MINI Cooper S50 Camden with celebrates 50th anniversary



The MINI 50 Camden, with its principal Silver, White and Black colors that emphasize its technical prowess and sportive traits, is a true head-turner. The car comes with White Silver metallic body paint, in combination with a white roof, and also offered in either Horizon Blue metallic or Midnight Black metallic paint finish.

The 17-inch light-alloy rims likewise exclusive to this model stand out in particular through the contrast between their silver inner surfaces and the matt, polished contour lines around the rim hump and on the outer edges of the spokes, thus characterizing the futuristic impression of this likewise very special model.

The sportive and active characteristics of the MINI 50 Camden are highlighted by lines that flow towards the A-pillars along with the sporting, nearly 3D silver stripe trim located on the side shoulders of the hood. Similar to its sibling the MINI 50 Mayfair, the Camden’s mirror caps also come in a two-tone stripes going upwards from silver to absolute white.
The interior of the MINI 50 Camden comes in an equally contrasting color scheme combining the Carbon Black interior color with special trim on the instrument panel interchanging from white to silver, like the caps on the exterior mirrors.
The trim panels on the doors, in turn, come in Fluid Silver, while the sports seats in cloth/Ray leather boast leather surfaces, just like the bottom edge of the instrument panel and the armrests in the door linings, finished in Tech White.

The black centre strips on the doors, in turn, come in a discreet pattern with interrupted white stripes, while the seat panels on the inner half of the backrests bear the “Camden” logo.

Twin-tone double-cap seams – black on the outside, turquoise-green on the inside – visually combine the leather and cloth surfaces on the seats. Green and white seams also provide additional color highlights on the black gaiters around the handbrake and gearshift levers, and on the gearshift lever knob.

The rim on the leather steering wheel is highlighted additionally by a white seam, while turquoise-green color highlights as well as design lines on the mirror caps and the trim surfaces to be admired on both the MINI 50 Mayfair and the MINI 50 Camden come as a common feature shared by both anniversary models.

Designer: Mini

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The Nike Cellphone, more than sporty spirit


This is gadget for sporty people. It’s call “Nike Cellphone”. with a cellphone concept that seems to bring a sporty spirit to your chatter.

The Nike Cellphone is handset is meant for active users and it comes with functions that allow it to record the user’s heart rate, speed and medical stats while jogging or exercising.

Moreover, The Nike Cellphone packs a touchscreen display and uses applications created for workout enthusiasts, teaching them how to exercise, lose weight and whatnot. This is quite a slim device, with an elegant and sporty design and colours for all preferences

Designer : James Caldwell


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www.thedesignblog.org

Prototype Ladies Commuter Bike from Cannondale


The Dutchess is a concept bike designed by Wytze van Mansum, a student at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. It’s this prototype ladies commuter bike from Cannondale. Based around a Dutch city bike it is a blend of modern materials and ideas to create a very practical and yet aesthetic bike. We particularly like the large hollow bottom bracket and belt drive.

Cannondale Dutchess designed for women keen to express their style amongst the fast paced and ever changing urban vibe, the Dutchess brings modern lines to the environmentally conscious whilst at the same time offering longevity and low maintenance.

Although the clean looks may depict simplicity, the bicycle is enriched with innovation throughout. The rear fender acts as a structural part of the frame, supporting the carrier with a load of up to 50kg. The arch connects the bicycle from the handlebars to the tail light both in a visual and structural manner. As the most eye-catching and striking element it also refers to the sturdiness, comfort and ease of ride of the traditional Old Dutch bicycle.

Detail :
- The bike in total weighs under 14kgs and this apparently a tradition with Cannondale.
- Gearing and transmission are fully enclosed, allowing the bicycle to be ridden in formal clothing and at any speed.
- The hub brakes are self-adjusting to compensate brake pad wear and since the brake lines are integrated into the frame, they can double act as wheel locks by folding the levers into the handlebars.
- Adjustable handlebars allow for different riding positions and can be folded together for easy storage or used for locking the bicycle securely to a fixed object. Both the headlamp and the taillight are integrated.
- The concept also contains a modular luggage solution, kickstand and a pedal assist, but these were not yet incorporated in the prototype.
Designer: Wytze van Mansum


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www.yankodesign.com

INbi-out GPS Coin, The travel depends on coin 50/50


The INbi-out GPS coin will help you making decision when you couldn’t decide with your instinct. The concept is bringing old habit ‘making decision by flipping a coin’ into a modern living. The coin also able to record wherever you go and instantly searching the satellite map.

The Inbi-Out coin tosses a 50/50 chance of where you should eat, drink, hang out, etc.., and displays the final decision on a tiny embedded screen complete with GPS coordinates and directions.

Designer: Ju-Wei Chen





If you liked this GPS, you would also be interested in:
www.yankodesign.com

Bionic concept Car In 2030



The pace at which the number of vehicles is increasing on the city roads, causing pollution and massive traffic jams, the day isn’t far beyond when we will have to start walking down to the marketplace or workplace, like our ancestors used to do before the invention of autos.

A futuristic vehicle that draws inspiration from the beautiful and organic shapes of nature and plants and blends it with advanced technology, making the cities a worthy living place. Intended for ultra-crowded cities of 2030 and beyond, the Bionic concept car runs on solar energy generated by the see-through polycarbonate roof with attached solar photovoltaic cells.

Featuring advanced and optimized materials (EAP-electro-active polymer layers) to change its shape in order to fit the varied needs of different users, the futuristic car also integrates advanced in-wheel motor technology, Nano PV cells and lithium ION battery for zero carbon emissions. Since the electric motor is placed within the wheels, the car can rotate on a sharp 360° angle with minimum fuss. The sustainable vehicle also includes an interactive display that allows the user to watch and control the vehicle’s reshaping options, GPS navigation and music player, while the modification zones are placed into the seat surfaces to control the expression of the seats for better comfort

Designer: Vlad Icobet






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www.thedesignblog.org

26" BRAVIA L Series LCD HD TV





Get a flat screen without flattening your bank account. Delivering crisp, clear picture quality, the 26-inch BRAVIA® L Series HDTV provides vivid 720p resolution, a dynamic contrast ratio of 13,000:1 and ample HD connections, including 3 HDMI™ inputs, 2 component inputs and 1 PC input.
The perfect solution for your bedroom, kitchen or office, the BRAVIA L Series also includes Dynamic Backlight Control, which automatically controls overall image brightness.

iPhones USA

Meet the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. iPhone 3GS features video recording, Voice Control, 16GB or 32GB of storage, and more.

Wireless Magic Mouse





We’ve built a better mouse.
It began with iPhone. Then came iPod touch. Then MacBook Pro. Intuitive, smart, dynamic.
Multi-Touch technology introduced a remarkably better way to interact with your portable devices — all using gestures. Now we’ve reached another milestone by bringing gestures to the desktop with a mouse that’s unlike anything ever before. It's called Magic Mouse. It's the world's first Multi-Touch mouse. And while it comes standard with every new iMac, you can also add it to any Bluetooth-enabled Mac for a Multi-Touch makeover.
Seamless Multi-Touch Surface
Magic Mouse — with its low-profile design and seamless top shell — is so sleek and dramatically different, it brings a whole new feel to the way you get around on your Mac. You can’t help but marvel at its smooth, buttonless appearance. Then you touch it and instantly appreciate how good it feels in your hand. But it’s when you start using Magic Mouse that everything comes together.

The Multi-Touch area covers the top surface of Magic Mouse, and the mouse itself is the button. Scroll in any direction with one finger, swipe through web pages and photos with two, and click and double-click anywhere. Inside Magic Mouse is a chip that tells it exactly what you want to do. Which means Magic Mouse won’t confuse a scroll with a swipe. It even knows when you’re just resting your hand on it.

Laser-Tracking Engine
Magic Mouse uses powerful laser tracking that’s far more sensitive and responsive on more surfaces than traditional optical tracking. That means it tracks with precision on nearly every surface — whether it’s a table at your favorite cafe or the desk in your home office — without the need for a mousepad.

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500 GB Internal SATA Hard Drive





7200 RPM
16 MB Buffer Size
Serial ATA/300
3.5 in. Form Factor

High-Tech Baby Sitters Get Drivers Off Phone



Dede Haskins’s cellphone has been her constant companion for more than a decade. And she has always considered herself a careful driver — even using a hands-free set so she could keep both hands on the wheel.

Dede Haskins’s cellphone has been her constant companion for more than a decade. And she has always considered herself a careful driver — even using a hands-free set so she could keep both hands on the wheel.

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Driven to Distraction
Technology vs. Technology
Articles in this series examine the dangers of drivers using cellphones and other electronic devices, and efforts to deal with the problem.

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Kirk Irwin for The New York Times
Bill Windsor, safety officer for Nationwide. The insurance company offers discounts to drivers who use a call-blocking service.
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But after missing one too many exits because she was distracted by a phone call, Ms. Haskins decided it was time to get tough with herself. So she signed up for ZoomSafer, a free service that uses her phone’s GPS sensors to determine whether she’s at driving speeds, and then disables her cellphone until she stops the car.

“I really love my cellphone,” said Ms. Haskins, the chief executive of a software company in Washington. “But I know I’m not driving safely if I’m using it while behind the wheel.”

Of course, there is a simpler, no-cost solution to limiting phone use while driving: the off button. But going cold turkey is hard for many Americans who have become addicted to their gadgets. And so technology companies are trying to solve a problem caused by technology with more technology.

But the solutions reflect markedly different answers to a simple question: How much can drivers be trusted?

One group of companies assume that some people know they can’t help themselves, and therefore want a service to automatically disable their cellphone when it is in a moving car.

But other companies say the habit can be made safer with hands-free technology. Ford and Microsoft, for example, are selling systems that rely on voice commands to dial phones.

Hands-free devices are far more popular. But it is cellphone-muzzling technology that has caught the eye of large auto insurers. That’s because some studies show that talking on phones while driving is dangerous, even if the driver is using a headset and has both hands on the wheel. One insurer has even said it will offer discounts to customers who use a call-blocking service.

A number of fledgling companies like ZoomSafer, Aegis Mobility and obdEdge employ systems that place restrictions on phones based on the phone’s GPS signal, data from the car itself or from nearby cellphone towers. Any incoming calls are then routed to voice mail or a message explaining that the phone’s owner is driving. Exceptions can be made for certain numbers.

Passengers in cars can override such systems, but in many cases doing so automatically sends an e-mail message to the account administrator — say, a parent or employer — alerting them that the cellphone is in use.

Employers that want to make sure their drivers abide by bans on cellphone use are obvious potential customers. Community Coffee, a Baton Rouge, La., coffee roaster and distributor, has had such a ban on its 400 trucks for three years, which the company says has helped reduce its accident rate by 30 percent.

It started testing a call-blocking system from obdEdge, called Cellcontrol, in August. ObdEdge charges companies $85, plus about $5 monthly, for each vehicle equipped with Cellcontrol.

“We realized we had to go beyond education and policy,” said Jamey LeBlanc, the risk manager for Community Coffee. “You’re going against human nature here, so you need something that works independently of that.”

In effect, addiction to gadgets is creating a new gadget industry.

“If we could control ourselves, we wouldn’t need any of this technology,” said Donald Powers, a managing partner at obdEdge. “We know it’s such a bad habit, but we crave being connected.”

Other companies insist the habit is not so bad and can be mitigated by employing voice recognition and speech-to-text technologies in cars.

Such systems are typically developed and promoted by some of the biggest names in electronics and automobiles, as well as well-financed trade groups like the Consumer Electronics Association and CTIA, the wireless-industry group.

Ford and Microsoft, for example, joined forces to develop the Sync system, which uses voice commands to pick out a name from a phone’s address book to place a call, It can also retrieve incoming text messages and read them aloud.

In 2008, 918,000 hands-free systems were installed in cars, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. By the end of 2009, the industry group estimates, that figure will climb to 1.6 million systems. In many cases, hands-free kits are packaged with other options that together cost around $1,000. “We are trying to take what people are doing and make it safer,” said Doug VanDagens, the director of Ford’s Sync project. “Voice provides the safest options and keeps the driver’s eyes on the road.”

Manufacturers of such systems argue that their products make driving safer. As proof, they point to a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study published this summer that concluded that hands-free conversations were only a minor distraction to drivers.

But not everyone agrees that this technology is the safest option.

Studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, for example, show that drivers are four times more likely to have an accident if they are talking on the phone — hands-free or not — while driving.

The reason, researchers say, is that drivers often become engrossed in their conversation, rather than focusing on driving, even if their hands are on the wheel. “Once a conversation begins, we don’t see a difference between hand-held and hands-free,” says Adrian Lund, president of the institute.

The insurance industry is starting to put its thumb on the scales of which approach — blocking calls or hands-free talking — is safer.

The Nationwide insurance company said last month that its customers who sign up for the call-blocking service from Aegis Mobility would be eligible for a discount of around 5 percent off their annual premium. (Aegis has agreed to provide Nationwide a list of policyholders who are using the service.)

“Clearly, in addition to saving lives, it will lower auto-insurance costs,” said Nationwide’s safety officer, Bill Windsor.

State Farm Insurance, the nation’s largest auto insurer, is also studying call-blocking systems.

By contrast, no insurer offers such discounts on hands-free systems.

“We’re not convinced,” Mr. Windsor said, “that hands-free is safer.”

Technology Foundation



Two men start a company and change the world forever. One will become one of the inventors of the integrated circuit—the other, the author of Moore's Law.
Together, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel Corporation, the world's most successful semiconductor company. Today, their imagination and relentless pursuit of innovation live on.

Amazon Lowers Price on Kindle, Intros International Version



Amazon announced yesterday they are lowering the price of the Kindle to $259, down from $299. Also, they added a new Kindle to the line-up—Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless.
With the new model, you can wirelessly download content in over 100 countries and territories. It is available for pre-order now for $279 at www.amazon.com/kindle and it ships October 19.

The Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless is just over a third of an inch thin (0.36 inches) and weighs around 10 ounces. The device features a 6-inch electronic ink display, 2GB of memory to hold about 1500 books, and has an experimental Text-To-Speech feature, where the Kindle can read most newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you. You can also choose between six different text sizes. Need to make notes, highlight an entry or add a bookmark? You can do that as well.

Amazon Kindle Store Coming to PCs



Amazon's Kindle Store is coming soon to a computer near you. The new "Kindle For PC" application is available free of charge, with no Kindle device necessary to access the Kindle Store's books and newspapers.


This new app lets you read and purchase new e-books from your PC. It features Amazon's Whispersync technology that automatically saves and synchronizes bookmarks and the last page read across devices. So, now you can read some on your computer, some on your Kindle, and always pick up where you left off. Read more

Kaboom! Blitzer Railgun Completes First Successful Test Firing


This is my boom stick. Well, not mine, but General Atomics'. Known primarily for manufacturing the Predator drone, General Atomics has also moved into the weapons business, as demonstrated by this first ever successful test of their "Blitzer" rail gun.
This involved the cannon firing a number of rounds down the range at the US Army's Dugway Proving Grounds.

Railguns were first proposed over a century ago, but have not yet made their appearance on the battlefield. They are similar to regular artillery pieces, in that they fire a giant shell, but different in that they do so without the use of combustion.

Instead, railguns mount the projectile on two magnetized rails (hence the name), which then propel the shell out of the muzzle using electrical conductivity. This is different from the so-called Gauss cannon, which uses a magnetic projectile and magnetic fields to accomplish the same task. Either way, magnetic fields can accelerate a shell far faster than gunpowder, increasing the range and speed of the projectile.

General Atomics conducted the test in association with the Office of Naval Research, and plans on continuing testing through next year, when they will finally start launching "tactically relevant aerodynamic rounds".

I don't know what "tactically relevant aerodynamic rounds" are, but it certainly does sound bad-ass.

The Dubai Airshow As Seen From Orbit





Our friend the GeoEye-1 satellite, which tirelessly photographs the world at half-meter resolution from its constant orbit, swung by the Dubai Airport the other day and took this snap of the Dubai Airshow, in progress this week. Thanks, GeoEye-1!
The Dubai Airshow is the largest aerospace event in the Middle East and the fastest-growing airshow in the world.

What Would Happen if I Ate a Teaspoonful of White Dwarf Star?


“Everything about it would be bad,” says Mark Hammergren, an astronomer at Adler Planetarium in Chicago, beginning with your attempt to scoop it up. Despite the fact that white dwarfs are fairly common throughout the universe, the nearest is 8.6 light-years away. Let’s assume, though, that you’ve spent 8.6 years in your light-speed car and that the radiation and heat emanating from the star didn’t kill you on your approach. White dwarfs are extremely dense stars, and their surface gravity is about 100,000 times as strong as Earth’s. “You’d have to get your sample—which would be very hard to carve out—without falling onto the star and getting flattened into a plasma,” Hammergren says.
“And even then, the high pressure would cause the hydrogen atoms in your body to fuse into helium.” (This type of reaction, by the way, is what triggers a hydrogen bomb.)

Then you’d have to worry about confinement. Freeing the sample from its superdense, high-pressure home and bringing it to Earth’s relatively low-pressure environment would cause it to expand explosively without proper containment. But if it didn’t blow up in your face—or vaporize your face, since the stuff’s temperature ranges between 10,000˚ and 100,000˚F—and you somehow got it to your kitchen table, you’d be hard-pressed to feed yourself: A single teaspoon would weigh in excess of five tons. “You’d pop it into your mouth and it would fall unimpeded through your body, carve a channel through your gut, come out through your nether regions, and burrow a hole toward the center of the Earth,” Hammergren says. “The good news is that it’s not quite dense enough to have a strong enough gravitational field to rip you apart from the inside out.”

It probably wouldn’t be worth the trouble anyway, Hammergren laments. White dwarfs are mostly helium or carbon, so your teaspoonful would taste like a whiff of flavorless helium gas or a lick of coal. But if you’re desperate for a taste of star, you don’t really need to travel 8.6 light-years—your fridge is full of the stuff. Most of the elements that make up our bodies and everything around us were formed in the cores of stars and then belched out into the universe over billions of years. Basically everything you eat was once part of a star. Might we recommend some star fruit?

Intel Wants Brain Implants in Its Customers' Heads by 2020



If the idea of turning consumers into true cyborgs sounds creepy, don't tell Intel researchers. Intel's Pittsburgh lab aims to develop brain implants that can control all sorts of gadgets directly via brain waves by 2020.


The scientists anticipate that consumers will adapt quickly to the idea, and indeed crave the freedom of not requiring a keyboard, mouse, or remote control for surfing the Web or changing channels. They also predict that people will tire of multi-touch devices such as our precious iPhones, Android smart phones and even Microsoft's wacky Surface Table.

Turning brain waves into real-world tech action still requires some heavy decoding of brain activity. The Intel team has already made use of fMRI brain scans to match brain patterns with similar thoughts across many test subjects.
Plenty of other researchers have also tinkered in this area. Toyota recently demoed a wheelchair controlled with brainwaves, and University of Utah researchers have created a wireless brain transmitter that allows monkeys to control robotic arms.

There are still more implications to creating a seamless brain interface, besides having more cyborgs running around. If scientists can translate brain waves into specific actions, there's no reason they could not create a virtual world with a full spectrum of activity tied to those brain waves. That's right -- we're seeing Matrix creep.

Google's Replacement for HTTP Protocol to Make Web Browsing Twice as Fast



Google has scarcely stopped for a breather since launching its cloud-based Chrome OS as an alternative to PC and Mac operating systems. Now its Chromium group has announced an effort to replace the traditional HTTP web browser language with a new protocol that supposedly boosts Internet browsing by up to 55 percent.

HTTP currently is the protocol used by all web servers and browsers, hence the "http" in front of web addresses. But, as noted by Ars Technica, HTTP becomes inefficient when transferring many small files on many modern websites.
By contrast, Google's cleverly named SPDY protocol (pronounced SPeeDY, get it?) can compress and handle the individual requests via one connection that's SSL-encrypted. That allows higher-priority files to slip through immediately without becoming backed up behind large files.

SPDY has shown up to 55 percent web page loading when tested under lab conditions, and the Google team has released their source code for public feedback.

But Ars Technica raises some points of caution about the mandatory SSL encryption requiring more processing power from small devices and computers alike. Requiring SSL could also worsen the problem where server operators neglect SSL encryption and unintentionally encourage people to ignore warnings about unsecured websites.

Still Google's team recognizes these problems and has already proposed workaround solutions. An open approach has already proven a smashing success on Google's Android operating system, but redesigning the Internet's architecture will undoubtedly prove trickier in the days to come.

IBM's Blue Gene Supercomputer Models a Cat's Entire Brain



Using 144 terabytes of RAM, scientists simulate a cat's cerebral cortex based on 1 billion neurons and 10 trillion synapses.
Cats may retain an aura of mystery about their smug selves, but that could change with scientists using a supercomputer to simulate the the feline brain. That translates into 144 terabytes of working memory for the digital kitty mind.
IBM and Stanford University researchers modeled a cat's cerebral cortex using the Blue Gene/IP supercomputer, which currently ranks as the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world. They had simulated a full rat brain in 2007, and 1 percent of the human cerebral cortex this year.

The simulated cat brain still runs about 100 times slower than the real thing. But PhysOrg reports that a new algorithm called BlueMatter allows IBM researchers to diagram the connections among cortical and sub-cortical places within the human brain. The team then built the cat cortex simulation consisting of 1 billion brain cells and 10 trillion learning synapses, the communication connections among neurons.

A separate team of Swiss researchers also used an IBM supercomputer for their Blue Brain project, where a digital rat brain's neurons began creating self-organizing neurological patterns. That research group hopes to simulate a human brain within 10 years.

Another more radical approach from Stanford University looks to recreate the human brain's messily chaotic system on a small device called Neurogrid. Unlike traditional supercomputers with massive energy requirements, Neurogrid might run on the human brain's power requirement of just 20 watts -- barely enough to run a dim light bulb.

U.S Telecom Firms Get to Keep Company Data

Telecommunications providers like Verizon and Comcast feared they would have to reveal revenue per customer and the Internet speeds they offer in an effort to map U.S. broadband use.


Telecommunications providers will not have to give the government sensitive revenue and Internet speed data for a program to map broadband use in U.S. homes and bring high-speed Internet service to more people.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday that companies such as Verizon Communications, Comcast and AT&T do not have to share how much money they make from each Internet subscriber. Nor must they say how fast their Internet connections typically run.

Instead, they will provide data by the block, usually about a dozen homes depending on the size of the block. They also will share the speed of Internet service that they advertise.

Companies do not want to share the specific data because they do not want their competitors to see it.

But failing to make it public allows the companies to advertise—and charge for—something that they often cannot deliver, said Joel Kelsey, a telecom policy analyst at Consumers Union, a watchdog group.

"The actual speeds delivered to particular areas simply doesn't match up," Kelsey said. "The government gave a lot and received very, very little in return."

Companies that sell Internet service advertise maximum service speeds as a way to entice customers. More speed means faster access to online entertainment and information.

Internet connections can work at slower speeds than the maximum speed advertised, especially when many subscribers are online at the same time.

The American Cable Association and other groups representing the companies opposed some of the rules before the government clarified the data policy.

"The agency's modifications will improve and expedite (the mapping) effort," ACA President Matthew Polka said.

Larry Landis, an Indiana utility regulatory commissioner and chairman of the federal-state group that will map high-speed Internet availability, praised the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration for being flexible.

The Commerce and Agriculture departments will award loans and grants to state and local governments, and nonprofit and for-profit companies, including telecommunications companies, to participate in the government's broadband program.

The first phase of the plan would release $4 billion of the $7.2 billion program included in President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan. About $350 million will go to the mapping program, but the Commerce Department estimated that $240 million would be needed.

The rule changes come a day after the Federal Communications Commission launched its first workshop to gather ideas and proposals for a national broadband plan it plans to give to Congress in February.

computer-aided design



computer-aided design (CAD) or computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), form of automation that helps designers prepare drawings, specifications, parts lists, and other design-related elements using special graphics- and calculations-intensive computer programs. The technology is used for a wide variety of products in such fields as architecture, electronics, and aerospace, naval, and automotive engineering. Although CAD systems originally merely automated drafting, they now usually include three-dimensional modeling and computer-simulated operation of the model. Rather than having to build prototypes and change components to determine the effects of tolerance ranges, engineers can use computers to simulate operation to determine loads and stresses. For example, an automobile manufacturer might use CAD to calculate the wind drag on several new car-body designs without having to build physical models of each one. In microelectronics , as devices have become smaller and more complex, CAD has become an especially important technology. Among the benefits of such systems are lower product-development costs and a greatly shortened design cycle. While less expensive CAD systems running on personal computers have become available for do-it-yourself home remodeling and simple drafting, state-of-the-art CAD systems running on workstations and mainframe computers are increasingly integrated with computer-aided manufacturing systems.