Hinderer Honda

This might be the start of a new chapter in the browser wars.

Over the weekend, Google Chrome routed more Internet traffic than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which long has held its spot as the most-used Web browser in the world, according to data from StatCounter, an Internet monitor.

Don’t rush to over-interpret this bit of news, though.

Other Internet trackers still show Internet Explorer — which comes pre-installed on many Windows computers and has long been a default — in the lead.

And some groups have criticized StatCounter’s data collection methods, saying the group does not account for the different ways countries collect Internet traffic data.

Still, the numbers are a sign of the times.

Bonjour Google! Gmail adds auto-translation

Google Chrome, which is regarded as the hipper, faster and more developer-friendly browser, is gaining ground on the competition.

“Whether Chrome can take the lead in the browser wars in the long term remains to be seen, however the trend towards Chrome usage at weekends is undeniable,” StatCounter’s CEO Aodhan Cullen said in a written news release in March, when Chrome bested Explorer for a day. “At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to Internet Explorer.”

According to StatCounter’s latest report, which was spotted by the blog Global Nerdy, Google Chrome fielded 32.8% of Web page requests on Sunday.

That compares to 31.9% for Internet Explorer and 25.5% for Mozilla Firefox, which once was seen as the most viable alternative to the long-dominant IE.

Tech blog TheNextWeb says the numbers aren’t exact but they are significant.

“Measuring the Web is an imprecise science, very often based on scaling up small scale measurement surveys,” the blog writes, “but the gist of StatCounter’s data over the last year indicates that Chrome use is rising … at the expense of IE and Firefox, regardless of the exact precision of the data.”

ComScore, another company that tracks Internet traffic, does not release comparable numbers. But spokesman Andrew Lipsman said in an e-mail that StatCounter’s numbers are “consistent with what I’ve seen.”

“Chrome has definitely been increasing its share over the past couple years,” he wrote.

Several factors appear to contribute to Chrome’s rise.

One is frustration with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which, fairly or not, is seen by some Web users as not very innovative.

Another is the increasing role Chrome plays in all aspects of computing, especially for people who use Google’s other online services, like Gmail and Google Translate.

Some of the browser’s features enhance other Google products, and the Chrome Web store is home to an increasingly robust catalog of add-ons that improve the browser’s functionality. CNN’s partner site Mashable has published a list of some of the best.

Google also has tried to position the browser as the basis for the operating system of the future.

And then there’s the ad campaign.

Google has been running TV spots showing people using Chrome to communicate with each other. The tagline: “The web is what you make of it.”

(Source: CNN)

According to Merriam-Webster, ingenuity can be defined as “skill or cleverness in devising or combining” or “cleverness or aptness of design or contrivance.” We’d say that’s an apt description of a Frenchman named Emile who reportedly found himself stranded in the deserts of Northwest Africa after breaking a frame rail and a suspension swingarm underneath his Citroën 2CV.

What to do? Why, disassemble the broken hulk and build yourself a motorcycle from its pile of parts, of course! As the story goes, Emile was able to use the inventive machine to escape the desert, though not before convincing the local authorities that he wasn’t an insurgent and paying a fine for importing a non-conforming vehicle…

Since Emile was the only soul in the area, nobody has been able to confirm the veracity of the events that led to the little French runabout’s conversion into a makeshift motorcycle. That said, judging by the images you can see here (apparently from the March 2003 issue of 2CV Magazine), this Citroën-bred two-wheeler does indeed exist, and it was definitely fashioned from parts scavenged from an old 2CV.

Emile, wherever you are, we take our hats off to your real-life MacGyver skills, sir.

(Source: autoblog.com)

Ordinary Americans can’t buy intelligent, self-driving cars just yet, but the technology could someday revolutionize one of the nation’s most common road rituals — the morning and evening commutes that bookend the workday for millions of people.

The transformation of that bleary-eyed, coffee-chugging routine won’t take place overnight — Nevada just issued the world’s first license for a self-driving vehicle to Google on May 7. But the gradual switch to a hands-off driving approach promises perks including saving on gas money, faster commutes and the luxury of texting on smartphones without risking a crash.

“We’ve been working on this and thinking about it for the past 10 years or so,” said Peter Stone, director of the Learning Agents Research Group at the University of Texas in Austin. “The point of this research is to consider the implications for having all or most of the cars on the road being autonomous.”

Take a Rest on the Road

Today’s drivers must give up hours to the daily drive back and forth from work. Tomorrow’s self-driving car owners can settle back in the comfort of their ride to get a start on work emails, browse the news headlines or catch up on a favorite TV show — all without worrying about getting lost, switching lanes on the highway or squeezing into tiny parking spaces.

“These kinds of systems will be to the point where you can flip a switch and they’ll be fully autonomous,” Stone told InnovationNewsDaily. “Many cars can already park themselves and have active cruise control.”

Goodbye to Red Lights

Traffic lights may go extinct once self-driving cars rule the road. Tomorrow’s self-driving cars could “talk” wirelessly using an automated system that calculates the paths for cars to make turns or whiz through intersections without stopping.

Such intersections could shrink average road delays by as much as 100 times in the most extreme circumstances, Stone said. He and his colleagues previously created a simulation showing cars streaming past one another at an intersection with only the slightest slowdowns in speed — a somewhat terrifying sight for today’s drivers. But such changes would only be possible once everyone owns a self-driving car.

“We found that most benefits of autonomous intersections don’t really kick in until most cars on road are autonomous [a 90 percent penetration level],” Stone explained. “But at every point along the way, we found small benefits for people with autonomous cars.”

(Source: aol.com)

Chocolate chips are so beloved that they have their own day of celebration on May 15^th. There’s no wrong way to eat these morsels, whether thrown into ice cream, muffins, pancakes or anything else we can use as an excuse for a chocolatey bite. Of course, nothing beats fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies.

So pay homage to the chip, which was created by Nestle in 1941, by making these PERFECT chocolate chip cookies, courtesy of Chris Kimball from America’s Test Kitchen. What makes these cookies so great? The secret is the brown butter… and lots of it. Enjoy!

Chris Kimball’s perfect chocolate chip cookies (makes 16 large cookies)

• 1 3/4 cups (83/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 14 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup packed (51/4 ounces) dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (31/2 ounces) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg plus 1 large yolk
• 1 1/4 cups (71/2 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
• 3/4 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and chopped (optional)