born in the blogosphere. It's a beautiful thing. A few weeks ago, when I shared a glass of stinky, delicious Cortese (from Piedmont) with tandem wine bloggers Amy and Joe Power, authors of Another Wine Blog, they told me the story of how they met in the "pre-blog" era, in a ... More >>

7 Gifts for Your Nerdy Little Audiophile

In a classic bit of stand up comedy, Steve Martin described his obsessive search for the best stereo system of the day. He kept adding more and more speakers until he finally reached the "google-phonic" stereo with the closest number of speakers to infinity, which, like all the rest, sounded like sh ... More >>

Is Spotify Ripping off Artists?

​Spotify made one hell of an entrance in July. Swedish-founded and U.K.-headquartered, Spotify arrived the States three months ago to adoring fans. Like a new bride, glowing in the light, flashing that pizza smile logo at us. Everyone wanted a piece of the sexy digital jukebox. Now that the ve ... More >>

A Pendulum In Space: Kids Learn It Ain't The Same

NASA has posted new videos of International Space Station astronauts doing experiments proposed by schoolkids, and it includes this easy-to-grasp one. Everyone knows how a pendulum acts on Earth. How about in zero gravity? Astronaut Cady Coleman -- who shows again why she made our list of Seven Wil ... More >>