Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2014 i Popular Mechanics

Email popularmechanics@hearst.com Snail mail 300 West 57th St., New York, NY 10019 COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT The "mechanics" part of the title is getting buried in electronics. PATRICK MASTERS, FAIR PLAY, S.C. Subscribe subscribe.popularmechanics.com 1-800-333-4948 WHAT YOU SAID (ABOUT OUR NOVEMBER ISSUE AND MORE) We read all your comments, tweets, and letters. Here are some of the best from the mailbag, answered with care. Curated by Darren Orf With features on innovators and next-gen tech, Arizona's tragic Yarnell Hill fire, and the sometimes dangerous hunt for space rocks, the November issue gave readers a lot to think about. • Many of you applauded the picks for our 9th Annual Breakthrough Awards, from networked micro-UAVs to the Leadership Award winner. "I'm delighted to see that X Prize founder Peter Diamandis is so optimistic…

Engines are complicated, and a lot can potentially go wrong during assembly—malfunctioning machines, faulty parts, and, of course, human error. But at its factory in Tonawanda, N.Y., General Motors has taken a high-tech approach to preventing and catching these problems. And it's all thanks to a humble little bolt. The 75-year-old factory recently underwent a $400 million upgrade to start building a new line of Gen 5 six- and eight-cylinder engines. It's the first of the automaker's manufacturing facilities to implement a new "track-and-trace" system by using radio-frequency-identification (RFID) technology. GM has used RFID tags in its factories for more than 10 years to identify assembled engines, but now the company is attaching them directly to the cylinder heads and engine blocks using what the company calls a data bolt.…

PRIVACY, WE SAY, is about to come roaring back. No, it's not too late. Yes, we know that Google monetizes both our emails and our search histories. It's true that data brokers market our personal dossiers, listing everything from our favorite blogs to our old parking tickets (identity thieves must love it). And NSA leaker Edward Snowden really did prove the paranoids right: The United States government spies on everyone. Now, we agree that security agencies have a vital responsibility to track terrorists, but that mission can't require all citizens to live in a surveillance state. Feel you have nothing to hide? That assumes the data will always be used to defeat terrorists, not to monitor activists, let alone to stalk ex-girlfriends—yes, NSA employees have done that. Here's the other…

NEW FLASH MEMORY IN OLD CAMERAS TRACKING A MISSING LAPTOP Sharing HBO Go We're all email power users, based purely on the hundreds, if not thousands, of messages we get each week. So it's easy to assume that we all know the best tips and tricks for managing that deluge: Keep your inbox lean, set up multiple accounts to stay organized, devise a strong password. It turns out that some of the conventional wisdom is outdated, and most of it is incomplete. Here's a rundown on those misconceptions and the best tools for making your email efficient—and secure. MYTH: The right way to deal with email overload is to clear out all your inbox notifications. REALITY: Folders, tags, and filters can be better organizational tools. There's a push lately…

FEW WOODWORKING MACHINES match the versatility of today's 10-inch compound miter saw. These saws can cut framing lumber, furniture parts, trim, and crown molding. With a specialized blade, you can slice aluminum, copper tubing, or plastic pipe. We tested eight machines, cutting framing lumber and trim in both our shop and at a small remodeling job, plus plumbing parts on-site. We're pleased to report that all rigs received a rating of "good" (3½ stars) or better. Thrifty tool shoppers, rejoice: Dead-on woodworking accuracy can be yours for $120 to $300. DEWALT DW713 RANKING Price: $220 Max. cut at 90°, ¾ in. thick: 6 ⅜ in. Max. cut at 45°, ¾ in. thick: 6 ⅝ in. Likes: What do you need in a miter saw?…

I was driving my Mazda5 to work when a pothole came out of nowhere. I avoided it with the front tire, but nailed it with the rear. Ever since there's been a faint vibration that I can hear and feel coming from that area of the car. Is there something wrong with my suspension? Potholes can viciously assault innocent vehicles—you're lucky it didn't swallow the car whole. Unless you were going extremely fast, though, there probably isn't any structural damage. It takes a pretty big hit to bend a piece of the suspension. Still, a pothole can do a number of bad things to the wheel and tire. It's most likely that vibration comes from a bent wheel rim. You should be able to see any damage on a close…

Lunar Laser AN EXPERIMENT AROUND THE MOON HERALDS THE NEXT GENERATION OF SPACE COMMUNICATIONS. The future of space communications may come at the speed of photons instead of radio waves. Researchers for the first time have communicated with a spacecraft using a laser system. In late October the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstrator (LLCD) beamed data at 622 megabits per second—orders of magnitude faster than the current rate—back from the spacecraft, which was in lunar orbit. Don Cornwell, mission manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the LLCD "has been extremely successful, beyond expectations." During the test the LLCD sent a string of binary code from the satellite orbiting the moon to a ground station in New Mexico. It was the fastest download rate between the moon and Earth.…

Like many a great invention, Jake Zien's power strip was born of frustration. After completing his junior year of high school, the Milwaukee native was taking a summer course in industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design when the surge protector beneath his desk, overwhelmed by outsize adapters, invoked his ire one too many times. "I threw my hands in the air and said, damn, I wish I could just stretch this thing out and make 'em all fit," he says. "And then I thought, well, how hard could that really be?" For his final project, Zien presented his classmates with a novel solution, a power strip that telescoped to make room for larger plugs. Each outlet rotated for added flexibility. The concept later earned him an honorable…

When the difference between winning gold and going home empty-handed is measured in milliseconds, it pays to perfect every last detail. That's why the U.S. Olympic team tapped some of the brightest minds in tech for help before departing for Russia. When the athletes assemble beside the Black Sea in Sochi, here are a few of the breakthroughs that will help them chase gold. Two-time Olympian (and Sochi hopeful) Steve Nyman perfects his form and tests his gear in Specialized bicycles' Morgan Hill, Calif., wind tunnel. The facility—outfitted with six 75-hp fans—measures the drag created by athletes and their equipment. SKI SUITS Spyder has been streamlining ski suits since the 1970s. The company's mid-'90s SpeedWyre technology—running the length of the arms and legs like the spoiler on a car—was so…

Neither, I'd guess. Your camera probably isn't equipped to read cards larger than 32 gigabytes. The larger cards fall under the SDXC standard, while cards between 4 and 32 GB follow the older SDHC standard. You can use SDHC cards in a device that reads the new SDXC cards, but the newercards aren't backward-compatible. That's unfortunate, given their high capacities: Theoretically, the new cards could reach 2 terabytes, though now they max out at 256 GB. Even that's impressive. In the early 2000s, SD cards—which contained memory cells larger than 100 nanometers—could only hold a few megabytes. Today memory cells are one-fifth the size and store thousands of times as much data. There is another difference between the two standards beyond their total capacity. SDXC cards are formatted in the…

"The roof comes first" is an old expression, but it remains as meaningful as ever. The roof is your home's first defense against the elements, so don't tackle any interior remodeling projects until you evaluate what's above the eaves. "If the roof is bad, everything below it gets wet: walls, ceiling, insulation, electrical wiring, floors, carpets, furnishings, and heating and cooling equipment," says Jason Joplin, program manager of the Center for the Advancement of Roofing Excellence, which offers professional courses under the aegis of GAF, the nation's largest roofing manufacturer. "If any of this stuff stays wet, mold can form—and there's a real danger of structural deterioration." If a roof inspection reveals problems serious enough to warrant repairs, the next step is to decide whether to fix it yourself or…

2180–2160 B.C.: Babylonians dig a 3000-foot-long tunnel under the Euphrates River. 1681: France's 515-foot-long Royal Canal in Languedoc is inaugurated; its tunnels were blasted using gunpowder. 1867: Tunnel construction booms when Swedish engineer Alfred Nobel (yes, that Nobel) patents dynamite. 1927: The Holland Tunnel uses a ventilation system to remove exhaust. On either side of the Hudson River, 84 fans in four buildings change the tunnel's air every 90 seconds. 1952: James S. Robbins comes up with a dam good idea and designs the modern tunnel-boring machine (TBM) for South Dakota's Oahe Dam project. 1962: Inspired by a PopMech issue, three Alcatraz inmates escape through a tunnel they dig with stolen spoons. They paddle out into San Francisco Bay on a makeshift raft and are never seen again.…

Nest founder Tony Fadell, the designer behind 18 generations of the elegantly simple iPod and the first three iPhones, created a detector that isn't frustrating or hideous. It's about time. SMART-HOME TECH Fighting Fire Here's a startling fact: About two-thirds of fire deaths in U.S. homes occur in those without working smoke alarms. Sadly, human error is usually to blame. The most common reason a detector doesn't work is because people remove and fail to replace the battery after an annoying false alarm or in reaction to the even more annoying chirping when the battery is low. Some knuckleheadsadmit to not installing smoke alarms because they're just plain ugly. The Nest Protect crushes those excuses. Recently introduced by the same company that put the innovative Nest Learning Thermostat on the…

1. Farm drones That sound you hear is a swarm of drones, revving their tiny engines as they wait for the Federal Aviation Administration to update its rules on commercial UAV flight. The biggest beneficiaries may be farmers who hope to use cheap UAVs armed with cameras to monitor the health of their crops, employing aerial photography—digital and infrared—to fine-tune delivery of water, fertilizer, and other chemicals. To tap that hungry market, companies such as Indiana-based PrecisionHawk have developed simple plug-and-play sensors and data-processing software for use with their 3-pound GPS-guided Lancaster UAV. For now the FAA rules governing farm use are vague (no one has gotten into trouble yet), but the agency is expected to clarify things this year and issue final rules in 2015. 2. In-memory computing In…

Dad! Hold the tail down!" David Barford shouts to his 73-year-old father, Paul, who shuffles along the grass while supporting a slender spar that connects the rear stabilizers to the cockpit and wings of Betterfly, a fragile aircraft that balances on two inline wheels. David's 20-year-old daughter, Charlotte, supports the starboard-wing spar with his best friend, Paul Wales. David's 17-year-old son, Chris, marches alongside the port wing, while David, 44, coordinates the action from the nose of the plane. Team Betterfly's sense of urgency grows as the summer daylight fades and the sky west of Sywell Aerodrome, a rural airstrip 75 miles north of London, darkens prematurely with thunderclouds. It's the second day of the weeklong Icarus Cup, the world's most challenging human-powered-aircraft competition, and Barford wants to make a…

ROOF DIAGNOSTICS ELECTRONIC ROUTER FENCE MITER SAWS TOOLS & SUPPLIES Concrete mix / sheet of ¾" white melamine particleboard / table and miter saws / hot-glue gun / 1/16" packing foam / shipping tape / black silicone caulk / paste wax / ⅜" rebar / calibrated mixing container / three 5-gallon buckets / 20-gallon trash can / electric drill / universal mixing paddle / 24" screed or float / trowel / hammer / 120-, 220-, and 320-grit sanding blocks / masking tape Eric Weil (photo, previous page)once studied wood carving in Ghana, but nowadays it's the urban textures of New York City that inspire his work. Weil runs Brooklyn-based Oso Industries, which crafts furniture primarily out of concrete. It's a material he values for its appearance, adaptability, and strength. We…

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: 9/10 Unless you have ample experience with home electrical work, this is probably a task best left to a professional. STRANGE VIBRATIONS SMARTPHONE SCAN TOOL IGNITION TROUBLE Imagine never going to the gas station again. Such convenience is one of the key advantages of an electric vehicle, although it comes with two drawbacks: short range (sometimes less than 60 miles) and long charging times. Unless you can afford a $70,000 Tesla Model S, which goes up to 300 miles on a charge, there's not much you can do about an electric vehicle's limited range. But you can improve the charging time by installing a Level 2 (240-volt) charger at home. For a pure EV, a Level 2 charger cuts the time it takes to replenish the battery…