Kent Displays develops "paper thin" electronic skin for mobiles
by Darren Murph 
posted Oct 29th 2008 at 9:50AM
[Thanks, Tod]
ohio posts
[Thanks, Tod]
Diebold comes clean, admits that its e-voting machines are faulty
by Darren Murph posted Aug 23rd 2008 at 8:29PM
For years, Diebold has embarrassed itself by claiming that obvious faults were actually not faults at all, and during the past decade or so, it mastered the act of pointing the finger. Now that it has ironically renamed itself Premier Election Solutions, it's finally coming clean. According to spokesman Chris Riggall, a "critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point" has been part of the software for ten years. The flaw is on both optical scan and touchscreen machines, and while Mr. Riggall asserts that the logic error probably didn't ruin any elections (speaking of logic error...), the outfit's president has confessed to being "distressed" about the ordeal. More like "distressed" about the increasingly bleak future of his company.[Via Techdirt]
AMP test drives all-electric Saturn Sky on video
by Darren Murph posted Aug 4th 2008 at 12:59AM
[Via AutoblogGreen]
Ohio report recommends scrapping electronic voting
by Evan Blass posted Dec 17th 2007 at 9:32AM
Like California and Florida before it, habitual swing state Ohio has just issued a report slamming its three providers of electronic voting equipment -- including, of course, renamed Diebold -- and recommending that the 50 counties which use them scrap the machines in favor of a paper-trail-leaving optical scanning method. The report, commissioned by Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, details the ways in which white hat hackers were able to infiltrate the systems, easily picking locks, using portable devices to manipulate vote counts, and even introducing "malignant software" into boards of election servers. Brunner's plan calls for the entire state's voting infrastructure to be overhauled by next year's presidential elections, a move likely to be lauded by touchscreen voting's many critics, but coming "about eight years too late, jerks -- thanks a lot," according to usually-even-tempered former candidate Al Gore.Teenager hit by train whilst texting, somehow survives
by Darren Murph posted Aug 23rd 2007 at 1:06AM
Granted, this isn't the first run-in we've seen between trains and an SMS-minded individual, but the former story certainly didn't involve a train coming into contact with a human. This time, however, an 18-year old Ohio resident managed to get carted away from a devastating collision after being struck by an oncoming locomotive. The kid apparently waited for one train to pass, but rather than double-checking for anything coming in the opposite direction, he simply forged ahead. Consequently, he was thrown 50-feet and knocked unconscious mid-sentence, but is thankfully recovering in a Cincinnati hospital.[Via Switched]
Man sues over red-light cameras for $3 million
by Joshua Topolsky posted Jun 21st 2007 at 6:35AM
David A. Czech is crazy upset about tickets, so he's suing the city of Northwood, Ohio, its police department, and an Arizona-based maker of red-light cameras (which automatically snap photos of traffic violations). The suit alleges that the cameras are part of an "unconstitutional ordinance to extort money" put in place by the city, and Mr. Czech (on behalf of himself and 20,000 other "offenders") is asking for a $3 million payback and an injunction barring use of the cameras. This isn't the first case of its kind that we've seen -- and it undoubtedly won't be the last, considering the recent spate of these systems being utilized across the nation.[Thanks, Simon]
RIAA lists top 25 universities handing out piracy notices
by Darren Murph posted Feb 22nd 2007 at 9:56PM
The "good guys" have tried to tempt college kids with free legal music for far too long to no avail, and after continuous failed attempts at gaining traction here in the US, it's no surprise that the RIAA would devote precious man-hours to concocting a most-wanted list of pirating schools. It should be noted that the top 25 is based on the amount of warnings sent out from the university to its students, and some schools may be omitted simply due to a lack of response on the administration's end. Nevertheless, it's reported that over three times as many infringement notices have been sent out during the 2006 - 2007 school year versus the year prior, but the RIAA did attribute some of that boost to its heightened awareness and tracking capabilities. Interestingly enough, the top spot holder doesn't seem to be overly concerned about its position, as Purdue feels the "service provider" shouldn't be the one lashing out at "criminals," essentially brushing that RIAA grief right off its shoulder. Still, we all know what you're here for, and that's to see if your alma mater made the dubious cut (full list after the jump), and while some here at Engadget can [Via TWW]
MasterCard tries to best EZ-Pass with PayPass
by Omar McFarlane posted Dec 28th 2006 at 3:04AM
While riding around the roads, paying for tolls have always either been cash or a windshield mounted transponder like EZ-Pass or FasTrak. Well, for some motorists in Ohio, there's now a third option. For the next three months, select exit tolls along the Ohio Turnpike will be outfitted with self-service machines that accept MasterCard's PayPass. The trial run allows drivers wielding the appropriate cards to easily pay their toll with the contact-less system, not unlike the EZ-Pass. Vending machines around those exits will also sport PayPass options for added convenience. Hopefully, this convenience won't also be making life easier for hackers.[Via The Wireless Report]
Nanofiber bandages slated to heal en masse next year
by Darren Murph posted Dec 14th 2006 at 4:44PM
While we've seen a few snazzy band-aids in our day, not to mention talking first aid kits, a nanofiber bandage that can heal typical skin wounds faster is about to go mainstream. University of Akron professors Daniel Smith and Darrell Reneker are growing ever closer to bringing their invention to life, as a trial just wrapped up in Columbia that they hope will "win them FDA approval for clinical trials in the United States." The duo used electricity to spin ultrafine polymer fibers while infusing them with chemicals that open a wound to oxygen; then, the treated fibers "reduce inflammation, kill bacteria and repair slow-healing wounds faster than conventional methods," according to Smith. Moreover, the creators have already found a Minnesota-based firm willing to mass produce the nanobandages should they receive the green light, but the professors are hoping to build the new manufacturing plant in Ohio if at all possible, and have products on retail shelves "by 2008" at the latest. Given the presumed popularity of the quick-healing bandages, the team is continuing to work on other "nanofiber products" in their spare time, hoping that the mending aid is just the beginning of a long line of sweet nano-based products to come.[Via MedGadget]
Ohio hotel to implement RFID room-key wriststraps
by Cyrus Farivar posted Dec 12th 2006 at 3:30AM
Well, if RFID is good enough for passports and credit cards, then it must certainly be good enough for hotel rooms, right? Apparently that's the logic at the Great Wolf Lodge at Paramount King's Island in Mason, Ohio (that's just outside Cincinnati), which will be implementing RFID-enabled wristbands when the hotel opens on December 14. The wristband will open your hotel room door and pay for food and drinks at various locations while on the theme-park island. Of course, given all that we've heard about RFID being hacked left and right, we're not exactly convinced that making it easier for someone to gain access to your hotel room is a good idea. But perhaps those folks in Mason are too busy reading Blogging Ohio instead of Engadget to worry about such fussiness.[Via The Wireless Report]
Crooks tie up victims with power cord whilst stealing PlayStation
by Darren Murph posted Nov 29th 2006 at 3:26PM
While this one came oh-so-close to being filed under the ongoing PS3 crime spree chronicles, the inability to pinpoint the PlayStation unit crooks nabbed as one of the highly-coveted "3" models forced us to clump this in with the smorgasbord of other (general) utterly dumb criminal acts. While it wouldn't surprise us to find that the armed burglars who ransacked a Cincinnati home were indeed after the mighty lucrative PS3, their bafflingly high level of stupidity leaves us to wonder if it wasn't a PlayStation 2 (or worse, a PSOne). The robbers reportedly bum rushed the house with their eyes on the prize, tied up the victims with a "PlayStation power cord," bolted out while laughing evilly, and then realized they needed the very cable they left behind. Similar to the crook who jacked a TV but returned for the remote, these guys apparently forgot the keys to pulling off an even marginally successful heist, but thankfully didn't harm the poor family they intruded upon. The wonders of humanity will never cease.[Thanks, Matt M.]
Mario question cube girls let off
by Ryan Block posted Apr 8th 2006 at 5:51PM
Remember those five teenage girls from
Ravenna, Ohio, who on the eve of April first placed seventeen Mario Bros. inspired question cubes around town? Well,
after HAZMAT, the Fire Dept. and the five-O were called in and the dust settled it looked like those little ladies were
in for some serious trouble. Though it turns out the town of 12,000's dropping the case against them, the case
prosecutor stating of the squeaky-clean teens he does "not believe that they had any bad or malicious
intentions." Gee, ya think? Sure, we can understand a little why some people who didn't ever play Mario (unlike
Engadget or our readers) might have gotten concerned at the sight of these boxes, but we're just glad that a slight
case of Midwest terrorist hysteria didn't ultimately result in some crazed teenage witch hunt.[Via Joystiq]
