combine

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--To modernize a 1940s power plant for better efficiency, its owner turned to an underground steam pipe system designed in the 19th century.

Operators of the Kendall Station power plant here are planning to construct a pipeline to ship excess steam from the plant to heat buildings in Boston and Cambridge. The pipeline, which will cross the river near the mouth of the Charles River, will add capacity to the existing underground district heating system and lighten the plant's environmental impact.

During a tour of the facility last week, the companies involved said they hope to get … Read more

Our least favorite type of program is the kind that takes what should be a simple task and needlessly complicates it. Unfortunately, that seems to be the entire point of Merge. This program takes the process of merging two images--something that can be done easily in countless other programs--and makes it a confusing, frustrating, nonsensical mess.

The program's interface is both unintuitive and extremely unattractive. A dockable toolbar on the right side of the interface contains a series of unlabeled buttons and collapsible menus that represent the program's features. We had an easy enough time selecting the two … Read more

Wi-Fi is great, but unfortunately, the wireless signal oftentimes can't reach that far corner in the basement.

In this case, currently, the best solution is to get a pair of power-line adapters that turn your home's electrical wiring into data cables to extend your wired network without running network cables all over the place.

There are many different power-line kits on the market, such as the Plaster Networks PLN3, the Linksys PLK300, or the Western Digital Livewire. All of them work well but share a few common attributes: you'll need two adapters to make up one power-line connection, and each solution has its own esoteric way for you to set it up and manage it.

Wouldn't it be nice if the router itself had built-in support for the technology so you need just one adapter at the far end and have one central place to manage the wired power line and Wi-Fi network? It indeed would be, and more importantly, it will be available soon.

Atheros, maker of networking chipsets that power many networking solutions, announced today a new family of hybrid home-networking solutions that combines the popular consumer networking technologies into one. More specifically, the solution combines Wi-Fi, HomePlugAV Powerline, and Ethernet into an all-in-one solution for the home.

Atheros claims that the new solution not only boosts network bandwidth but also provides unprecedented simplicity to set up and optimize coverage. Its new family of network solutions includes: … Read more

Diptic is a fairly simple program that lets you make cool-looking collages using photos you take with your camera or what you have stored in your iPhone's photo library. You start by selecting from 20 different layouts, such as one photo across the top with three smaller ones across the bottom, or one big image on the left with four small shots down the right side, as examples. Then, just add images to each frame and move or zoom each one to make it fit just right. From there you can rotate an image 90 degrees within a frame … Read more

Routine use of robotic lift trucks may not be far off.

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, along with a team of engineers, have transformed a Toyota 8-Series lift truck into an autonomous bot capable of working alongside human supervisors using voice commands or hand gestures.

The 3,000-pound-capacity lift truck from Toyota Material Handling (TMHU) is capable of locating, lifting, moving, and placing supplies while traversing just about any type of terrain. It was demonstrated last month at an event hosted by the U.S. Army Logistics Innovation Agency at Fort Lee, in Virginia.

"Robotic forklifts have the potential to protect both military and civilian personnel working in high-risk environments, such as hazardous material storage facilities, said Brett Wood, president of TMHU.

The demo included a review of the robot's safety features, sensor capabilities, and human-robot interface.

The researchers and engineers developed a complex network of systems to enable the lift truck to navigate real-time conditions faced by lift truck operators (navigating obstacles and interacting with other moving vehicles, for example). To do this, they added a camera, sensors, laptops, servomotors, Wi-Fi, and a PDA.

"We chose the internal combustion Toyota lift truck because it can be operated outdoors on packed earth or gravel and because, with mini-lever control some of its functionality can be controlled electronically rather than solely mechanically," said MIT Professor Seth Teller, who headed the project.

The modified vehicle wirelessly exports video from its own point of view, so the human supervisor, even if hundreds of miles away, can see whatever is nearby (provided there is network connectivity between the lift truck and supervisor's tablet).

In September 2009, for example, the team demonstrated the lift truck operating autonomously at MIT, in Cambridge, Mass., while under the supervision of an operator in Washington D.C.… Read more

HyperCalendar from Foryousoft is a full-featured Personal Information Manager (PIM) that combines a desktop calendar and scheduling program with multimedia reminders, an analog clock display, sound recorder, and an encrypted diary in rich-text format. You can change the look, position, and other aspects of the display. Password protection secures the program from prying eyes, a feature that shouldn't be underestimated.

The first thing you notice about HyperCalendar is its semitransparent TopCalendar display, which features the month's calendar, the analog clock, and navigation buttons. You can drag the calendar anywhere on the desktop, resize it, and alter its transparency … Read more

Overachieving kitchen appliances can be good for consumers. Having one appliance that can handle only one task at a time can waste time, space and money. Add another feature however, and suddenly you have a combination appliance, quite often with enough multitasking abilities to prevent us from purchasing a second, similar appliance.

With one 500-watt motor, the Cuisinart PowerBlend Duet Blender/Food Processor supplies the power and usability of two popular kitchen appliances. Featuring interchangeable work vessels, the machine is capable of a variety of tasks. In food processor mode, the appliance allows users the ability to slice, shred or … Read more

GetPDF's utilities let you do specialized things with PDFs without requiring Adobe Acrobat. Splitter Merger is an example. It's a handy tool that can split a PDF file into smaller files or save just selected pages or parts as new PDFs. It can also merge two or more PDFs into one document that preserves the look of the original file. You can preview its changes in Adobe's free Reader.

This compact tool opens with a trial nag screen and the developer's typical interface, an efficient dialog with clearly labeled fields and controls. Although it lacks a … Read more

There are two things that matter most during busy mornings: coffee and food. And the second one is a bit of a stretch. However, as they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so it is usually a good idea to have something along with the morning cup of joe. For many of us, this means something that requires little or no thought to make. Something like toast.

The Toastmaster Cool Touch Toaster Coffee Maker Combo simplifies the morning routine by boiling it down to where just the essentials are taken care of. Combining a toaster and … Read more