experimental

The Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol is an improvement over the earlier "plug-and-pray" standard, which is a different technology. Devices that use UPnP announce their presence when they're attached to a network, which makes them easier to install and integrate, especially in a large environment. UPnP is a work in progress, however, and there are unresolved issues, particularly with authentication. Noel Danjou's Universal Plug and Play Tester is a free utility that lists all UPnP-compatible network devices, including Internet Gateway Devices.

This utility downloads as a small compressed file, even though it includes both 32-bit … Read more

Taking a page from Google, Netvibes has launched its own labs section that will serve double duty as a place for users to request widgets they want to see, along with a small collection of experimental features that are not yet a part of the main service. These include an organizer that will weed out feeds you don't read, a WYSIWYG theme editor, and a tag cloud generator that reads feed headlines and highlights words that frequently show up.

Of the three new tools, the theme editor is actually a refresh on an existing Netvibes feature. Previously, users could … Read more

Over the past few months, Sony Japan has been marketing its Walkman brand of MP3 players with short, online videos showcasing experimental Japanese musicians. Personally, as someone who loves weird music, I think these video shorts are amazing. I'm not sure if they do anything to make me want to buy a Walkman, but I'm certainly convinced that the Japanese experimental music scene is alive and well.

The video above shows off Atsuhiro Ito, a musician who plays a mic'd up fluorescent tube called the Optron, which he runs through a series of guitar effects. The video … Read more

Following in its Gmail Labs footsteps, Google has launched a project to let organizations using Google Apps try experimental features.

But where any Gmail user can try the Gmail Labs options, Labs for Google Apps is inherently a group activity. An organization's Google Apps account administrator can enable the collaborative applications so people in the group can use them.

Also unlike Gmail Labs, these are standalone applications, not gadgets that augment existing Google Apps services the way panels such as calendars or document lists next to the Gmail application do.

Google has supplied the first three applications on its … Read more

One of the reasons that software development takes so darn long is the amount of testing it takes.

A new feature has to be tested to make sure it is better than the old way of doing things and that it doesn't mess anything else up.

Microsoft is hoping a new tool can help make the testing process more methodical and, by doing so, speed things up. The company calls it the Experimentation Platform.

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet had the scoop on this. Essentially, it is based on the longtime premise of A/B testing, that is giving … Read more

IDM connoisseurs Rob Brown and Sean Booth are among the undisputed leaders of abstract music. Their albums as Autechre are typically chaotic, abrasive, and unimaginably intricate, but those not familiar with the group's sound need not fear. Amidst the electronic manipulations of all those clicks, bleeps, and whacks, Booth and Brown create a dense and rhythmic soundscape that fits any situation.

Download free MP3 now!

A couple of years ago, I wrote a story about a company called Edoc Laundry and its line of clothing that featured a built-in alternate-reality game.

On Friday, I read about a new line of T-shirts available at Target that feature images from experimental games and which come with free CDs on which are the games themselves.

Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow wrote about the new shirts Friday, and it reminded me of the Edoc Laundry experiment, which, while innovative, never quite took off.

Apparently, the new T-shirt line comes comes from a company called EGPApparel, and each individual shirt … Read more

Get out bat signal. The Caped Crusader is going to want one of these.

Boeing calls the design of its new flying-wing lookalike, the X-48B, a "blended wing body." That's for obvious reasons: the aircraft's wings blend smoothly into the fuselage, where older flying wings were really just, well, wings.

The experimental X-48B has made a half-dozen flights so far, all at Edwards Air Force Base in California since the middle of July, and is in the shop for a brief stint as researchers do some scheduled maintenance and start poring through the aeronautical data. It'… Read more

If airplanes are your large-scale luxury gadget of choice, News.com has a nice big gallery of exciting shots from July's Experimental Aircraft Association show in the skies over Wisconsin.

For a sampling of home-builts, antiques, classics, electrics, war birds, ultralights and rotorcraft, as well as cameos by both NASA and The Beach Boys, you have only to click on the image at left.

Oshkosh... It's not just for overalls anymore.