Microsoft game lets kids tickle tigers

Microsoft on Monday unveiled the first games for its remote-control-free video game system, Kinect for Xbox 360. Several of the titles were pretty generic: a dancing game, a race car game, an adventure game and a fitness game.
And then there was "Kinectimals."
A demo of this bizarre but cuddly game showed a little girl tickling and playing with "Skittles," a virtual tiger cub. She threw sticks for the tiger to fetch and called it to the screen, where it licked the television and wagged its tail for her.
"Come here Skittles!" she called to her virtual friend.
The game features 40 wild animals and 30 types of interactions, according to Microsoft. Kids just wave their hands and talk to the TV to interact with these virtual pets. Microsoft Kinect, an add-on for the Xbox 360 that goes on sale on November 4, has a camera that watches their movements and a microphone to listen to their voices.

Google Gets Its White Back

Reactions to Google's experiment with colorful scenic imagery on its main page ranged across the love-hate spectrum Thursday morning, but there seemed to be a lot more users congregating on the hate side. Following angry outbursts and threats of defection, Google apparently saw the light and brought back its soothing white background. Users who sign into their Google accounts can still fiddle with the page's look.

What is Technology?

Technology is the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants. Most people, however, think of technology in terms of its artifacts: computers and software, aircraft, pesticides, water-treatment plants, birth-control pills, and microwave ovens, to name a few. But technology is more than these tangible products.

Technology includes all of the infrastructure necessary for the design, manufacture, operation, and repair of technological artifacts, from corporate headquarters and engineering schools to manufacturing plants and maintenance facilities. The knowledge and processes used to create and to operate technological artifacts -- engineering know-how, manufacturing expertise, and various technical skills -- are equally important part of technology.

Technology is a product of engineering and science, the study of the natural world. Science has two parts: (1) a body of knowledge that has been accumulated over time and (2) a process-scientific inquiry-that generates knowledge about the natural world. Engineering, too, consists of a body of knowledge-in this case knowledge of the design and creation of human-made products-and a process for solving problems. Science aims to understand the "why" and "how" of nature, engineering seeks to shape the natural world to meet human needs and wants. Engineering, therefore, could be called "design under constraint," with science-the laws of nature-being one of a number of limiting factors engineers must take into account. Other constraints include cost, reliability, safety, environmental impact, ease of use, available human and material resources, manufacturability, government regulations, laws, and even politics. In short, technology necessarily involves science and engineering